Psychologists have identified three empathy types. These are:
- Cognitive empathy – the ability to understand others’ feelings, but not emotionally connecting to them and staying rational.
- Compassionate empathy– the ability to understand others’ feelings and take necessary action.
- Emotional empathy – also known as emotional contagion, which involves ‘catching’ the other person’s feelings to feel them.
Ways To Encourage Empathy in The Workplace
You can enhance empathy in the workplace by:
# Talking About Empathy
Let everyone in your organization know the importance of empathy. Many leaders and managers consider task-oriented skills more effective in controlling their team’s performance. However, studies show that compassion, understanding and developing others are as important, especially in today’s working environment.
# Teaching Listening Skills
To understand others and what they are going through, you must be an active listener. Let others know that they’re being listened to and you’re concerned about their problems. When a leader is a good listener, employees feel respected, which builds trust in the team.
As a leader, ensure you listen keenly to what others are saying by paying attention to their words, body language, feelings, tone and gestures.
# Cultivating Compassion
As an organization, consider managers who care about how others feel and the impact of certain business decisions on employees, clients and the community. Consider going through the standard values and allow time for compassionate reflection and responses.
# Encouraging Genuine Perspective-Taking
Managers should constantly put themselves in other people’s positions. This involves taking into account personal experiences and perspectives. It can also solve problems, manage conflicts or drive innovation. Perspective-taking involves understanding the impact of social identity on yourself and others.
Strategies for Maintaining Empathy in the Workplace
You can cultivate empathy in the workplace by:
a) Involving Employees in Decision Making
– Ensure you involve your employees in the decision-making process when making changes by requesting their input in major business decisions, taking surveys or talking to them.
b) Check-in Regularly
– Start checking in more often and asking your employees how they’re doing. Before getting into business, ensure you connect with them humanly.
c) Show Genuine Interest in Their Goals and Interests
– Where do your employees see themselves in a few years? You can improve their work situation by being keen and developing particular aspects of their responsibility that they take pride in.
d) Have an Open Door Policy
– Having an open-door policy is one of the ways of showing your employees that they’re in an empathetic workplace. If you’re a leader, make your phone numbers and email accessible to your employees. When leaders know they need a team’s effort, impacting the same employees becomes easy.
e) Communicate Effectively and Often
– When leaders communicate effectively and often, it is a good basis for others to follow suit.
f) Be Open Minded
– One way to improve empathy in the workplace is through active listening. Ensure you listen with an open mind to what your team members are saying, feeling and try to understand their perspectives. You don’t have to agree with everything they’re saying, but listening to their point of view is important.
g) Combine Empathy With Compassion
– Authentic relationships are fostered by listening to others without judgment and trying to understand what they’re going through. To maintain empathy, ensure this is implemented by leaders and their employees in the workplace.
h) Understand How Your Choices Affect Others
– Leaders always find themselves in the position of making unpopular decisions. Instead of viewing empathy as a way of ‘being nice,’ try to understand the impact of your choices on others. To sustain empathy, respect your team by giving the honest rationale behind your unpopular decisions.
Benefits of Working in An Empathetic Workplace
The benefits of working in an empathetic workplace include the following:
i) Happy and Healthy Employees
In an empathetic workplace, your stress levels will definitely be low, and you will have a better mental health state.
ii) Sense of Purpose and Belonging
Employees in an empathetic environment feel included and appreciated since they are part of a team working towards achieving similar goals.
iii) Higher Effectiveness and Productivity
Empathetic workplaces provide a safe and supportive environment that enables employees to focus on their work and execute all their tasks.
iv) Sense of Trust and Care
Employees in an empathetic environment are usually relaxed since they know they’re cared for and trust their leaders and colleagues. Knowing that your organization has your back gives you a sense of ease and lets you focus on your work duties.
v) Better Company Outcomes
An empathetic organization has many benefits and putting them together results in better outcomes for the company. Success starts from being an empathetic leader and having an empathetic team that influences their motivation and productivity. The overall outcome of all this is a successful company.
Bottom Line
As we’ve seen, when leaders and managers are empathetic, they create a conducive and friendly working environment which results in the company’s success. Empathetic leaders are an asset to an organization because they can create and maintain healthy relationships, a critical aspect for all organizations worldwide.