“I firmly believe if you look after your people, you’re delivering a quality service.”

In Fitzgerald Power’s interview series, we’re speaking to people, with different perspectives, who feel they can offer more to the workplace – from the water cooler all the way up to C-Suite.

Compassion is often discounted in discussions about leadership. Regularly overshadowed by hard power terms like resilience, strength and decisiveness, the message about acting with kindness often gets overlooked. However, a recent BMJ Leader scoping review shares that kindness and compassion are equally essential to improving workplace culture, employee engagement and organisational success. Echoing this in both theory and practice is Irish HomeCare’s CEO Teresa McNally, who believes that compassion is a vital leadership skill.

As a nurse, Teresa explains that compassion has always been core to her work. She says “I have witnessed firsthand the benefit of compassion for both those delivering care and those in receipt of care. We employ people to care for people, so our people must be at the core of everything we do.” Back in January, McNally became the second person and first woman in Ireland to sign the Compassionate Leadership Pledge, a commitment to creating workplaces and communities where compassion thrives. By signing it, Irish HomeCare has joined the Global Compassion Coalition, a network of healthcare professionals worldwide dedicated to building a more compassionate world. “For us, this pledge is a commitment to our employees and our clients,” she said at the time. “It’s a promise to lead with empathy, to foster trust, and to create an environment where everyone can thrive.”

McNally first learned the importance of a compassionate work culture as a child on the family farm. “I’m an only child,” she says. “And when you’re brought up on a farm, you quickly develop a strong work ethic.” At 12, she gained part-time employment in a local shop – ”I often joke that I had qualifications for being the best potato-bagger ever” – before discovering at 15 that formal education no longer served her. “Transition Year came around and I just found it very unstructured and boring,” she says. “So, I took the opportunity to work instead, with the intention of returning to school in fifth year. Two weeks into fifth year, I was struggling to adapt back to school life, I missed the social side of work, the interactions and connections. I reevaluated, and at the age of 15 I decided to leave school and pursue a career in care.”

McNally grew up in Co Monaghan, near the border of Northern Ireland, where she gained her first job in care. “At the age of 15, I took my first role as a Healthcare Assistant in a nursing home where I worked for 3 years – The people I cared for during these 3 years helped shape my career. I met so many wonderful people, and 20 years on, I can still recall the names of every resident” she says. “Despite being an early school leaver, with a passion for care and a love for learning, I enrolled in many courses and at the age of 17, I achieved a diploma in social care. Following this, I completed a pre-nursing course which provided the opportunity to travel to London to study nursing. and it actually worked out that I enrolled at the same time as my school friends who had done their Leaving Cert. I just took a different path.” McNally returned to that nursing home with a degree three years later, only to quickly assume a management role. “That was a difficult transition. I was a young manager and I was returning to a place I started out in at the age of 15 and working with people years my elder. “You know what? It was challenging but it was also enjoyable, fulfilling and rewarding. I worked with amazing people, and we cared for amazing people. I already had a relationship with the majority of staff from working together previously so we just needed to navigate a change in dynamics. For me, what worked was open and transparent communication, clarity on roles and a relationship built on mutual respect. We were all there for the same outcome, we wanted to deliver good care, so it didn’t really matter the role, we were a team.”

McNally has been working in various management and leadership roles within health and social care ever since. She joined Irish HomeCare in 2019 as Head of Quality and Clinical Governance and held Director roles before being appointed Deputy CEO in October 2023 and CEO in October 2024. Day-to-day, her work varies – but she is a nurse by nature, striving to innovate in healthcare and support healthcare reform to better meet societal needs. Homecare demand is increasing year on year as people long to stay in the comfort of their own homes and communities and with an ageing population it is a vital service as part of the overall health ecosystem. McNally explains that it routinely goes back to one thing: the right way to treat people. As a labour shortage crisis shows no signs of slowing down, how does she manage? “It’s not just about attracting the best, but retaining the best,” she says. “And that’s not always about renumeration, it’s about the simple things; kindness, understanding, psychological safety, and promoting an open culture where people can put their hands up and say, “I need help, or I’ve made a mistake,” without fear. We’re all humans. We all have our own lives. We all have our own challenges. And it’s very hard sometimes to separate that from work. So, it’s all about looking out for each other. It’s about 4 principles – attending, understanding, empathy and helping. It is about being present, listening to understand and not to respond. In the words of Nancy Kline “listening with fascination” She cites the work of Michael A. West, Professor of Organisational Psychology at Lancaster University Management School and an expert in the topic of compassionate leadership, as a North Star. “He’s written over 20 books and published over 200 papers about compassion, leadership, teamwork and cultures,” she says. “And through his research, there’s evidence to show that if you’ve got a more compassionate culture, you’re in turn delivering a more compassionate and quality service.”

