Empathy in the Workplace

To be an effective leader, many managers are told to be more empathetic, which means understanding and recognizing other's perspectives and feelings. Studies also note that demonstrating empathy enhances employee engagement, boosts work performance and leads to higher job satisfaction.

It's obvious why this skill is essential to leaders — it's difficult to manage a team that you don't understand. But being empathetic has its drawbacks, according to co-authors Rasmus Hougaard and Jacqueline Carter.

In their book, "The Mind of a Leader," the authors highlight four ways empathy can lead to poor business decisions and ultimately tank your success: It can distort judgement, hamper diversity, become too narrow and lead to distress.

• 1. Empathy can distort your judgement
• 2. Empathy can hamper diversity
• 3. Empathy can be too constricting
• 4. Empathy can be emotionally draining

A recent study conducted by Businessolver showed that one thing in particular greatly influences worker engagement – employer empathy. Defined as “the ability to experience and relate to the emotions or experiences of others,” empathy plays a critical role in employee happiness, engagement, and productivity.

Cultivating empathy as a leadership skill allows you to create bonds of trust. It gives you insight into what others are feeling and thinking, and it helps you understand their reactions. At its foundation, empathy informs your decision making by sharpening your perceptions and intuition.

So, getting back to my client, here are the tips I shared with him about being empathetic without being perceived as weak:

• Truly listen. Empathetic leaders don’t just listen but truly listen.
• Don’t interrupt. Empathetic leaders know how easily distractions can affect the quality of listening. A
• Be fully present. When an empathetic leader speaks with someone,
• Leave judgment behind. Even when the feelings of others are in direct opposition to their own, empathetic leaders don’t judge
• Watch body language. Empathetic leaders understand that nonverbal communication can say more about what you are thinking than any words. 
• Encourage the quiet ones. In meetings, there are always two or three who do most of the talking.
• Take a personal interest. Empathetic leaders have genuine curiosity about the lives of those who work for them

Lolly Daskal

For those wondering how they can build their emotional intelligence, many possess the skill already, though they may undervalue it and consequently don’t incorporate it into their everyday work life. The good news is that it’s something that can be developed. In many ways, empathy in the workplace starts with awareness. Paying attention to this skill as a leader, listening to what it tells you, and positioning yourself to better utilize this skill is very important.

When you encounter a situation, read the signs, which can mean paying attention to facial expressions and body language. Understand the situation by listening to what the other person is saying and react to the situation in a way that shows you care.

Empathy yields a power that is often underestimated and underutilized. When tapped properly, it can help you build and grow your business in ways you may never have dreamed or expected.

Leading with Empathy

Leading from the heart is the true path forward for creating change. Sustaining empathy as we lead requires attention. Awareness of how you engage is your superpower. Learn a framework for leading through crisis and difficult situations. In a fast-paced and competitive world, a wise leader recognizes sustaining self in the face of conflict is not a luxury but a key to thriving.

If we want to succeed in life or in business, we cannot do this with any depth or longevity if we’re not empathic.

Empathy is what gives life meaning.

It allows us to be open, and to tolerate points of view that differ greatly from our own. When we are empathic towards others, we are better equipped to understand, soothe, communicate, bond and develop long-lasting successful connections.

At its base, success is a function of trusting, dependable and dynamic relationships.

• 1. They recognize feelings.
  2. They have an ethical identity.
  3. They always consider the needs of others.
• 4. They have a moral intention.
• 5. They're calm.
• 6. They're kind.
• 7. They are always thinking “us.”
• 8. They take risks for the team.
• 9. They have a strong desire to make a difference.
  
  

This opens people up to the listening and curiosity that breed empathy. Only when our daily work environment reflects this collective intuition will empathetic products and services become the norm. We, for one, look forward to that day!

Below are some great links to more deeply explore the role of empathy in CX and on teams:

• A useful three-part model for building empathy at the product, team, and organisational levels 
• The Empathy Index: How more human companies outdistance their competitors
• A blog post from our archives on how to design organisations to support diversity
• How empathy can produce breakthrough innovation – just ask ZipCar and Apple
• Ask ‘Who Do Your Customers Want To Become’ to move beyond customer-centricity
• An eye-opening talk by MIT’s Joy Buolamwini on how to combat bias in code and algorithms 

The golden rule of marketing is this: know your audience.

Know everything about them. Know what keeps them up at night. Know their hopes, fears, dreams and ambitions. Learn the challenges they face and the tools they use to solve them. In short, empathize.

