Empathy in the Workplace

A professor of Temple University Fox School of Business has challenged the traditional view of workplace anger, suggesting that even intense emotional outbursts can prove beneficial if responded to with compassion.

Deanna Geddes, chair of the Fox School's Human Resource Management Department, argued that more supportive responses by managers and co-workers after displays of deviant anger can promote positive change at work, while punishing or doing nothing does not.

HR leaders understand that communication is vital to professional success. Indeed, and good communication skills are a decidedly two-way process.

So what is empathetic listening? It is considerably different to just plain old listening. Many of us routinely listen halfheartedly, or attempt to multi-talk, using the odd grunt to show our attention. We can view listening as a pause to gather our thoughts, and formulate the next crafted reply – this might be better described as pathetic listening. Empathetic listening is when we give our full, non-judgemental attention to the speaker, with their best interests in mind.

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So what is empathetic listening?

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Bill Drayton tells Global X why the largest group of social entrepreneurs who have been selected to become Ashoka Fellows (450 out of 2,400) concentrate on children and young people: "What really matters is whether children master applied empathy, and whether young people (12 to 20) master empathy teamwork leadership and become change makers" through extra-curriculum activities such as tutoring services, help hotlines or community radio stations.

"Those who don't master applied empathy will be marginalized, and if there are children who didn't have a chance to develop these skills, it's our fault, not theirs!" adds Bill Drayton.

Design thinking is a process of empathizing with the end user. Its principal guru is David Kelley, founder of IDEO and the Stanford design school, who takes a similar approach to managing people.

He believes leadership is a matter of empathizing with employees. In this interview, he explains why leaders should seek understanding rather than blind obedience, why it's better to be a coach and a taskmaster and why you can't teach leadership with a PowerPoint presentation.

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He believes leadership is a matter of

empathizing with employees

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On July 9th we held a workshop on business empathy with 4 major Dutch companies, all leaders in their category: banking, supermarkets, rice and cable companies.

This workshop was part of the Dutch Empathy Monitor 2010, conducted by Ruigrok | Netpanel in cooperation with Fronteer Strategy.

One of the interesting outcomes: there is a positive correlation between empathy and attractiveness.

Discover the benefits of empathy. Learn techniques for getting out of the 'anger trap' and dealing with emotional people.

[a company that does empathy training]

Question: What is workplace empathy?

Dev Patnaik: Every single one of us understands what empathy is on a personal level, and that’s because we are blessed with the ability to connect with other people, right?

We’re born with this biological power to connect with other folks, to step outside of ourselves and walk in someone else’s shoes, to intuitively get where the person is coming from and get their feelings and their point of view.

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we are blessed with the ability to

connect with other people, right?

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Kelley explains that the same principle underlies all these projects — empathy.

“The main tenet of design thinking is empathy for the people you’re trying to design for. Leadership is exactly the same thing–building empathy for the people that you’re entrusted to help,” he says.

So how does Kelley move people from junior positions into leadership roles? After relying on careful listening and intuition to hire the right people, Kelley actively develops his people in a structured way

It sounds like science fiction or fantasy, being able to predict emotional responses... But displaying empathy is one of those key skills that every information marketer needs to have available.

There are a number of skills that are needed to create information products well. One of the more valuable is empathy. It sounds silly enough but being able to understand and predict another's feelings is a key skill. Possibly one of the top five for developing successful products.

Intentional Workplace: Leadership and Emotional Contagion says: “Employees are not emotional islands.

Rather, they continuously spread their own moods, and receive and are influenced by others’ moods. When they work in groups, they can literally catch each other’s emotions like viruses, a phenomenon known as emotional contagion.”

A University of New Hampshire study took a look at how the emotions of leaders affects workers. The researchers were astounded at how thoroughly a leader’s own mood could spread among group members and how negative moods spread more pervasively than positive ones.