Lessons from Undas: Compassion and Accountability in Leadership

Every year, Filipinos mark Undas — a time to visit cemeteries, light candles, and remember those who have gone ahead. It is a solemn ritual, deeply cultural and profoundly human. But beyond remembrance, Undas should also serve as an audit of conscience — a reminder of how fleeting life is and how leadership, like time, is entrusted to us only for a while.

Leadership is not inherited like property, nor sustained by popularity. It is earned daily through accountability and compassion — two values that, when balanced, define a nation’s progress and an organization’s integrity.

Accountability: The Foundation of Trust

In governance or in corporate life, accountability is the invisible infrastructure upon which everything else stands. Without it, compassion becomes sentimentality, and empathy without discipline leads to disorder.

In the Philippines, one of the most corrosive challenges remains the erosion of accountability. The recent ₱9.5-billion flood control scandal is a grim reminder: corruption is not merely about money stolen — it is about trust broken.

According to the Commission on Audit, irregularities in infrastructure projects cost the public billions every year. In 2024 alone, ₱118 billion worth of government programs were flagged for anomalies — funds that could have repaired schools, hospitals, and irrigation systems.

When leaders fail to account for their actions, it is not only the institution that suffers. It is the common worker — the taxpayer, the farmer, the nurse — who pays the price in lost opportunities.

Accountability, therefore, is not a bureaucratic burden. It is the moral spine of leadership.

In every boardroom, barangay, or department meeting, it begins with the simple question:

“Am I a good steward of what has been entrusted to me?”

Compassion: The Soul of Authority

Yet leadership cannot exist on discipline alone. Without compassion, order becomes oppression. A nation cannot progress by fear, only by faith in each other.

Filipino culture has always been rich in malasakit — a uniquely local expression of empathy that goes beyond sympathy. It is the willingness to bear another’s burden, to act when others suffer.

In the workplace, compassion must translate to policies that humanize.
Consider the data:

• 43% of Filipino workers report moderate to severe burnout (PwC 2025).

• 1 in 3 employees say they feel their company “cares more about metrics than people.”

• And yet, organizations with high-trust, compassionate cultures are 30% more productive and 40% less likely to experience attrition (Gallup, 2024).

Compassion is not softness — it is strategic strength. It builds loyalty that no salary increase alone can buy.

During Undas, we remember not just the dead, but also the living — those who continue to labor quietly under systems that often forget their dignity. A leader’s compassion is tested not by how he treats his equals, but how he regards the janitor, the driver, the probationary worker.

The Balance of Heart and Spine

Some nations have erred on the side of control; others, on sentiment. True progress lies in the equilibrium of both.

Accountability without compassion breeds fear. Compassion without accountability breeds chaos. Together, they produce trust — and trust is the most valuable currency in any society.

To the Filipino leader, whether in government, business, or HR, the question is not merely, “What must I achieve?” but also, “Whose lives are improved because I led?”

A Final Reflection

As candles flicker in memorial parks this Undas, may they also illuminate our conscience as leaders.
Let us remember:

• Compassion gives leadership its soul.

• Accountability gives leadership its credibility.

• Together, they give institutions their enduring strength.

The dead remind us of time’s brevity. The living remind us of time’s responsibility.
And in the quiet between the two, we rediscover what leadership truly means — to serve with both heart and spine.

🏢 About AgileAssist HR

At Agileassist HR, we help organizations build leadership founded on trust, empathy, and integrity. Explore our Labor Relations and Leadership Development programs at www.agileassisthr.com.