Most professionals become experts in their fields after many years of experience. Leadership is also often learned on the job. More recently, empathy at work seems to have picked up steam as one of the key skills a leader must possess. However, it is not the easiest skill to nail down, especially in today’s global organizations and multi-cultural surroundings.
How are below questions answered in your organization:
What is the role of ‘empathy’ in organizational culture and leadership?
Empathy should not become just a term in management literature or a corporate asset that needs to be quantified. An organization needs a sense of being real. In these times, an organization needs to have real interactions between people.
People need to talk to each other, to understand each other’s point of view, to take decisions, to accept failure and learn and equally not get carried away by success.
Take a family as an example. One member of it may be very successful here or there, but a good family life in the long run is all about combining skills and experience and to align together in joy and sorrow.
Why is empathy at work so difficult?
Success can be misinterpreted. One can believe that the method that helped reach a goal once will always work out just fine. As a result, we repeat that as a best practice. Somewhere in this need to scale success, it’s easy to lose the ability to listen and collaborate and disconnect from each other.
How important do you think ‘internal’ branding is for an organization today? Why must leaders invest in being empathetic?
You can train a person for knowledge and skill but more important is the attitude that one brings to the table each work day. The atmosphere needs to build around honesty, team work and simply being real. You need to bring the right people into a team to make sure your staff is not only commercially successful but also emotionally happy.
What’s a philosophy that everyone can practice in their organization?
A good set of rules that helps navigate various responsibilities across everyone in the team:
1. Do not micromanage. Let the team be independent.
2. Trust the other person to do the job.
3. Learn constantly and help the team learn.
4. Keep experimenting and learn new skills.
Many managers mistake obedience and discipline for passion though you can fulfill all your responsibilities without really caring. For an organization to be and stay healthy the people need to care and empathy is a cornerstone to that.
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