Book Review: 'Corporate Heart' injects empathy, compassion at work

Though Margot Cairnes originally published her book, “Approaching the Corporate Heart: Breaking Through to New Horizons of Personal and Professional Success” in 1998, she revised and re-released it in 2011 in response to the Occupy Wall Street movement.

The book isn’t specifically geared toward women, but Cairnes’ philosophy is built on characteristics, namely empathy and compassion, that are perhaps more often attributed to women, and she maintains that if businesses were run with the principles and philosophies outlined in her book, the global financial upheaval of recent years perhaps would not exist.

While that seems to be a bold claim, it’s also somewhat intriguing in that it seems almost too simple to be true.

Workplaces, not surprisingly, seem more suited to an all-business approach, leaving the more emotional factors to prevail in personal settings. But in life – and an economic reality fraught with change and ups and downs – the author’s stance is that the workplace is actually a great place to learn more about personal, emotional and spiritual transformation, simply because functioning at what she calls a human level at work can be very challenging.

“This may seem paradoxical, given the dehumanizing terminology that abounds in the workplace; people are referred to as ‘human resources’ who can be ‘upskilled,’ ‘multiskilled’ or ‘reskilled,’ – a bit like reprogramming a robot – and ‘outplaced’ when they are no longer needed,” she writes. “However, we don’t have to let our circumstances define who we are.”

The book includes stories of several people that Cairnes classifies as heroes, in part for their willingness to take responsibility and actions. She also gives numerous comparisons of old-style and new-style companies, with the clear implication that companies – and their leaders – -should aspire to follow the newer model.

Old-style organizations, she writes, support warrior management principles that are best suited for stable, predictable environments where knowledge and information are restricted.

The management skills that result from those companies include the ability to imitate, administer, focus on structure and rely on control, typically with a short-range view, acceptance of the status quo and the capability to be good classic soldiers. Those things, however, might not sound too bad, particularly given that Cairnes says new-style organizations are characterized by chaos, complexity, uncertainty and paradox.

She notes, however, that those characteristics are par for the course as mergers, takeovers and technological innovation revolutionize the business landscape daily.

As for what new-style leaders should strive for, Cairnes writes that they need to innovate, originate and develop, focus on people, inspire trust, have a long-range view, challenge the status quo, and ask what and why.

The book outlines some seemingly solid reasons for doing away with the old-school warrior mentality. Among them, Cairnes maintains that warrior thinking can lead to health issues such as depression, which can affect corporate productivity. Plus, she notes that warriors tend to be male – and more specifically, young men – because it can be difficult for women to break through the ranks of warrior culture, unless they are prepared to sacrifice their femininity.

“This has robbed business and government of the kind of diversity that it needs if it is to understand fully the complexity of the world in which it operates,” Cairnes writes.

She touches on everything from problems that companies don’t like to talk about—such as succession planning and staff changes—to feelings, interpersonal relationships and finding professional guides along the journey.

This book covers a lot of ground in its 272 pages, but I wouldn’t classify it as a cohesive work, necessarily. The author tends to jump around quite a bit, which can be jarring, but even so, there are some interesting insights to explore.