Empathy in leadership is all about understanding the thoughts and behaviours of employees and making an effort to use this knowledge to leverage their abilities in order to help your team succeed as a whole. Expressing empathy as a leader has a number of benefits, including:
Improved collaboration
In 2012, Google embarked on a research project under the name of ‘Project Aristotle’, in order to discover what the key ingredients were to making a successful team. Instead of discovering that the most successful teams were made up of the most intelligent people, the results of the project found that the teams with the highest success rate were made up of people with above-average levels of empathy. Team leaders and employees that can detect specific emotions and read non-verbal cues in others are more likely to address problems that may be affecting their teammates, therefore improving communication and collaboration.
Organisational growth
The most successful organisations are made up of hardworking, talented, positive and open-minded individuals, which can be difficult to find. When business executives create a culture of empathy in the workplace, their organisation becomes more attractive to the brightest minds and the hardest workers, because people want to work in environments where their efforts are recognised and appreciated. A workplace culture founded on compassion reduces staff turnover and attracts viable prospects while boosting employee engagement, therefore driving positive results.
Diverse working environment
In recent years, modern workplaces have become more diverse than ever before. When alternating perspectives are brought together in the same environment, the entire business benefits. However, conflicts that arise due to ignorance and misunderstanding can hinder business growth, and so introducing empathy into the workplace can help you unleash the potential of a diverse working environment. By introducing a culture of empathy into your workplace, you can influence your staff by helping them to understand how different people think and behave and approach it with understanding and compassion in order to value their differences so that they can meet the same end goal.
If you would like to know more about how you can improve your empathy and self-awareness skills to refine your leadership technique, get in touch with our experts at Anthony Gregg Partnership and sign up for our executive coaching service today. Simply give us a call on +44 (0)207 316 3146 or fill in our online form.
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