You can communicate empathy with a simple sentence that shows you can understand, see, or hear what another person might be experiencing.
We all want attention, and just letting the other person know you will stop and pay attention can reduce tension. We all need and want respect. It doesn't cost anything to give your respect to another person, and it may open up a meaningful conversation.
Using one or more sentences that shows another person your empathy, attention, or respect (EAR) is one of the easiest ways to calm a conflict, reassure a person who is feeling sad, or strengthen your bond. You can use an EAR Statement™ at any time, with any person. The following examples are ways to use an EAR Statement.
Find out why empathy is an important factor in someone's ability to lead and how to help your team find their kindness, especially as businesses acclimate to the new normal.
The next generation of leaders must have empathy. Life is hard, and the pandemic made it harder. So, kindness and heart are becoming more important than even practical skills like accounting. Many employees are facing tremendous pressure, and now HR leaders are responding. Mental health and wellness are top priorities of organizations aiming to recruit and retain top talent.
As a result of this shift, employers are recognizing the need for softer skills in hires. Recently, Maria Leggett, director of Education at MHI in Charlotte, North Carolina, spoke to HR Exchange Network about the importance of empathy in leadership. Leggett will be hosting a session at the online event HR and the Future of Work, which takes place February 22 to 24, 2022.
Ernst & Young’s 2021 Empathy in Business Survey showed around 50% of employees quit a previous job because their boss wasn’t empathetic to their struggles at work or in their personal lives. On the other hand, nearly 90% of workers who were queried believe empathetic leadership creates loyalty, and 85% say that it increases productivity.
Empathetic leadership is a must in today’s COVID-affected workplace, as employees struggle with burnout, working from home and other issues, according to research by Catalyst, a nonprofit that works to advance women in leadership positions. But until more business owners, executives and managers put a priority on listening to their employees and showing them they care, workers will look for companies that are more tuned in to their concerns, says Kathleen Quinn Votaw, the author of DARE to CARE IN THE WORKPLACE: A Guide to the New Way We Work.
Today, organizations are focusing on harnessing AI to better understand and deliver on customer needs. Empathic AI solutions can empower customer-facing professionals to produce the right answers and outcomes quickly and confidently, commanding greater customer satisfaction and loyalty by detecting customer intent and emotional state.
By identifying and solving the emotions behind the “why," companies can better serve the needs of their customers. Leveraging AI-powered solutions using sentiment analysis capabilities provides the predictive insights businesses need to recognize customer emotions and intent with accuracy and precision at scale.
First, our understanding and definitions of empathy are all over the map. Some people think empathy is simply listening to people, while others think it’s about understanding individuals. Employees in a recent EY survey said they think of empathy as fairness and transparency, while a McKinsey report frames empathy around mental health support services.
Other reports suggest inclusion is the true sign of empathy. All of this confusion makes the concept incredibly difficult to prioritize and set targets around, not to mention trying to measure the effectiveness of building empathetic muscles.
Maria Ross is the author of The Empathy Edge, a book that explores why businesses should cultivate empathy and how empathic leadership foster more productivity and loyalty. In this episode, she discusses the advantages of running an empathic business and why organizations must avoid "empathy-washing."
MullenLowe's UK CEO reflects on how the pandemic elevated the need for empathetic leadership. As adlanders return to the office, it's crucial not to disconnect from others' feelings.
Why empathy should be part of the everyday Of course, as a CEO I must also maintain the commercial performance of the company. But without our brilliant people there is no company, there is no community. There is no grand strategy that can be employed to encourage empathy in the workplace. Instead, empathy must be woven through the DNA of a company and the result of this – a kinder, more human company – will naturally lead to the results that we want to see in our employees: increased loyalty, productivity and happiness.
There’s a lot of talk about empathy in the workplace, but what does it actually look like?
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/what-empathy-looks-like-jacob-morganConsider these two experiences I had when I was traveling for speaking events before Covid. At one event at a financial institution, I saw a scared new employee approach a senior leader and share her excitement and nervousness about working for the company. She wasn’t sure she could do the work, even though she was eager for the opportunity. The leader said he was sorry she felt overwhelmed and that he was sure she would be fine.
