[NFBOH-Cleveland] Empathy as a Leadership Skill

[Suzanne Turner]

Empathy as a Leadership Skill

By Nancy Martin

 

               Ever since I spoke at the Ohio’s National Federation of the
Blind conference in October, I have seen several articles and blog posts
regarding the power of empathy in the workplace.   The fact that empathy may
be today’s “hot topic” is coincidental to this value being the topic of my
recent presentation and has been top of mind for me over the last few years
for both business and personal reasons. 

 Most recently, thoughts and observations I was having about empathy were
validated in the book called Hit Refresh:  The Quest to Rediscover
Microsoft’s Soul and Imagine a Better Future for Everyone by Satya Nadella,
the CEO of Microsoft.   In his book, Nadella declares that empathy makes you
a better innovator.  He states, “If I look at the most successful products
we [at Microsoft] have created, it comes with that ability to meet the
unmet, unarticulated needs of customers.”  He states that some of
Microsoft’s best-known products have empathy at their core and he discusses
having a company culture which is “learn-it-all” rather than “know-it-all”
in addition to a deep sense or intuition about the needs of its consumers.
He believes that the source of this intuition is a deep sense of empathy.

A formal definition of empathy by Webster is “the action of understanding,
being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the
feelings, thoughts, and experience of another of either the past or present
without having the feelings, thoughts, and experience fully communicated in
an objectively  <https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/explicit>
explicit manner; also : the capacity for this.”  Another common explanation
is the ability to identify and understand another’s situation, feelings and
motives. It's our capacity to recognize the concerns other people have.
Empathy means: putting oneself in the other person's shoes or seeing things
through someone else's eyes.

The author, Brené Brown explains empathy as a driver of connection. It is a
bonding agent that strengthens relationships. It is one human being
connecting with another, acknowledging a person’s circumstance without
diminishing or rationalizing it. Empathy is an acknowledgement without
judgment.  Human connection is fueled by empathy.  Would you feel a sense of
belonging if your bosses and co-workers were willing to learn from your
perspective?  Cooperation and a sense of belonging can improve an employee’s
sense of wellbeing, as well as encourage productivity and creativity.

A few weeks ago I came across a bumper sticker that said “I am not good at
empathy.  Will you settle for sarcasm?”  The humor in this bumper sticker
led me to feel the slight unease that many people feel when a term such as
“empathy” is used in a business environment.  Notions of touch-feely spring
to mind and that is why it is refreshing to see that the CEO of one of the
world’s most successful companies, technological no less, is discussing this
attribute as an important corporate value.   A couple of years ago, at
Medical Mutual of Ohio, we created a small department called “Care
Navigation and Peer Support.”  The aim of the employees in this department
was to assist our customers in navigating our health care delivery system,
whether their obstacles were physical, financial or social.  Empathy was one
of the most important attributes we were seeking in our job candidates, as
well as experience in social work or customer service.  Through this
experience, I have learned that the trait of empathy is innate in some
people, but if it is not, it is a talent or skill that can be consciously
cultivated and put into practice.   

Some folks might think of empathy as a motivation that makes you donate, or
volunteer, or do another good deed.  But empathy is more powerful than that.
Active use of empathy, whether innate or practiced, opens up minds to think
about other people’s perspectives.  At our company, empathy allows our care
navigators to create bonds of trust with our customers; it allows our care
navigators to have insights into what our customers may be feeling or
thinking and therefore helps us understand how people are reacting to
situations regarding their health.  Through this insight, we are better
positioned to assist our members with informed decision-making or motivate
them to take important steps to improve their health.

There are numerous studies that link empathy to business results. They
include studies that correlate empathy with increased sales, with the
performance of the best managers of product development teams and with
enhanced performance in an increasingly diverse workforce. A few of these
studies can be viewed on the site of  <http://eiconsortium.org/> The
Consortium for Research on Emotional Intelligence in Organizations. The
capacity to empathize, the ability to imagine oneself in someone else’s
position, to imagine what someone is feeling, what makes them tick is an
attribute that cannot be outsourced or automated, and yet is increasingly
important to business.

Empathy is also particularly critical to leadership development in this age
of young, independent, highly marketable and mobile workers. In a popular
Harvard Business Review article entitled "
<https://hbr.org/2004/01/what-makes-a-leader> What Makes a Leader?", Dr.
Daniel Goleman isolates three reasons why empathy is so important: the
increasing use of teams, (which he refers to as "cauldrons of bubbling
emotions"), the rapid pace of globalization (with cross cultural
communication easily leading to misunderstandings) and the growing need to
retain talent. "Leaders with empathy," states Goleman, "do more than
sympathize with people around them: they use their knowledge to improve
their companies in subtle, but important ways."

Empathy, then, is an ability that is well-worth cultivating. It's a soft,
sometimes abstract tool in a leader's toolkit that can lead to hard,
tangible results. But where does empathy come from? Is it a process of
thinking or of emotion? From my perspective, I believe that it is both: We
need to use our reasoning ability to understand another person's thoughts,
feelings, reactions, concerns, motives. This means truly making an effort to
stop and think for a moment about the other person's perspective in order to
begin to understand where they are coming from: And then we need the
emotional capacity to care for that person's concern. Caring does not mean
that we would always agree with the person, but it does mean that we would
be in tune with what that person is going through, so that we can respond in
a manner that acknowledges their thoughts, feelings or concerns.

So let’s get back to the question of developing the skill of empathy.  Can
you teach someone to be empathetic?  We all know some people who are
naturally and consistently empathetic, usually people who can easily forge
positive connections with others. They are people who use empathy to
engender trust and build bonds. But even if empathy does not come naturally
to some of us, I firmly believe that we can develop this capacity.

Here are a few practical tips you might consider to help you do this:

1.	Listen – truly listen to people. Listen with your ears, eyes and
heart. Pay attention to others' body language, to their tone of voice, to
the hidden emotions behind what they are saying to you, and to the context.
2.	Don't interrupt people. Don't dismiss their concerns offhand. Don't
rush to give advice. Don't change the subject. Allow people time to complete
their thoughts and communicate their needs and feelings.
3.	Use people's names.  Take a personal interest in people by showing
genuine curiosity about their lives.
4.	Be fully present when you are with people. Don't check your email,
look at your watch or take phone calls when someone drops into your office
to talk to you. 
5.	Smile at people.  Keep a mirror at your desk and get in the habit of
smiling at people when you are talking on the phone.
6.	Encourage people, particularly the quiet ones, when they speak up in
meetings. A simple thing like an attentive nod can boost people's
confidence.

Empathy is an emotional and thinking muscle that becomes stronger the more
we use it. Try some of these suggestions and watch the reactions of your
co-workers and customers.  

 

 

 

 

Suzanne Hartfield-Turner, President

NFBOH-Cleveland

P: (440) 462-9755

A: PO Box 141077

Cleveland, Ohio 44114

E: President.NFB.ClevelandOhio at Gmail.com
<mailto:President.NFB.ClevelandOhio at Gmail.com> 

 

The National Federation of the Blind knows that blindness is not the
characteristic that defines you or your future. Every day we raise the
expectations of blind people, because low expectations create obstacles
between blind people and our dreams. You can live the life you want;
blindness is not what holds you back.

 

 

 

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