Empathy is an essential leadership skill. It allows us to recognise emotions in others, understand other people’s perspective on situations, build more productive teams, and collaborate effectively. Yet this important soft skill is so often neglected in leadership. It doesn’t matter whether you’re managing a team of 1 or 100, practicing empathy is a valuable leadership tool.
Here are our top tips to help leaders practice greater empathy in the workplace:
Being amongst your team
If you want to understand your team more, you have to work closely amongst your team on a day-to-day basis. Being stuck in your own office whilst the rest of your team work in an open plan isn’t going to develop those close knit relationships. You need to be amongst your people.
Get to know your team outside work
Empathy doesn’t just stop at the water cooler. The more you can get to know your team outside of work, the better. Whether that’s taking them for a coffee (without any agenda), or embracing team-building days as a chance to bond, getting to know your team on a personal level is a great way to improve empathy in the workplace.
Treat your team as human individuals
The people in your team are all individuals, and just like us, have a life, passions and interests outside their day-to-day job, and just like the rest of us, they have challenges too. How they show up each day might depend on the morning they’ve just had, how difficult their journey into work was, how well behaved the kids were last night.
A good leader will support the personal and professional growth of their team and understand that to be happy, people need space and opportunity. They should also be someone their team can go to with issues or problems and have someone supportive to listen.
Everyone has a different value system
We are all different in our beliefs, cultural knowledge and understanding, upbringing, and viewpoints, and these drive our attitudes and behaviours. If you’re just joining, or leading a new team, it can be a good idea to learn more about your teams’ personal, cultural or professional backgrounds. This allows you to forge more meaningful relationships, understand their core beliefs and work productively together.
The three pillars of empathy
- Listening: Always be available to listen to others’ viewpoint and don’t be afraid to ask questions to understand their reasoning on a deeper level.
- Openness: Be willing and open to step outside your own emotions to view things from the perspectives of others.
- Understanding: Be accepting that we all think and behave differently, and don’t use your beliefs or thoughts to judge others.
Practicing empathy is a journey, not a destination
Empathy is a soft skill that needs to be practiced and practiced, it’s not always a skill that comes naturally to us, but it is so vital in strong team performance and the overall wellbeing of your employees.
Do you need a helping hand improving empathy in your workplace? Our HR experts can ensure that your employees that are treated well and looked after both physically and mentally so that they perform better, and stay with you longer.
