As a leader, the quality of many people’s lives may be in your hands.
How you handle each individual is a reflection of your leadership style. When people feel seen and heard, trust grows. We spoke about this with Chaya Mistry on one of my radio shows recently. Leading humanly, with your authentic style and a few big spoonfuls of empathy, can go a long way in the business world today.
So why is it that so many leaders choose to lead in a less than human way? Ineffective habits! Old patterns and learned behaviours repeat and come back in to play, unless we consciously make an effort to change them. Empathy is a key that can open many doors!
Stepping up the empathy in the work place will help you:
- Build trust
- Encourage collaboration
- Grow mutual respect
- Develop more effective responses in challenging situations
- Resolve conflict
- Reduce judgement
- Create connection between people who may not have much contact
As one of the most important skills in leadership today, empathy creates psychological safety by building safe spaces for teams and leaders to work together.
Active listening is a concrete and applicable skill to demonstrate your empathic leadership.
Watch this video for some top tips on active listening:
Even in high stress situations, empathy can improve the mood and atmosphere between colleagues, friends and family members! Add some empathic listening to your next conversation and watch the energy change.
Empathy is a quality of character that can change the world.
Barack Obama
Watch this episode of Partner Up! With Amy Carroll featuring Chaya Mistry for more on how to be a human leader!
