Empathy enables you to know if the people you’re trying to reach are actually reached. It allows you to predict the effect your decisions and actions will have on core audiences and strategize accordingly.
Without empathy, you can’t build a team or nurture a new generation of leaders. You will not inspire followers or elicit loyalty.
Prudy Gourguechon, Senior Contributor forbes.com, Dean at Chicago Psychoanalytic Institute; Principal, Invantage Advising
takeaways of note:
Essentially, EMPATHY is…
1 – a neutral tool that enables us to understand the human environment within which we are operating… thus making better predictions, crafting better tactics, inspiring loyalty & communicating clearly.
2 – the ability to understand another person’s experience, perspective & feelings… but make sure to assess how they would feel in their shoes, not how you would feel in their shoes. This is the tricky part.
3 – don’t confuse empathy with making people happy or being nice.
Can empathy be LEARNED? Yes, to some degree . . .
1 – the capacity for empathy is an innate human trait – thus, there is a spectrum of strength & weakness.
2 – if you’re naturally low on the empathy scale, at least acknowledge you have this deficiency and that there is a cost to it.
3 – learn to check yourself and do what does not come naturally: before you act, think of the people who will be affected and what your action will mean to them…. and remember to not just recognize but care about that impact on others.