Home ›› 23 Nov 2021 ›› Editorial
It is a Friday night and you are relaxing after a hectic week, reading a good book when your phone rings. It is a close friend calling in a panic because she’s just lost her job. “Don’t worry, you’ll find another soon,” you say, “besides, you knew your company was having financial problems, didn’t you expect this? Why are you so upset now?” There’s a stunned silence on the other end of the line, followed by a dropped call. You did not show any empathy. You thought you were trying to comfort her, so what went wrong? Without first empathizing with her, and listening to her concerns, you might have done more harm than good. So, what is empathy? It’s the ability to understand another person’s thoughts and feelings in a situation from their point of view, rather than your own. It differs from sympathy, where one is moved by the thoughts and feelings of another but maintains an emotional distance. Empathy is an enormous concept. The word empathy comes from the German word “Einfühlung”, coined in the late 1800s, which might broadly translate as “feeling into”. But as psychologist Judith Hall of Northeastern University wrote “empathy is a fundamentally squishy term”. Some see it as the ability to read their fellow human beings, or simply feeling connected to people, while others see it as more of a moral stance about showing concern for others. Even researchers disagree when they are studying it.
Paul Bloom, a psychologist at Yale University, defines empathy specifically as the act of stepping into someone’s mind to experience their feelings – and it’s this that he takes issue with. “Even in this narrow sense, empathy might seem like an obvious force for good. Common sense tells us that experiencing someone else’s pain will motivate us to care about and help that person,” he writes. However, it leads to some tricky moral dilemmas. In one study, undergraduates were told about a fellow student in the next room, who was in the running for a cash prize in a mathematics contest against another competitor. The undergraduates were given the opportunity to force that competitor to eat distracting hot sauce before the contest. When empathy for the student was ratcheted up, by emphasising she was struggling financially, people were more likely to give a greater dose of hot sauce to innocent opponent.
Renowned psychologists Daniel Goleman and Paul Ekman have identified three components of empathy: Cognitive, Emotional and Compassionate. We will briefly discuss them below. By learning how to empathize with your friends, coworkers, and those around you, using these three types of empathy, you build stronger relationships and trust.
Asking what the other person would do. When in doubt, ask the person to explain his or her position. This is probably the simplest, and most direct, way to understand the other person. However, it’s probably the least used way to develop empathy. The capacity for empathy varies from one person to the next. Not surprisingly, the extent of your own emotional intelligence plays a critical factorto know what you’re feeling to accurately label and name different emotions with precision to use your emotions to inform your thinking. The more connected you are to your own emotions, the greater your ability to feel for others. Again, once you realize that empathy has a cognitive component, this makes perfect sense. It should come as no surprise that research shows adolescents who consider friendships and social connections as important, and are “embedded” in their social networks, are more likely to display empathy than those who don’t and consider themselves outsiders.
Emotional intelligence is the ability to identify and manage your own emotions and the emotions of others. It is generally said to include three skills as discussed earlier. The ability to harness emotions and apply them to tasks like thinking and problem solving the ability to manage emotions, which includes regulating your own emotions and cheering up or calming down other people. To sum up, the key point to make by developing an empathic approach is the most significant effort you can make toward improving your people skills. When you understand others, they will probably want to understand you – and this is how you can start to build cooperation, collaboration, and teamwork. It It is critical for companies to hire and develop more effective managers and leaders capable of moving their organization forward during both good and challenging times. That requires looking beyond traditional strategies for management development and cultivating the skills most important for success. One of those skills, perhaps unexpectedly, is empathy — a vital leadership competency.
Empathetic leadership means having the ability to understand the needs of others, and being aware of their feelings and thoughts. Unfortunately, it has long been a soft skill that’s overlooked as a performance indicator. Our research, however, has shown that today’s successful leaders must be more “person-focused” and able to work well with people from varying teams, departments, countries, cultures, and backgrounds. managers who practice empathetic leadership toward direct reports are viewed as better performers in their jobs by their bosses.
The findings were consistent across the sample: those managers who were rated as empathetic by subordinates were also rated as high performing by their own boss. The ability to be compassionate and connect with others is critical to our lives, both personally and professionally. Demonstrating empathy in the workplace — a key part of emotional intelligence and leadership effectiveness- also improves human interactions in general and can lead to more effective communication and positive outcomes, in both work and home settings. Empathy is the ability to perceive and relate to the thoughts, emotions, or experiences of others. Those with high levels of empathy are skilled at understanding a situation from another person’s perspective and reacting with compassion.
Empathy in the context of the workplace simply means that your people are able to establish true, empathetic connections with one another that enhance relationships and performance.
It’s important to remember the difference between sympathy and empathy, as the two are often confused. Sympathy is typically defined by feelings of pity for another person, without really understanding what it’s like to be in their situation. Empathy, on the other hand, refers to the capacity or ability to imagine oneself in the situation of another, experiencing the emotions, ideas, or opinions of that person. Empathy in the workplace is often more productive and supportive.
Video conferencing, emails, and remote working have become not only the norm, but the expectation of 2020. We’ve replaced in-person interactions and fully immersed ourselves in the online world. Empathy is the ability to understand and relate to the feelings of others. Specifically in business, empathy is an aspect of emotional comprehension, a staple for great leadership. Having strong empathic tendencies has been linked to stronger relationships, reduced anxiety, and noteworthy collaboration between team members. It might seem like a basic human trait but this sense of compassion has to be constantly nurtured, something a little more complicated to do through an email.. During any conversation, the brain takes in new information and sends out impulses for what to say and do, while monitoring ones exchanges by discouraging emotional impulses that might lead the interaction in a negative way. Online communication is very different; in-person social cues we are accustomed to get lost. Instead, we are forced to gamble on cognitive empathy, and respond solely on the information provided. It’s much harder to convey your emotions- an important aspect in building strong relationships.
Though emails and text messages are appropriate for giving and receiving information, there is a natural adversity to these forms of communication. Positive online correspondence typically comes across as indifferent to the reader, while emails that senders identify as neutral generally come across as unfriendly. In an effort to counteract these effects, exchanges should be more personable. By purposefully connecting with individuals, we can reduce miscommunication and develop stronger, more productive relationships.
To put it simply, be brave enough to recognize what the people around you are dealing with in their lives. We all have our own individual stories with different highs and lows, so challenge yourself to see, hear, and accept what you don’t know. This might result in an apology, a celebration between co-workers, or the cultivation of a new relationship; be open to any and all possibilities. The world has changed and leaders need to adapt. Mental health, stress and burnout are now perceived as responsibilities of the organization. The failure to deploy empathy means less innovation, lower engagement and reduced loyalty, as well as diluting your diversity agenda. The good news is that leaders can fix this. You need to show your commitment to empathy; measure progress and implement a series of nudges that will stimulate an empathy revolution. The time is now.
The writer is MD and CEO of Community Bank. He can be contacted at masihul1811@gmail.com
