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All Front Page Sections, Empathy and: Animals, Art, Compassion, Education, Empaths, Health Care, Learning, Justice, Teaching, Work, Self-empathy, Self-compassion, etc Please Click 'Follow' to receive updates. It also helps us rise in the rankings and gives us more exposure on Scoop.it. Thanks so much. Edwin Rutsch, Editor http://CultureOfEmpathy.com
Compassion It is a global social movement inspiring daily compassionate actions. How did it come to be? Founder Sara Schairer shares her story. Did you know that. Did you know that ‘compassion’ is a noun? In the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, you’ll find the definition: sympathetic consciousness of others' distress together with a desire to alleviate it. But, that sounds more like a verb to me. And, thanks to a gift from the universe and many incredible people, compassion IS now a verb.
It stings. Another soul-crushing reprimand from a boss, parent or spouse. That sickening feeling when you feel unappreciated, misunderstood and blamed. We've all been there, and in that knee-wobbling state, we are far from playing at our best.
In early January, I wrote a post on six serious ideas for 2013 that included the concept of SED, which is short for serendipity, empathy and discovery... For association leaders committed to building their organizations to thrive in the years ahead, empathy is anything but a threat. Empathy imbues the work of innovation with greater meaning, and surfaces richer insights into the best opportunities to co-create radical new value with passionate stakeholders. Along with serendipity and discovery, empathy is a critical driving force of association success in the years ahead, and now is the time for association leaders to capitalize on its extraordinary power. by JEFF DE CAGNA
In my work as a systems change specialist in schools and other learning communities, here are the practices I encourage instructional leaders to promote: Teach listening as a core skill and expect it as a cultural practice.Start by being an active listener yourself and give people the time they need to reflect. Time not made for someone is time wasted.Make dialogue a primary team, group or classroom practice. Dialogue opens the doors to exploration—what Peter Senge in his guide “The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook” calls “skillful discussion,” where thoughtful decisions can be made that honor all participants (or, in business, stakeholders).Identify roles, not organizational charts. When people are able to articulate their role, what they need to be successful and what gets in the way of their success, an empathic understanding is present and the beginnings of a healthy team, class or group takes shape.Lead with consistency, authenticity and honesty. Be clear as to why you are doing what you are doing. Do not lead or manage through personality but rather through articulation. To articulate is to clarify. \by David A. Levine, the director of the School of Belonging Training Institute at Creative Response to Conflict (CRC)
hroughout my career as an educator, and based on my many interactions with students, professors and employers, I have learned one of the best secrets to success. It is surprisingly simple; long-term educational and professional success comes down to empathy. This may catch many people off guard, because most were probably expecting to hear about a new business strategy, or complicated practice or method. The truth, however, is that successful businesses and leaders are where they are because they have unique skills that allow them to connect with and understand other professionals, their clients and their employees. This type of empathy is an essential component of emotional intelligence that we call "professional readiness" and teaching it should be our goal for all graduates of higher education institutions. Jayson Boyers Executive Director for the Division of Continuing Professional Studies for Champlain College
The question of how empathy plays in morality in both accounts is similar. First, one needs to recognize when the situation of an other calls for empathy. This consists of two parts: one is being able to read external behaviors to identify suffering (or pain or sadness or whatever) and the second is the ability to imagine oneself in that other’s place. The latter is the critical part in that, on both accounts, it is only by making the imaginative leap that one can ‘know’ what the other is experiencing. Being able to recognize ‘outer’ clues to suffering isn’t enough to be empathetic: one must be able to recreate or approximate the other’s internal life in one’s imagination (Smith points out that even if one can only do so imperfectly, this is sufficient).
Empathy in Business
Presented by the George Mason University
Arlington Campus Advisory Board in association with
Arlington Economic Development In a world constantly engaged with the latest technology and focused on profit and productivity, what does it mean to be truly human when it comes to business? A panel of globally recognized leaders will tackle that very issue in Arlington with Empathy in Business, a discussion focused on keeping compassion in today's business and economic climate.
