Empathy in the Workplace

Be it expanding on self-awareness or empathizing with juniors, effective bosses have set guidelines that drive their work.

How do managers express empathy in their leadership role? The examples of “practicing empathy” in a management role are virtually limitless. Certainly empathy is expressed in all of these day-to-day leadership situations and circumstances:

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How do managers express empathy

in their leadership role? 

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Empathy is what everyone wants…to speak to a caring person who can identify with our problem and understand what it feels like to be in that situation.

When you show empathy you can “see” the situation through the eyes of the customer. The customer then feels cared for and valued .

The power of watching and talking to real humans. - One of the core themes of my latest book, Good Boss, Bad Boss, is that the best bosses go to great lengths to develop empathy for both the people they lead and the customers served by their teams and organizations.

Managers and executives sometimes claim to me that just by looking at sales statistics, aggregated demographics stats, and -- now and then -- reading compilations of customer complaints and compliments is enough to understand their customer's needs.

The difference between healthy, unhealthy, and in-between workplace environments is usually tied to how those organizations treat their people.

Treating people uniformly with dignity (esteem, worthiness, honor), respect (regard, admiration, veneration), and compassion (empathy, sympathy, love) is often a prime differentiator.

We could all take a lesson from nurses about being empathetic. Time and again, nurses rate as the most trusted profession. They make people feel safe and cared for.

Even the best nurses, however, can learn tools for improving their empathy. In fact, most people who score high on assessments in the area of empathy often have no idea what they do; they just know that they like people, they enjoy working with and helping people, and they value people as individuals.

In a recent presentation to healthcare professionals on empathy in New York City, the audience concurred that healthcare professionals do exhibit empathy most of the time - to their patients. When asked about the use of empathy with colleagues or with family or even with themselves, the audience seemed pretty certain they could do a better job.

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Even the best nurses, however,

can learn tools for improving their empathy.

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So as I’m diving into research for this workshop on developing empathy in project managers, I’m overwhelmed by Google search results that show me exactly how much stigma and misinformation there is out there on the concept.

Informed solely by the various websites out there, empathy is something best taught to children, hippies, lousy doctors and people with Asperger’s Syndrome.

My idea of EMPATHY is the ability to try to realize how other people feel and adjust one’s behavior to take into account these feelings.

As a marketer or sales person, understanding the feelings and needs of the customer is crucial to making that sale or exchange and for maintaining the long-term relationship. But yet, look at these people and organizations trying and sometimes failing to survive and how they have completely disregarded the concept of empathy.

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how they have completely disregarded

the concept of empathy.

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In Dr. Judith Orloff’s book, Emotional Freedom: Liberate Yourself from Negative Emotions and Transform Your Life, she discusses the benefits – and dangers — of being empathic in the workplace. Here, we talk with her about how to best harness empathy for personal and professional success.

Why does empathy belong in the workplace?

In the book Emotional Freedom, my message is that empathy is the most beautiful quality in human nature. It means that you can put yourself in someone else’s shoes. It’s about having a gut feeling and intuition for how to communicate with others.

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empathy is the most beautiful quality

in human nature.

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