Healthcare is never without its challenges. From a lack of resources, workforce shortages, access and integration challenges and bureaucratic system. However, it is one of the most rewarding careers, explains McNally “It is a privilege to care for others, often during times of vulnerability. The ability to relieve pain, provide comfort and make people smile is an honour and to be able to facilitate this for people in the comfort of their own home and communities is so rewarding”.

Homecare in Ireland is in high demand, with supply currently exceeding demand.  There are currently over 5,500 people in Ireland approved for homecare package but there are no staff to deliver nationally. While high demand is positive for business, the reality behind the numbers is people. People who deserve care and support. So, supply is where it is at and the key to this is recruitment and retention. Culture plays an integral role in every organisation, the way you treat your people changes everything for better or worse. Since embracing a culture of compassion, we’ve seen significant improvement in our attrition percentage; we are retaining our best people – prevention is better than cure.”

In many ways, McNally brings with her an energy that is the antithesis of traditional CEOs. She leads with soft power, and embraces her imperfections openly, serving as an inspiring example for others to accept and celebrate their own. “I try to be the least important person in the room and use my interactions to bring out the best in others”. Is there any way she thinks business leaders can learn from this? “I firmly believe if you look after your people, your people will look after you,” she says. “When you build a quality team and promote a culture of compassion and understanding, growth is inevitable. You know, we are delivering thousands of visits a week? So that’s thousands of times we have one human entering the home of another human. And from my perspective as CEO, that interaction between them is so critical to our business. Our vision is to transform the lives of our people through compassionate care and leadership. As a national health and social care provider, it is vital that compassion enters every home we enter. Those we serve, deserve the highest quality of care and our care is our reputation.” She pauses. “To lead with compassion takes courage, compassion isn’t all about the soft things, it is not all hugs and kisses and chocolates and candles. For me compassion is 3 things, it’s demonstrating compassion for others, embracing self-compassion, and it is about leaning into pain and challenges. In life, not everything’s going to be perfect all the time, and that’s okay. We are all human and we are not perfect. Self-awareness is also a really important aspect and providing a place of psychological safety for others to openly discuss challenges is key to promoting a compassionate culture and embrace the opportunity for learning and developing. As leaders, how we deal with challenges, influences the culture. One of the principles of the compassionate leadership pledge, is to deal with challenges positively, openly, courageously and ethically.”  

When scaling, the logistics of implementing a system like this can prove difficult. McNally insists that trust and patience in these instances are paramount to moving forward in a way that feels right. “I met the team last week, and I said that the culture of this organisation is not down to me, it’s down to each and every one of you,” she says. “I need each and every one of you to commit to compassionate care, compassionate leadership and compassionate cultures, because you are all leaders in your role and you control your interactions. You know, so between teams, you need to learn to lean on each other for support, ask questions, embrace learning and let someone know if you have a difficult day. When scaling and growing, you just have to remind people of that.” We can all get lost in the humdrum of the everyday, she continues, but consistently reminding people they are valued and that they are making a difference, reaps dividends. “It’s about making people stop every now and then and check in with themselves to say, from a care perspective: ‘How am I doing today?’ Leaning into the challenges, asking difficult questions and being open to feedback. Working in healthcare is not without its challenges, but it is an incredibly rewarding role. We need to care for our workforce, so our workforce care for others.

For more information on Irish homecare and Teresa’s work, check out their website here.