Taking a one-size-fits-all approach to burnout prevention won’t help. Resilient leaders make quick pivots and remain nimble. Empathetic leaders dial in to the needs of their employees and adjust to the moment.
And human-centered leaders give their companies a fighting chance to flourish in the middle of a global pandemic. This article explores how empathetic leaders are helping employees to navigate the Covid-19 pandemic in healthy ways, and how you can, too. Take our survey to share your own experience with burnout during the pandemic.
Empathy is the ability to step into someone else’s shoes, be familiar with their feelings and understand their needs. Why is empathy important in the workplace? For Richard Adefemi, a businessman, empathy in the workplace is very important for the growth and productivity of organisations. Empathy can be in both ways, for example, from employer to employee, and vice versa, but it starts first with employer to employee.
Sometimes these days, it seems as if empathy and compassion are dwindling resources, but they are our best weapon against cynicism and despair," Taylor said. "In fact, empathy and compassion are our only truly renewable resources.
"All of us here today have the means and obligation to tap this endless capacity in ourselves, in our workforce and in our society. We must use what we learned over the past 18 months and nurture the empathy to create a more just, equitable and sustainable workplace."
"Empathy means putting yourself in the place of the other, without judgment or bias, and trying to understand their unique lived experiences—the ones that shaped them and the ones that make them act and say what they do."
Now more than ever, empathy is the necessary starting point for understanding customers' emotions and behaviors, and it's a prerequisite for delivering products and services that foster brand loyalty, and in pushing the business ahead of competitors.
As 2021 comes to an end, we wanted to leave you on a high note as we reflect on the past year and prepare for the new journey ahead into 2022. In the latest podcast episode, Empathy and Leadership, our guest, Sonja Wekema, had an “unexpected gift” for you. Something we also consider as a surprising and ‘odd outcome’ that changed our perspective on empathy.
Now more than ever before, we have both the need and the opportunity to intersect creativity with empathy. We can design for more genuine interactions and spaces that enable people to have more meaningful conversations that stretch our thinking of the business as usual. Sonja is a brilliant advocate for courageous leadership, a trait that she encourages us to find within ourselves and cultivate through empathy.
Empathy has emerged as a panacea to combat the anguish and suffering of the global pandemic of COVID-19 and its impact. You do not need to have a leadership title to lead with empathy. Your actions to improve human quality of life in adverse times make you a leader.
When a leader can look at a fellow workforce member and put themselves in their shoes, understand the pain and stress they are undergoing, and value their happiness above their own, they are genuinely empathic.
As organizations embrace a hybrid working model, they have to rethink and reimagine four critical areas: Execution, Collaboration, Communication, and Enablement. Empathy should be a core tenet of organizational culture.
The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated issues of work-life balance, financial pressures and fears about job security.
Greater empathy within organizations as part of everyday culture can help address these problems.
Empathy can increase employee engagement and deepen loyalty, while driving greater innovation and diversity in the workforce.
“Empathy is important, but not enough to put significant investment behind it”. That sentiment, expressed to me by a senior banker, was the dominant position before the COVID-19 pandemic. Empathy was seen as a “nice to have”, something that was warm and fuzzy and made you feel good as a leader, rather than as a tool to expedite growth. For many, it was a tick-box exercise. Management would run empathy training and then everyone would go back to their day job.
Leading with Empathy As we rely on technology to bring teams together, leaders can lead their team using the EVOLVE framework of intentions and actions to demonstrate what empathy looks like in your daily interactions.
E – Explore. Explore your hidden and unconscious biases. This directly links to a statement each of us is making more frequently now, “We’ve never done it like that before.” This means embracing risk-taking. We are all living in unprecedented times and must be open to solutions, and new ways of doing things that support our people and teams.
V – Value the Person. And do it genuinely! Managers and meeting leaders need to ask a simple question to open every meeting, “How are you doing today?” People are hurting. They may have sick parents or friends or for many, they are home-schooling for the first time. Give everyone a chance to answer and be heard. Make time to foster individual connections.
O – Open-Minded. Stay open-minded to what your team is saying. Choose not to dismiss different points of view because they’re not what you’re used to hearing. Use a strategy like Kristen Pressner’s Flip it to Test It to shine a light on the unrecognized ways you think about the way work is done, how we interact with different groups of people and how we break old paradigms.
