CRAFTING BETTER STRATEGY:
WHY EMPATHY MATTERS
Empathy is increasingly a valuable skill for chief strategy officers, notes this opinion piece by Mark Leiter, chairman of Leiter & Company, a consulting and investment firm aiming to raise the performance of business-tobusiness organizations. He is the author of the book, Crafting Strategy in an Accelerating World. In this opinion piece, he notes that “the effective strategist has a natural platform for encouraging the team to pause, reflect, and step back — even for just a few moments — to consider the broader implications of upcoming decisions.” o you ever have days when you are just utterly exhausted by the escalating pace and unpredictability of business? If this sounds familiar, then you have my empathy. As a member of Strategy 50 — a global community of chief strategy officers — I’ve spent years comparing notes with fellow members on how strategy development is evolving in an accelerating world that is moving forward with far greater velocity and volatility. Last year, I took these conversations a step further and conducted a research project with the community to examine this topic in more detail. Participating corporations ranged from $2 billion to over $200 billion in revenues. The chief strategy officers addressed issues spanning a wide range of sectors, including industrial glass, power grids and railroads through to automobiles, electronic payments, stock exchanges and open-source software solutions. One surprising theme emerging from these discussions was the increasing value and importance of empathy to the strategist. Why is this surprising? Strategists are traditionally hired for their IQ over their EQ. Back in my McKinsey & Company days, when we interviewed prospective consultants we assessed “intellectual horsepower,” “problem-solving skills,” “conceptual thinking,” and “quantitative reasoning skills.” Demonstrated capacity for empathy — the ability to understand what another person is thinking and feeling through their unique frame of reference — wasn’t tested in any interview. I can’t recall a time when it was even discussed. ceo-mag.com / Spring/Summer 2019
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