In a world where we tend to think of business in terms of the bottom line and financial metrics, a discussion of the role of empathy in business seems like an indulgence. But is it really an indulgence, or is it a marketplace imperative instead? With the conversation around business performance changing and evolving to include elements of emotional intelligence, it should come to no surprise that four sector leaders came together last week to discuss empathy in business. On the panel were: Angel Cabrera – President of George Mason UniversityBill Drayton – CEO and founder of Ashoka: Innovators for the Public and former director at McKinsey & Co.Carly Fiorina – CEO of Carly Fiorina Enterprises and former CEO of HPJulie Rogers – President and CEO of the Eugene and Agnes E. Meyer Foundation The panel was moderated by Jonathan Aberman, Managing Director ofAmplifier Ventures, and presented in association with Arlington Economic Development. Monica Tanase-Cole
In our consulting practice we frequently encounter managers that proclaim empathy as a professional strength, only to discover their real talent is being a good listener. That's great and important, but it isn't the same thing as being empathetic. Expressing empathy requires us to actually engage the individual, talk to them, use real words and, dare I say it, send some non-verbal messages, too. First, a note to the truly empathetic: Congratulations! Your capacity and ability to convey "caring and understanding" will serve you well and will probably allow you to easily form deep, lasting relationships. That having been said, be careful not to over play your hand. All too often, over empathizing leads to over identification with the person or situation and that's a prescription for cloudy judgment, faulty analysis and all that goes with it.
As a user experience consultant, I coach my clients on how to build empathy within their organizations for customers and colleagues. Outsourcing empathy to one department or team — whether it be user experience, design, product, marketing, or even engineering — hurts the company tremendously, resulting in an even less effective product design and greater discord amongst teammates. Empathy must be a part of the organizational ethos, established at the top and implemented equally at all levels. Whitney Hess
“Empathy is the ability to understand others. It’s a critical business tool.” were Carly Fiorina’s opening words at a recent panel discussion I attended. Fiorina and her fellow panelist view empathy as an essential part of leadership, and vital for corporate success. This led me to wonder if, and where, there is a place for empathy in event management. Being empathic simply is imagining ourselves in another person’s shoes. And then acting accordingly! by Simone Poetscher
In part two of this brief four part video series from the Academy of Management Review, Prof. Jane Dutton discusses the future of care and compassion and how...
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In a world where we tend to think of business in terms of the bottom line and financial metrics, a discussion on the role of empathy can seem at best a soft-issue, and at worst, downright absurd. Instead, the importance of plugging into and reflecting consumer sentiment, and the value of bringing levels of emotional intelligence and empathy into the business world is something that is bringing far greater worth. Empathy is essential to providing better customer experiences. If you understand your customers, you'll be well equipped to give them exactly what they need. Indeed, there is growing evidence that organisations that have happy employees, strong organisational health, empathetic leaders, and a social mission, outperform their peers. The notion of 'empathy as a social currency' is something which is gaining increasing prominence in the business world. In the book Humanize, Grant & Notter make the point that empathy is a currency that should be deployed in order to serve internal and external customers. by Rose Schreiber - Consultant and professional generalist
Jesse Pickard believes the ability to empathize with other is important for building customers and the right team.
Compassionate workplaces - good for employees AND the corporate bottom line. Managers often mistakenly think that putting pressure on employees will increase performance. What it does increase is stress—and research has shown that high levels of stress carry a number of costs to employers and employees alike. Stress brings high health care and turnover costs. In a study of employees from various organizations, health care expenditures for employees with high levels of stress were 46 percent greater than at similar organizations without high levels of stress. In particular, workplace stress has been linked to coronary heart disease in retrospective (observing past patterns) and prospective (predicting future patterns) studies. Then there’s the impact on turnover: 52 percent of employees report that workplace stress has led them to look for a new job, decline a promotion... This is the kind of dialogue we are trying to promote at the Compassion and Business Conference on April 30 at Stanford University, hosted by the Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education (CCARE), of which I am the Associate Director. by Emma M. Seppala, Ph.D. Culture of Empathy Builder Page: Emma Malcolm Seppala http://j.mp/NdBlho
Clark on how being a mother impacts the way she manages and leads her team.
