Building a “culture of care”: reflections for action

This paper posits 32 concrete ways that organizational leaders can contribute to building a culture of care, noting that HR professionals can encourage, model and inform leaders of those ways most needed and/or appropriate.

The personal reflections presented are based on 45 years of observing scores of organizational leaders in action.

The means presented pertaining to the actions that leaders can take toward building a “culture of care” are briefly detailed and are clustered in six categories: helping others to become known; inquiring of life outside of work; celebration; providing assistance; taking the “high road”; and encouraging learning.

The actions and ideas described for building a “culture of care” are easily envisioned and immediately doable.

This paper presents a robust array of specific, real-world-based actions that contribute to the building of an organizational “culture of care.” As such, they are offered to HR professionals as ideas for their own groups as well as an inventory of ideas that HR professionals can offer to other leaders throughout their organizations