“Empathy is not just seeing through another person’s eyes. It’s hard work of reflection and understanding how that person observes and experiences the world.” Carl Rogers
What is empathy?
As many as 79% of CEOs admit that being empathetic is a big challenge for them (Businessolver, 2022). Meanwhile, empathy is widely considered one of the most important skills for leaders in the 21st century.
So what exactly is empathy? Empathy is the ability to understand and accept perspectives other than your own. It can be compared to seeing the world through someone else’s eyes. The ability to empathize is being sensitive to the fact that other team members, customers and users all have different needs and values.
Being empathetic is not only understanding the intentions, emotions and thoughts of others, but also putting that information into practice. Empathy is a competency that influences the decisions and actions we take.
Why is empathy important in business?
Empathy enables you to tune in to others and communicate effectively within a team. It not only helps create a good atmosphere in the workplace, but it’s also an important factor in improving business efficiency.
Having a feeling of security and the certainty that you will always be heard fosters creativity. That’s why up to 61% of employees who found their leaders empathetic, were found to be innovative thinkers. By comparison, in organizations where such a style of management was lacking, innovative thinking was only around 13%.
Moreover, there is the question of how much leaders developing the ability to understand the emotions, thoughts and needs of their team members affects employee turnover (Catalyst, 2021). The above statistics illustrate well that empathy is indeed a skill whose presence or absence shows up on financial results.
Today’s challenges related to empathy in companies
The number of employees who perceive their organization as being empathetic has decreased significantly. This is a consequence of the pandemic and the overnight transition to remote work. Upwards of 94% of employees today equate empathy in their company with providing flexible working hours (Businessolver, 2022). For leaders who are trying to be empathetic, this is a real challenge and test. Not only do they have to carefully consider the broad diversity of characteristics of all the people in their team, but they also have to take into account the fact that some people would prefer not to return to the office at all.
Skillful communication plays a fundamental role in remote work. The idea is to convey to an employee, even in the form of a text message, that they are important to the organization. For some employees concerns can be revealed in questions about health or family relations for example. Keep in mind, however, that not everyone wants to answer personal questions. Therefore, messages must always be tailored to the individual preferences of an employee.
How to increase empathy – is there a way to do it?
Regardless of their preferred working mode, employees need to feel that their emotions and thoughts are important and understood. The role of an empathetic leader is important in this. Without this, even the most well-prepared team won’t achieve good results.
However, as many as 77% of executives fear that if they are too empathetic, they will lose the respect of their employees (Businessolver, 2022). This may prove that they do not know how to recognize the preferred management style of their team and are unable to adapt their messages accordingly.
Empatyzer provides practical advice about what to do and what not to do when communicating with specific employees. With this knowledge you can avoid many potentially unpleasant situations, such as being overly informal, crossing lines, breaking taboos or embarrassing someone. Empatyzer makes it possible to achieve empathetic communication even in highly diverse teams.