L – Listen. Listen not just to the words but also to the feelings and emotions behind the words. Managing our teams virtually challenges managers to dig deeper to create engagement with all our associates.
What are the benefits of empathy in the workplace? There are many benefits to having an empathetic leader in the workplace. First and foremost, empathy allows leaders to better understand their employees.
This understanding leads to a more collaborative work environment where workers are able to share ideas and put forth innovative solutions. Additionally, empathy helps leaders give feedback that is constructive and allows employees to grow and develop as members of the company. Finally, empathy helps leaders build loyal relationships with their employees which can result in increased productivity and employee retentio
#EmpathyCircles: The best #Empathy building practice. http://www.EmpathyCircle.com #EmpathyTraining: https://j.mp/ECCOURSE
Nadella, only the third chief executive in Microsoft’s four decades, made his innovation intentions clear from the first email he sent to employees on his first day as CEO in February 2014. In short order, he had clarified his vision for the company to “empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.” His book “Hit Refresh,” published in 2017, emphasized empathy as the way to accomplish that goal.
The message: Empathy leads to understanding and collaboration, which helps innovation push its way through the often-messy journey toward helpful products.
“My personal philosophy and my passion … is to connect new ideas with a growing sense of empathy for other people,” Nadella wrote. And later, “My approach is to lead with a sense of purpose and pride in what we do, not envy or combativeness.”
MullenLowe's UK CEO reflects on how the pandemic elevated the need for empathetic leadership. As adlanders return to the office, it's crucial not to disconnect from others' feelings.
Why empathy should be part of the everyday Of course, as a CEO I must also maintain the commercial performance of the company. But without our brilliant people there is no company, there is no community. There is no grand strategy that can be employed to encourage empathy in the workplace. Instead, empathy must be woven through the DNA of a company and the result of this – a kinder, more human company – will naturally lead to the results that we want to see in our employees: increased loyalty, productivity and happiness.
1. Make customer empathy the company’s central cultural value.
Many businesses still operate in silos, but, as described above, customers no longer do. Thus, companies need to shed old ways of how the business has been structured and organized and adopt new ones based solely on how customers see and work with them. Everyone on every team in every department must have a clear understanding of their role in providing a holistic, empathy-driven experience and how each channel and touchpoint integrates to make that happen.
Empathy, with context to business, simply means that the employees can establish true, empathetic relationships with each other that enhance their performance and create a much more productive and conducive environment.
Listen to people - not just their words, but also their facial expressions and body language - without interrupting. And while you’re listening, pay attention. Avoid looking at your phone or watch.
More than ever, employees want their employers to acknowledge these issues and offer support to address them, yet many CEOs are struggling to meet expectations. Despite the clear need for greater empathy in the workplace over the past year, 68 percent of CEOs believe they will be less respected if they show empathy within their organizations, according to Businessolver’s 2021 State of Workplace Empathy study. I call this “toxic stoicism.”
Those beliefs are, of course, unfounded. Today, empathy isn’t a nice-to-have; it’s an essential part of doing business that has implications across employee inclusion, engagement, and attrition. Indeed, 88 percent of employees say they are more willing to stay with an empathetic employer. Executives ignore the empathy gap at their own peril, risking losing talent to competitors amid the Great Resignation.
Here are some effective ways that executives can demonstrate empathy – both personally and through processes implemented by their organizations.
Now you may think of empathy as a soft skill, but as anyone who has tried it can tell you, empathy can be as difficult to master as any other leadership skill. First, let’s define empathy. Simply put, empathy is the ability to understand the feelings, thoughts or attitudes of another. The key here is understand. That does not mean to agree with or sympathize with but rather just to understand.
Take a moment to think about how freeing that is. There is no right or wrong as you cannot debate someone else’s experience or feelings. It shifts the paradigm from you versus me and by extension us versus them for it to become a collective we. To empathize, you only need to be willing to learn about the experiences of another to better understand why they feel, think, or behave the way they do.
Yahoo Finance published this video item, entitled “Employee retention and job satisfaction are linked to empathetic leadership, report says” – below is their description.
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