Josh's Weekly Insights - September 16, 2026

“The purpose of human life is to serve, and to show compassion and the will to help others.”

-Albert Schweitzer

While I do agree with this quote, I think it leaves a lot of room for interpretation. You see, many leaders mistake complacency for compassion. We see that difficult conversation with an employee or a leader as something that would create friction therefore it wouldn’t be compassionate to mention it. If we can’t mention a challenge today because it may hurt someone’s feelings, when can we bring it up? This allows us to remain in a state where we are frozen and can’t move forward. We become complacent and point to our responsibility to be compassionate.  

I was recently leading a session and we started by going around the room and each leader had to describe their leadership style in one or two words. I chose “compassionate challenger” as my two words. Some may see those two words as contradictory, but I believe they can exist together.  

Compassion is defined as concern for another person’s suffering combined with a strong desire to help them. If we have that strong desire to help someone, shouldn’t we help them identify what is creating their current roadblocks? If we listen to their struggles and ask good questions, we can help create a viable solution. This will allow them to move past that state of suffering and into a better future.   

An important component of this process is being there with them for the journey. Often moving from their current state of suffering to a positive outcome will require a lot of uncomfortable work. The work and process is enough to make a lot of people quit, so as leaders it is our responsibility to help encourage them to continue embracing the change. We must challenge them to stick with it when they feel like giving up. We must challenge them to pay the short-term cost to achieve more positive outcomes.  

I was listening to a podcast recently and they described it simply: “Do you tell the other person when they have spinach in their teeth?” My encouragement for the week is to identify those moments and lean into discomfort. Is there one person you can help this week? How can you be a compassionate challenger to help them choose the right path and stick with it?

Now get out there and crush your week!