The Empathy Magazine

What do we need to know about empathy?

“It lives and breathes if we let it, and can transform our lives.”

“The pandemic and other stressful events over the past few years have only made empathic communications even more desirable and necessary, especially as those expressions have become more virtual — including videos, social media posts, and emails. But just as each of us has varying levels of empathy, not every leader is equally empathic. So is a lack of natural empathy a showstopper when it comes to expressing and benefitting from empathic communications? No. The good news is that all leaders (even those who are not naturally empathic) can communicate messages of empathy as powerfully as they convey messages of unity and accountability. During challenging times, the most effective leadership communications are ones that deliver attention, acknowledge distress, demonstrate care, and — not necessarily at first, but eventually — take appropriate action to mitigate the situation or at least provide comfort.” Harvard Business Review

“Every leader should take advantage of engaging into the skill of empathy in action – it is a powerful tool that creates deeper emotional intelligence skills.”

Stephen Fahey

What do you do first thing in the morning when you wake up? Do we wash and eat breakfast? Do you mean studying empathy for 5 minutes in a textbook while sitting on the toilet? Yes, of course. Even though I'm being silly here, it gets you thinking about the power of empathy in your daily lives. It is a skill that once mastered well can bear a lot of fruit. And I don`t mean planting an apple tree in your backyard and only getting 12 decent apples in the year. I mean laughing and singing our way to work daily knowing that we have the wonderful skill of empathy in action at our fingertips.

My definition of empathy in action is as follows: Being there for someone, whether at work or home, to ascertain an emotional feeling of pain - to learn more about their situation, and help them in some way" (Fahey, 2022).

EMPATHY Is The Most Important Leadership Skill.

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Leading with Empathy Leaders can demonstrate empathy in two ways. First, they can consider someone else’s thoughts through cognitive empathy (“If I were in his/her position, what would I be thinking right now?”). Leaders can also focus on a person’s feelings using emotional empathy (“Being in his/her position would make me feel ___”). But leaders will be most successful not just when they personally consider others, but when they express their concerns and inquire about challenges directly, and then listen to employees’ responses.

Leaders don’t have to be experts in mental health in order to demonstrate they care and are paying attention. It’s enough to check in, ask questions and take cues from the employee about how much they want to share.

Leaders can also be educated about the company’s supports for mental health so they can provide information about resources to additional help.

Forbes

Types Of Empathy

Affective empathy involves the ability to understand another person's emotions and respond appropriately. Such emotional understanding may lead to someone feeling concerned for another person's well-being, or it may lead to feelings of personal distress.

Somatic empathy involves having a physical reaction in response to what someone else is experiencing. People sometimes physically experience what another person is feeling. When you see someone else feeling embarrassed, for example, you might start to blush or have an upset stomach.

Cognitive empathy involves being able to understand another person's mental state and what they might be thinking in response to the situation.

This is related to what psychologists refer to as the theory of mind or thinking about what other people are thinking.

www.verywellmind.com

Photo by Connor Vaughan

Photo by JAY MID IMAGE

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