Empresa Psychology Newsletter

May 2025

How to create Psychological Safety through Compassionate Leadership

We're all ready for The Watercooler at the ExCeL in London, on the 7th & 8th May. We'll be there both days at our stand (W428) - come and say hello to us!

On both days, Dr Natalie Isaia will be delivering an exclusive workshop, supporting a smaller group to learn 'How to create Psychological Safety through Compassionate Leadership'. Grab your place before it fills up!

7th May @ 12:00

8th May @ 14:00

Spotlight On: Moral Injury

One of my favourite things about my role in Empresa Psychology is speaking to a wide range of individuals about their wellbeing priorities. In doing so, I gain so much insight into how topics that I have a deep knowledge of, apply to their industry or role specifically. Moral Injury is a lesser known concept that is unlikely to be included as standard in most wellbeing programmes. It refers to any situation when you witness or have to participate in (as part of a wider system) an action that conflicts with your personal morals and values, causing us to feel distress and guilt.

I'm always struck by how relevant this concept is across industries, and how important it is to raise awareness about it. Here are just a couple of examples:

Moral Injury in Law: Lawyers may face moral injury when defending individuals who have committed offences that conflict with their moral. Or when they have to turn away cases due to time constraints or billable hours restrictions.  

Moral Injury in HR: HR professionals are regularly confronted with distressed individuals, with whom they may empathise. However, their role may necessitate that they take action in line with company priorities e.g. making that person redundant or taking them through disciplinary procedures.      

How do you mitigate the impact of moral injury on your wellbeing? There are some great tools that we offer training on, but just having an awareness of the concept helps. Naming the concept and related emotions helps to shine a light on this abstract, background stressor. 

Wellbeing In The News:

💡 Matthew Owenby is a seasoned HR professional who wrote a great reflective piece in HR Executive magazine about what HR has learned since the pandemic. Read our TL;DR summary with additional reflections here. 
💡 April was Stress Awareness Month and Forbes published this article about whether work-life balance ever existed. This is always a hot topic and pieces like this help us to zoom out and consider the topic historically and systemically.
💡 Want to hear what Compassionate Leadership sounds like in practice? Have a listen to Sara Quaglieni (board-level executive) speaking on this episode of WANA Pod, hosted by the wonderful Nissa Burrell.

💡 Concerned about the impact of social media on your wellbeing? Dr Nicola Griffiths speaks on this podcast on the topic. She offers a balanced account of the benefits and dangers of social media, alongside many practical tips and tools for finding our own balance to stay engaged while protecting our mental health.

Straight From The Source:

Every month we highlight anonymised comments we received after delivering workshops, with participants' permission.

Don't just take our word for how great our content is! 

💬 "This was one of the better interactive workshops I've attended in a long time. It was informative and engaging, and offered some very beneficial tips for enhancing EQ that one can apply right away."

💬 "Loved the scientific basis of the advice (was fascinating and made the session even more engaging)."

💬 "The breakout sessions worked really well. They afforded us time to talk through some of the situations we face and the best ways to work through them."

💬 "Relevant examples putting learning into a relatable context."

Thank you so much to everyone who attended and took the time to provide feedback!

Supporting Fellow Founders:

This month I had the pleasure of connecting with Anthony Ryland, CEO of Tap'd Solutions. Anthony is a seasoned HR professional who also has an MSc in Organisational Psychology. We found common ground in our love of bringing academic theory and evidence-based models into a practical environment to support busy professionals with their wellbeing. Alongside their development programmes and consultancy solutions, Tap'd Solutions has published a number of excellent reports. The most recent is on the topic of The Strategic Importance of the HR Leader's Own Wellbeing - a topic that I am also very interested in. Watch this space for some potential future collaboration!