Empathy is the only way for marketers to build campaigns that resonate. If you’re not speaking an audience’s language, you’ll be ignored. No seasoned creative professional would consider this sort of research a waste of time, but creatives aren’t always in charge. Time spent getting to know an audience could be spent building creatives or analyzing campaign data. This can make it difficult to justify to managers who prioritize hard numbers like CPA, LTV, and ROAS. It’s a contrast that some may find frustrating but ultimately creates the kind of productive tensions that build successful businesses.

And without it, you can’t be a great leader.

As I wrote in a previous post, while traditionally viewed as a feminine trait—a weakness, even—empathy has now emerged as a critical leadership strength. Sure, there are some really great minds out there, great thinkers who are renowned for what they do, but without empathy, they’re not great leaders. Great leaders know when to lean someone into their strengths, and when to help alleviate or manage their challenges. And that requires an understanding of where that person is coming from. That requires empathy.

Without empathy, you can’t fully meet the needs of your customers.

Embracing empathy is not without its challenges, but the result is worth it.

byJulia Hartz, CEO and Co-Founder of Eventbrite

The servant leader knows empathy is one of the twelve characteristics of servant leadership.

Obviously, when leading from the heart, as is the intent of a serving leader, one has to exercise extreme patience, compassion, and understanding in their day-to-day interaction with others.

Be that as it may, just how empathetic should one be in their daily efforts of making a difference in the lives of those whom they are leading?

How much empathy is necessary from a servant leader?

Until I was asked these questions by an interviewing school principal, I admit I had not given much thought to this important characteristic.

by David McCuistion

Research indicates empathy is a valuable management attribute. Yet only 40% of managers are "proficient or strong" at it.

The research, from DDI, found that empathy (the ability to understand and share the feelings of another) is a  "critical driver of overall performance" for management.

In the study, "listening and responding with empathy" was highly correlated with key management skills including coaching, engaging, and making sound decisions, as well as overall performance.

Despite this importance, the study also concluded that only "40% of frontline leaders" were "proficient or strong in empathy."

In short, there was a substantive gap between a valuable management attribute and the common possession of that attribute.

Victor Lipman
FEB 24, 2018 

According to Adamson, “empathy” is the one word that matters most to sales [and marketing] success.

Does empathy capture everything your book, The Challenger Customer, is about?

Brent: The idea that empathy is the core principle of the entire book The Challenger Customer, I admit, is more of a personal opinion based on all of our research.

You’ll notice the word doesn’t appear anywhere in the proper book. It’s only in the acknowledgments where I made just a little blurb at the very back (a short note to my daughters). And I used the word empathy there.

What Is Artificial Empathy?
Artificial empathy isn’t quite robots with feelings, but its goal is to detect and respond to human emotions. It is distinct from, but related to, artificial intelligence: You can think of artificial intelligence as the umbrella tech that encompasses many different branches of development, including artificial empathy.

Many people at the forefront of artificial empathy believe it’s a crucial step in the evolution of artificial intelligence, not just for creating a fully intelligent robot, but also for people to have greater acceptance of such robots.

But even without the physical form most of us associate with robots, artificial empathy is being woven into everyday life already, like automotive systems in your car and apps on your phone.

People need to feel a deeper sense of belonging, where they feel that they matter and that there’s someone at work who cares about them.

When we think about those historical communities we mentioned earlier, we see that those existed in a time when, traditionally, there was more empathy. There was more emphasis on thinking about others, about family, and a greater sense of love.

When did compassion in the workplace get so big, and is it sustainable?
There have always been companies that have operated with compassion and care as guiding principles. When exactly these practices became part of the much bigger conversation they are today is harder to pin down.

No doubt technology and social media played a big part in the transition. Regardless of whether people wanted it or not, the internet lifted the veil and gave transparency to the ways many companies operate. Good leadership and bad leadership were brought to light in equal measure, and organizations were forced to manage how internal operations looked to the outside world.

As these motivational quotes show, being truly empathetic can be the key to unlocking the secrets to being a great leader.

The most powerful tool that determines a leader’s success is his/her ability to empathise. It is the tool that inspires and motivates people to believe and follow someone, to pledge their loyalty and their trust.

The ability to recognise and share the feelings of others is what differentiates a good leader from a great one. Whether leading a small startup team, a big multinational, or a country, the emotional connect is the key to the leader’s success. Here are some inspirational quotes that show how successful leadership is about the heart, and not just the mind:

Philosophers have long wrestled with the word empathy as early as in Greek antiquities. During their day, some have proposed that the abstract concept has an association with gaining knowledge, a prized pursuit for these wisdom lovers. Hence, the amount of time and attention some philosophers have put on learning the science behind empathy.

