In March 2020, the country went into a “lockdown” where schools were closed, and classrooms moved online. While the focus of the government and the public has been on students and their learnings and exams, teachers and school administrators faced some of the most daunting challenges. Almost overnight, classes and course materials had to be delivered through distance-mode putting additional stress on the teaching profession. One of the responses to that call was the formation of VTOB (Voluntary Teachers of Bhutan). On the request of this group, I conducted a webinar for teachers on the topic, compassionate leadership and communication.
My choice of this topic was based on the premise that in this digital age, where information and knowledge are lying around everywhere, the role of the teachers will be to inspire and facilitate and produce leaders. Otherwise the new generation of Bhutanese will grow up with the illusion of being wise and knowledgeble, while all they have is a sporadic set of disjointed information gathered here and there from the social media and search engines.
I introduced the participants to the following:
Three rhetorical approaches
- Ethos (ethics)
- Pathos (passion)
- Logos (logic)
Three personal communication approaches I use:
- Begin with WHY
- Follow the Rule ofThree
- Tell stories
And thirdly, three elements of compassionate leadership
- Self-awareness
- Empathetic joy
- Wisdom of ramifications
The presentation slide can be downloaded here
Dorji Wangchuk 