Now more than ever, it’s important for leaders to pause and address the effects national events have had on society and the scars it has left. Our nation is stricken with grief, anger and confusion. As leaders, it’s crucial to consider how you, your cohorts and employees can positively contribute to the well-being of others and practice empathy. 

What Does It Mean To Be an Empathetic Leader? 

While empathy is one of the most important qualities a leader can have, it's often underestimated. The truth is, an empathetic leadership style brings great benefits that can leverage a company’s success.

In order to appreciate the role empathy plays in leadership, we first need to establish a clear understanding of what empathy means.

Empathy is being able to understand the needs of others. It means that you’re aware of their feelings and how it impacts their perception. It doesn’t mean you have to agree with how they see things. Instead, being empathetic means that you’re willing and able to appreciate what the other person is going through.

Soft skills allow you to relate to others. Companies and employers evaluate your soft skills to predict how you'll relate and interact with others in the workplace. Common soft skills include your personality, attitude, flexibility, teamwork, communication, manners and empathy. 

Why Is Empathy So Important To Possess as a Leader? 

At first glance, this may be seen as superficial but there are tangible benefits to understanding what those around us need, as opposed to what we perceive is required.

Indeed, leaders who take the time to understand the needs of their employees can provide them with the support they require to press ahead, to deal with the challenges or issues that might be holding them back from achieving their goals. 

With it, we feel safe in our work environment and without it, we function at lower productivity.

In our book, Persuade, we refer to the Safety Net Example: by adding a net to catch the construction workers that were building the golden gate bridge, they not only saved lives but also increased productivity and ended up ahead of schedule and below budget. 

An empathic workplace is one where we are more comfortable voicing our opinion which leads to more creativity and innovation, more likely to support teammates so that the organization takes on a collaborative approach, etc.

By understanding and providing employees with what they need to succeed, leaders can build a sense of trust, thereby strengthening the relationships they have with their employees. Consequently, the relationships employees have with one another lead to greater collaboration, improved productivity and greater employee satisfaction along with improving individual and company performance.

Demonstrating empathy is hard; it takes time and effort to demonstrate awareness & understanding. It’s not always easy to understand why an employee thinks or feels the way they do about a situation. It means putting others ahead of yourself which can be a challenge in today’s competitive workplace. Many organizations are focused on achieving goals no matter what the cost to employees.

How Do I Become an Empathetic Leader?

To develop empathy, try listening to someone else without any focus on how you will respond. Indeed, empathetic people listen attentively to what you’re telling them, putting their complete focus on the person in front of them and not getting easily distracted by their phone or laptop.

They spend more time listening than talking because they want to understand the difficulties others face, all of which help to give those around them the feeling of being heard and recognized. Additionally, pay more attention to both the verbal and non-verbal cues that are a part of everyday communication. 

This goes for bosses and managers as well. Let your employees know up front that you'll be listening and if you take a moment to respond, you are just totally focused on them. Eliminate all distractions. No matter how interested you are at first, listen intently, and as you do, think about where they're coming from, how they feel, what it would feel like to be them at this moment, etc. It takes practice but listening in this way will help you connect with the other party along with developing your empathy skills.

The most effective empathy is when you're both willing to truly listen and put yourself in their shoes, but then, also take advantage of the fact that you're less emotionally attached to be able to do something about it.

Many managers and bosses struggle with what we call the “empathy gap,” meaning we're state-dependent, so, when we're happy it's hard for us to understand what it's like to be in a bad mood, and vice versa. And the same occurs with other people – if we're in a great mood and our colleague is in a bad mood, it's very difficult to truly understand what it's like and be empathetic. Keep this in mind when you communicate with colleagues.

Demonstrate empathy and communicate that it's important to you as a leader. One of the main responsibilities of leadership is defining the long-term vision you have for the organization and establishing some short-term goals for your employees to attain in order to transform your plans into reality.

However, what distinguishes average to mediocre leaders from those who excel at leading others is how the latter group understands that their focus shouldn’t be simply directed to whether goals are achieved or not. Rather, their focus is also on fulfilling the collective purpose of creating something meaningful.

To accomplish this, leaders need to understand the inner purpose that drives each of their employees and align that with their organization’s goals. This requires that leaders be more open about their ideas and thinking and ask their employees about their thoughts on it. By spending more time learning about the needs of their employees, leaders can set the tone and approach taken by their employees to achieve their organization’s goals.