Only recently has the concept been highlighted as a factor influencing social entrepreneurs. A social enterprise, after all, aims to strike a balance between doing business and improving the social and environmental conditions in their community. Several studies have suggested that emphatic people ponder more on what they can contribute to social change rather than count their margins. Empathy, then, could be the driving force behind social entrepreneurs to give the unprivileged access to opportunities and solutions to their problems.

“We have long known that empathy plays a big part in social entrepreneurship, especially in comparison to traditional entrepreneurship, which tends to have a self-oriented motivation,” said Dr. Elisa Alt, co-author of a study published in the Journal of Business Venturing. Dr. Alt is also a senior lecturer in Strategy and Planning at Anglia Ruskin University.

Sharon Harris

Why is empathy a critical leadership skill?

1.Empathy encourages dialogue and connection between leaders and employees. It is an opportunity for leaders to build trust and develop authentic relationships with the employees that they lead. “The path to gaining respect is paved with knowledge and empathy” – Evan Brown

2.Through empathy, leaders will gain a greater awareness and understanding of the needs of their employees – what drives them, what motivates them, and what they value most. If leaders understand their what motivates their employees, how they want to be treated, what is important to them – personally and professionally, leaders will be in a better position to guide, inspire and motivate their employees and teams.

3.Empathy creates an opportunity for leaders to see, hear, understand and explore problems through the employee’s eyes. It is a further opportunity for leaders to remove barriers or help employees to navigate challenging situations.

4.In negotiations, empathy helps you to understand what motivates the other side – understanding what drives the other side, what’s less important to them and why is key to determining which concessions to make and where to hold your ground. Using empathy can lead to win-win outcomes in negotiations.

5.Empathetic leaders are viewed as better performers. When researchers at the Centre for Creative Leadership looked at a sample of over 6,700 leaders from 38 countries they found that “empathy is positively related to job performance. Managers who show more empathy toward direct reports are viewed as better performers in their job by their bosses.”

Saira Gangji

In leadership literature, empathy is an ability to recognize a broad spectrum of emotional signals, allowing leaders to feel the unspoken emotions of other individuals or groups. For this reason, empathic leaders are capable of working with individuals from diverse personal and cultural backgrounds.[2]

Empathy provides a foundation for guiding our behaviors toward others. There are two distinct kinds of empathy in the human experience: emotional empathy and cognitive empathy:[3]

Emotional empathy, also called affective empathy or primitive empathy, is the subjective state resulting from emotional contagion. It is our automatic drive to respond appropriately to another’s emotions. This kind of empathy happens automatically, and often unconsciously. It has also been referred to as the vicarious sharing of emotions.

Cognitive empathy is the largely conscious drive to recognize accurately and understand another’s emotional state. Sometimes we call this kind of empathy “perspective taking.”

  The first step in creating those bonds is harvesting the empathy that naturally blooms within us and channeling that into empathetic marketing campaigns.

My ultimate marketing goal is to break down barriers and speak to the largest, most diverse audience possible. Empathy is the proverbial yellow brick road on that quest. If people can empathize with one another, then they can coalesce around a core message, a shared set of values and a sense of oneness.

For May's discussion Empathic Leadership: The Art of Listening and Being Heard, Sub Rosa's Michael Ventura spoke with Billie Whitehouse, Co-founder of the socially driven, wearable technology company Wearable Experiments.

They were joined by Dr. Robert Gore, a Brooklyn-based, emergency-medicine physician and Executive Director of the Kings Against Violence Initiative.

How important is empathy to successful management? Very important, according to one study on the topic.

The research, from DDI, found that empathy (the ability to understand and share the feelings of another) is a  "critical driver of overall performance" for management.

In the study, "listening and responding with empathy" was highly correlated with key management skills including coaching, engaging, and making sound decisions, as well as overall performance.

Despite this importance, the study also concluded that only "40% of frontline leaders" were "proficient or strong in empathy."

What we do
markempa is a consulting and training company that helps you attract, convert, and win more customers with empathy-based marketing.

Let us help you create more emotionally-resonant messaging to inspire action and increase conversion. 

What does markempa mean?

Our name is the combination of marketing with empathy. We believe marketing starts with empathy because it gives you the intuition to understand what customers want, how you can help them get it, and connect in a way that inspires action.

The EMPATH Method

The EMPATH Method is how we help you use applied empathy to understand customer motivation and inspire action. It includes the following steps:  

1. Empathy Index
2. Map customer motivation
3. Put insights together
4. Action plan and test
5. Transfer insights 
6. Help it along