Serendipity, empathy and discovery are essential ingredients of new value creation that can be combined in appropriate measure through the work of innovation. Among these three elements, I have always believed that empathy is what opens our hearts and minds more fully to the other two. It is our empathic understanding of others’ lives that expands the natural human desire to discover the world beyond pure self interest, and creates a lens through which to see the serendipitous connections among seemingly disparate experiences more clearly.
Entrepreneurs are a unique group of people, but they behave in patterns. Empathy is one of the qualities serial entrepreneurs lack most. Entrepreneurs build things and solve problems for people, but according to this study they do this in hopes of a return on investment. Entrepreneurs may have high empathy on an intellectual level, in that they want to produce a product or service that will help someone. This is often, however, also tied to the entrepreneur receiving a return for their time and effort, which people with high empathy do not generally expect.
Do you want to be able to influence others better? Want to make your sales quota? Want to motivate your team? Try practicing empathy. Five steps to greater empathy Make an active decision that we want to see something from another point of view. This is 80% of the work in empathy. Most often, we are so blinded by our own strong opinions and our need to be right that we never make this decision.Become conscious of the filter we’re listening through. By Henna Inam
At a panel on Thursday, business leaders said empathy helps businesses make better products and improve their understanding of customers and colleagues. The business world is known for its often cutthroat and competitive nature. But at a panel discussion in Arlington on Thursday, four business leaders made the case that compassion, rather than killer instinct, might be the most important quality an employee can bring to his or her job. By incorporating empathy into the way one does business, they said, one can exhibit better leadership, make better products and improve their understanding of customers and colleagues.
When first asked to speak at the upcoming Compassion and Business conference, I was struck by how seldom we hear those two words in the same sentence. Why? I think it's because we think of compassion too abstractly, and we're probably equally guilty in thinking of "business" too clinically. Even if we can't count it, we all know compassion is real. We've all felt its power and influence. We also know there is more to achieving business success than market strategy and financial objectives. Where do these paths cross? People. By Scott Kriens
Empathy they say -- not apathy, not sympathy -- is fast becoming the secret to corporate success. More and more academics, design professionals and business executives are talking about the importance of empathy as a first step to creativity and innovation, the benchmarks of the so-called new economy. Empathy they say -- not apathy, not sympathy -- is fast becoming the secret to corporate success. Wired magazine said empathy is "a revolutionary force for change ... social co-operation and mutual aid will be key forces from product marketing methods to informing policy and peace initiatives." John M. Eger Chair of Communications and Public Policy and Director of the Creative Economy Initiative, San Diego State University
There's absolutely nothing wrong with hiring male programmers, or women, um, empathizers-of-various-stripes. I've long engaged in a hobby where, whenever I visit a tech company's website, I head straight to their "Team" page, and scan for the women. More often than not, I have to scroll past four or more men before I see a woman -- and very frequently, her title places her in one of the "people" roles: human resources, communications, project or client management, user experience, customer service, or office administration. (One could almost -- if one were feeling cheeky -- rename these roles employee empathy, customer empathy, team empathy, user empathy, and boss empathy: all of them require deep skills in emotional intelligence, verbal and written communications, and putting oneself in the shoes of others.) by Lauren Bacon
Most leaders have learned along the way that empathy is a critical leadership skill but few have an understanding of why. Empathy is a form of attention that goes beyond the intellect and involves directly sensing what it is like to be in someone else's shoes. How do we do this? We sense what other people are experiencing or feeling by sensations that arise in our own bodies. All of us are like walking antennas, receiving and registering the felt experience of those around us. Some of us are better at this than others. Jan Birchfield, Ph.D Founder, Princeton Leadership Development (PLD) http://princetonleadershipdevelopment.com/bios.html
While there are many private sector mentoring programmes in place, these are too often seen as 'nice-to-have', but not essential. Successful mentoring relationships often transcend this as mentors gain an understanding of the world view of another generation and equally, mentees can help senior colleagues to see new perspectives and shifts in societal behaviour, for instance, the growing importance of social networks. These partnerships, inevitably, bring a new level of empathy into the workplace as greater understanding between groups of people develops. This empathy can increase mutual respect for co-workers and remind us of the nuances of an individual's needs, as opposed to just focusing on generic rules and regulations. Rose Schreiber
Consultant
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