Cultivating Empathy In The Workplace
๐๐ข๐ฅ๐๐ฉ๐๐ฎ ๐๐จ ๐ฃ๐ค๐ฉ ๐๐ช๐จ๐ฉ ๐๐๐ค๐ช๐ฉ ๐จ๐ฉ๐๐ฅ๐ฅ๐๐ฃ๐ ๐๐ฃ๐ฉ๐ค ๐จ๐ค๐ข๐๐ค๐ฃ๐ ๐๐ก๐จ๐โ๐จ ๐จ๐๐ค๐๐จ, ๐๐ฉโ๐จ ๐๐๐ค๐ช๐ฉ ๐ง๐๐๐ก๐๐ฏ๐๐ฃ๐ ๐ฉ๐๐๐ฎ ๐ข๐๐ฎ ๐๐๐ซ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ง๐๐ฃ๐ฉ ๐จ๐๐ค๐๐จ ๐๐ก๐ฉ๐ค๐๐๐ฉ๐๐๐ง. – Anonymous
Faculty from Northwestern University – Kellogg School of Management shared five tips for cultivating empathy in the workplace. These are:
1. Empathy in the workplace begins at the top
2. Beware the empathy gap
3. Really, beware the empathy gap
4. Different people empathize differently
5. Be empathetic, but also be fair
๐ช Establishing a culture of compassion and honesty must start from the top. Leadership behaviors are mirrored by managers and employees. Senior leadership needs to practice what they preach or risk cynicism among group members.
๐๐ป Leaders can incorporate more empathetic attitudes into the workplace by asking open-ended questions, providing psychological safety to answer them, and avoid scapegoating or blaming.
For better or worse, things go wrong at work. However, making room for empathy is understanding that someone elseโs motivation is not wrong, rather it is just different. Or, that well-intentioned efforts need time to rectify the issue instead of firing the worker.
๐ฏ Intention varies from impact; not every arrow hits the target.
Group workers are very sensitive to fairness and justice in the workplace.
Witnessing bullying or exclusion affects the witnessesโ moods as well as creating social pain.
๐ญ The โempathy gapโ is the difference between how physiologically, mentally and emotionally painful social exclusion feels for the target versus how much others think it feels.
๐ฉ The pain is so deep, responses from that employee may seem more sensitive than expected at other times.
Empathy and concern can look different to different people. Empathy has a broad description of actions depending upon whom you ask.
๐ Empathy succeeds when it is shared in a manner that benefits the recipient rather than the giver.
Being empathetic at work does not mean allowing ethical lapses. Yes, we can experience stress and feel burned out or depleted. However, company policies and procedures must be followed to provide equity to all employees.