How Can Leaders Grow Their Capacity for Empathy?
Empathy is an active trait. Though almost everyone can empathize with others, putting it into practice takes intention and work. Thankfully, empathy works like a muscle. The more you exercise it, the stronger it’ll get. To become a more empathetic leader, try incorporating these methods:
Practice active listening. Active listening means paying close attention to your tone and body language, asking good questions, not interrupting, and carefully considering what the other person is saying before you speak.

What is empathy, and how does it affect you in your daily life? Might there even be a backside to empathy?

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The CCS-IBS team led by Dr. SHIN Hee-Sup combined this observational fear model with optogenetic experiments to explore the origin of empathy. Notably, this study showed that the synchronized brain rhythms within multiple brain areas are essential for triggering empathy. In particular, the synchronization between the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and basolateral amygdala (BLA) is unique to empathic fear by indirect exposure to others’ distress, not to fear by first-hand experience.

Marco Iacoboni, MD, Ph.D. is a Professor of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences at UCLA who investigates brain systems and mechanisms for higher cognitive functions, in particular social cognition. He is also the author of Mirroring People: The New Science of How We Connect with Others. In this episode, he explains how humans evolved to be empathic, describes how mirror neurons work, and argues that empathy can help combat our society’ deep-seated divisions.

00:00 Introduction
00:23 About Dr. Marco Iacoboni
03:29 His reflections on empathy, 15 years after publishing Mirroring People
07:15 Why Marco is passionate about the brain mechanisms of empathy
11:29 The Chameleon Effect: Imitation and empathy
14:02 How we evolved to be empathic
16:28 Combating social divisiveness with empathy
18:39 Mirror neurons: The neural mechanism of empathy
24:34 What is "Existential Neuroscience?"
27:13 How Marco's research has changed him
29:02 Is empathy good for the empathizer?
34:55 Advice on becoming more empathic
37:40 Marco’s perspective on psychedelics
38:31 Marco Iacoboni’s Purposeful Empathy Story

The Benefits of Empathic Listening
Empathic listening (also called active listening or reflective listening) is a way of listening and responding to another person that improves mutual understanding and trust. It is an essential skill for third parties and disputants alike, as it enables the listener to receive and accurately interpret the speaker's message, and then provide an appropriate response. The response is an integral part of the listening process and can be critical to the success of a negotiation or mediation. Among its benefits, empathic listening

1. builds trust and respect,
2. enables the disputants to release their emotions,
3. reduces tensions,
4. encourages the surfacing of information, and
5. creates a safe environment that is conducive to collaborative problem solving

Webster’s defines empathy as “the action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another.” Nowhere is this more crucial than in health care. In an October 6 panel, four experts on design and empathy were featured in a discussion hosted by NBBJ and moderated by Metropolis editor in chief Avinash Rajagopal.

“For today’s host firm NBBJ,” Rajagopal began, “The process starts with listening and building empathy, and through that they can work toward better outcomes.”

“When we think about empathetic design, it’s all about listening and engaging,” said Christina Yates, senior associate and lead designer at NBBJ. Her colleague Jonathan Ward, partner and firm-wide design leader, concurred, adding: “It’s all about listening and collecting everybody together, collecting ideas, finding the best solutions through that process.”

As we experience the holiday season, empathy is one of the most important gifts we can give someone who is struggling. But as we’re reminded of empathy this time of year, we should reflect on why we don’t show it often enough throughout the year.

Empathy is the ability to emotionally understand what other people feel and to imagine yourself in their place. Sometimes, though, it’s hard to have empathy. Empathy requires experience, and until we’ve walked in another person’s shoes, we may find it difficult to understand the emotions they are experiencing or why they do the things they do

People researched whether masks affect emotional cognition, how fiction affects empathic concern and determining how empathetic people are depending on whether they have pets or not. Other projects included how video games affect empathy levels and what role racism plays in our ability to empathize. 

Fritz Breithaupt, IU professor of Germanic studies and affiliated professor of Cognitive Science, said his first-year students gained valuable experience doing research early on in their lives. Even though someone can never be fully prepared for their first time doing research, his students learned how to deal with both excitement and mistakes. However unfamiliar and hard it may be at first, one can still learn a lot of valuable lessons. 

Your ability to pay attention to the emotions of others plays a significant role in your ability to listen to them as well. If you consider yourself an empathetic person, you are most likely a good listener. Studies show that the more empathetic a person is, the better a listener they are.

This event explored the role of empathy in restorative justice processes. How can developing and experiencing empathy affect how people engage in restorative work? Can empathy help people on both sides of a conflict understand the experiences and needs of the other? What difference does it make?

We explored these questions by listening to the perspectives of three panel members with a variety of expertise in restorative justice:

Empathy is a must-have for any leader who wishes to excel in their leadership role. Anybody can fall under this category and have this skill within them. However, there are some tips and tricks of an empathic leader if you wish to be one.

In this article, we explain what empathetic leadership looks like and some of the tips and tricks of an empathic leader.

WHAT DOES EMPATHETIC LEADERSHIP LOOK LIKE?
Empathetic leadership involves a leader who tries to understand and fit into the shoes of their employees. They tend to go deeper into feeling the way other people might be feeling. It is one of the best skills any leader can have. Leading with empathy helps you understand the people around you and how they might feel about a situation.

The empathy of a leader helps them put their followers before themselves. They can listen and see from another person’s perspective without being judgmental in the process. People often feel comfortable around people with this skill and prefer to share their problems with them.

Customer Care Team Training For Empathy
From thorough product knowledge to the flexibility to make decisions, customer care team members need a lot of resources to do a good job. It’s important to train your team both initially when they join your company and routinely to make sure their skills stay fresh. Empathy is an essential skill for customer care staff. The ability to connect with customers and sincerely want them to have a positive experience with your product sets the right tone for any interactions with customers.

The world has changed dramatically during the past two years, and between shipping delays and rising prices, customers are more likely to be upset or frustrated when talking to customer service. Training for empathy can help your customer care team deal with customers’ problems and find creative ways to use your product to provide solutions in their lives or businesses.

Empathy in business and leadership can be a powerful driver of business growth leading to happier employees, customers, and increased productivity. If you want to create an environment where employees feel valued and love where they work, don’t mistake this interpersonal skill as an unimportant one.

As part of a Health Shield health cash plan, we offer an Employee Assistance Programme so that employees who may be experiencing difficulties that impact their mental wellbeing have support they can easily access. So, we asked our EAP partners, Health Assured, about the importance of creating an empathetic workplace and some of the ways a workplace can foster an empathetic workplace. Here’s what they said:

This month we are exploring the theme of empathy with students as a part of their mental health skill building.  Empathy is about being able to consider what someone else may be going through and imagining how they might be feeling or thinking.  It is about walking in another person’s shoes –  about listening to another perspective non-judgmentally.

  It’s about voicing our understanding of their emotions and validating them.  It’s about recognizing the humanity of others and challenging ourselves to be present. Empathy is often the first step toward compassionate action and helping others. 

2. Yellen’s empathy gave purpose to her career path.
Janet Yellen truly can put herself in others’ shoes, feeling their pain and disappointment. It is a trait she inherited from her father, Julius, a family doctor who treated patients in a basement office of the family’s two-story rowhouse. Young Janet watched neighbors who were out of work, as they trudged into her father’s office, where he would tenderly care for them. He never turned anyone away who was unable to pay, and accepted any payment they could afford. She saw the anguish in their faces and the embarrassment displayed by those who were unemployed. She came to understand a job as a means to survive financially, but to also as a means to bolster one’s sense of self-respect and accomplishment.