Work Doesn't Have to Hurt: The Compassionate Leadership Playbook for Reducing Burnout, Building Trust, and Leading People Through the AI Era Hardcover – Large Print, May 15, 2026

Your people are not disengaged. They are unseen.Global employee engagement has hit its lowest point in years. Burnout is at epidemic levels. And despite $40 billion invested in AI, 95% of organizations are seeing zero measurable return — not because the technology is failing, but because the managers who were supposed to champion it have quietly stopped leading.The problem is not talent. It is not technology. It is not strategy.It is a leadership culture that was never built to support the full human being doing the work.In Work Doesn't Have to Hurt, Lisa Polloni — former Global Communications Regional Director for the Americas at Microsoft, Stanford CCARE Ambassador, and Master's in Positive Psychology — delivers the evidence-based playbook that HR leaders, managers, and executives have been waiting for.What you will learn:Why Gallup 2026, McKinsey, and MIT all point to the same root cause — and what to do about itThe neuroscience of compassion: what happens in the brain when leaders lead with genuine careThe four capacities every compassionate leader must developMichael West's four behaviors for responding to suffering at workHow to build psychologically safe, high-trust teamsThe Compassion Cards: a proprietary tool from Stanford's Applied Compassion Training programThis is not a book about being nicer. It is a book about being smarter.Work doesn't have to hurt. And the leaders who understand that will be the ones whose organizations endure. Read more