Leaders who have empathy drastically increase trust, cooperation and problem-solving within their teams.
When empathy in a company is lacking, aggression, anger, fear and other destructive feelings and behaviors begin to emerge. Like
Oftentimes, people confuse empathy with sympathy. Please allow me to illustrate with a brief scenario.
Pretend someone figuratively falls into a deep hole and cannot get out. Sympathy looks like me staying at the top where it’s safe and comfortable while trying to help and encourage the person from above. Empathy looks like me climbing down into the hole with them, actively listening to them, identifying with their deep feelings and allowing them to impact our hearts.
Sympathy is more cognitive and surface-level, while empathy is deeper and more connective.
Nothing builds trust and safety more than an empathetic leader.
