A Binghamton University study suggests that showing compassion to employees almost always pays off, especially when combined with the enforcement of clear goals and benchmarks. If subordinates feel that their boss care about them, they feel more serious about the work they do to the boss.

Researchers also looked at the employee performance that resulted from three different leadership styles like Authoritarianism-dominant leadership, Benevolence-dominant leadership and Classical paternalistic leadership. They found that authoritarianism-dominant leadership almost always had negative results on job performance, while benevolence-dominant leadership almost always had a positive impact on job performance.

In other words, showing no compassion to your employees doesn't bode well for their job performance, while showing compassion motivated them to be better workers. The main takeaway for managers is to put just as much or even more of an emphasis on the well-being of your employees as you do on hitting targets and goals.

"Subordinates and employees are not tools or machines that you can just use. They are human beings and deserve to be treated with respect," concludes the research.