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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link="#0563C1" vlink="#954F72"><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal>Empathy as a Leadership Skill<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>By Nancy Martin<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal> <span style='font-size:14.0pt'>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. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-indent:.5in'><span style='font-size:14.0pt'> Most recently, thoughts and observations I was having about <b>empathy</b> were validated in the book called <u>Hit Refresh: The Quest to Rediscover Microsoft’s Soul and Imagine a Better Future for Everyone by Satya Nadella, the CEO of Microsoft. </u> 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.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:13.3pt;text-indent:.5in;line-height:14.65pt;background:#FBFBFB'><span style='font-size:14.0pt'>A formal definition of empathy by Webster is “<span style='color:#3B3E41;letter-spacing:.5pt;background:white'>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 </span></span><a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/explicit"><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:#AE0015;letter-spacing:.5pt;background:white'>explicit</span></a><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:#3B3E41;letter-spacing:.5pt;background:white'> manner; <i>also</i> : the capacity for this.” Another common explanation is the ability to identify and understand another’s situation</span><span lang=EN style='font-size:14.0pt;color:#333333'>, 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.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-indent:.5in'><span lang=EN style='font-size:14.0pt;color:#333333'>The author, </span><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:#4E4E4E'>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.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-indent:.5in'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:#4E4E4E'>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. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-indent:.5in'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:#4E4E4E'>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.</span><span lang=EN style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:ProximaNova;color:#333333'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:13.3pt;text-indent:.5in;line-height:14.65pt;background:#FBFBFB'><span lang=EN style='font-size:14.0pt;color:#333333'>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 </span><a href="http://eiconsortium.org/" target="_blank"><b><span lang=EN style='font-size:14.0pt;color:#0861A2'>The Consortium for Research on Emotional Intelligence in Organizations</span></b></a><span lang=EN style='font-size:14.0pt;color:#333333'>. 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.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-indent:.5in'><span lang=EN style='font-size:14.0pt;color:#333333;background:yellow;mso-highlight:yellow'>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 "</span><a href="https://hbr.org/2004/01/what-makes-a-leader" target="_blank"><b><span lang=EN style='font-size:14.0pt;color:#0861A2;background:yellow;mso-highlight:yellow'>What Makes a Leader?</span></b></a><span lang=EN style='font-size:14.0pt;color:#333333;background:yellow;mso-highlight:yellow'>", 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."</span><span lang=EN style='font-size:14.0pt;color:#333333'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:13.3pt;text-indent:.5in;line-height:14.65pt;background:#FBFBFB'><span lang=EN style='font-size:14.0pt;color:#333333'>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.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:13.3pt;line-height:14.65pt;background:#FBFBFB'><span lang=EN style='font-size:14.0pt;color:#333333'>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.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:13.3pt;line-height:14.65pt;background:#FBFBFB'><span lang=EN style='font-size:14.0pt;color:#333333'>Here are a few practical tips you might consider to help you do this:<o:p></o:p></span></p><ol start=1 type=1><li class=MsoNormal style='color:#333333;mso-margin-top-alt:auto;margin-bottom:9.95pt;line-height:15.95pt;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1;background:#FBFBFB'><span lang=EN style='font-size:14.0pt'>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.<o:p></o:p></span></li><li class=MsoNormal style='color:#333333;mso-margin-top-alt:auto;margin-bottom:9.95pt;line-height:15.95pt;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1;background:#FBFBFB'><span lang=EN style='font-size:14.0pt'>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.<o:p></o:p></span></li><li class=MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst style='color:#333333;mso-margin-top-alt:auto;margin-bottom:9.95pt;margin-left:0in;mso-add-space:auto;line-height:15.95pt;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1;background:#FBFBFB'><span lang=EN style='font-size:14.0pt'>Use people's names. Take a personal interest in people by showing genuine curiosity about their lives.<o:p></o:p></span></li><li class=MsoListParagraphCxSpLast style='color:#333333;mso-margin-top-alt:auto;margin-bottom:9.95pt;margin-left:0in;mso-add-space:auto;line-height:15.95pt;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1;background:#FBFBFB'><span lang=EN style='font-size:14.0pt'>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. <o:p></o:p></span></li><li class=MsoNormal style='color:#333333;mso-margin-top-alt:auto;margin-bottom:9.95pt;line-height:15.95pt;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1;background:#FBFBFB'><span lang=EN style='font-size:14.0pt'>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.<o:p></o:p></span></li><li class=MsoNormal style='color:#333333;mso-margin-top-alt:auto;margin-bottom:9.95pt;line-height:15.95pt;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1;background:#FBFBFB'><span lang=EN style='font-size:14.0pt'>Encourage people, particularly the quiet ones, when they speak up in meetings. A simple thing like an attentive nod can boost people's confidence.<o:p></o:p></span></li></ol><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:13.3pt;text-indent:.25in;line-height:14.65pt;background:#FBFBFB'><span lang=EN style='font-size:14.0pt;color:#333333'>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. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Suzanne Hartfield-Turner, President<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>NFBOH-Cleveland<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>P: (440) 462-9755<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>A: PO Box 141077<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Cleveland, Ohio 44114<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>E: <a href="mailto:President.NFB.ClevelandOhio@Gmail.com">President.NFB.ClevelandOhio@Gmail.com</a><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'>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.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div></body></html>