Caring

Building a community of professionals that genuinely care for one another helps everyone succeed. 

Transcript

Welcome back to my podcast Scaling Out. 

There was a recent article in Forbes titled "Empathy Is The Most Important Leadership Skill", in covid-times this has really come to the forefront. We all have new stresses, whether we are concerned about our aging parents getting sick or dealing with children now at home in virtual school, whether its the impact being together all the time has on a marriage to the uncertainty of absolutely everything. The Forbes article sighted a study that "67% of people are experiencing increases in stress". Therefore this is directly impacting almost everyone at work. As we all talk about the Great Resignation this year, we have to recognize what keeps our team members together is that we care for each other. We have built a work community to support each other. 

What steps can you take to add empathy to your leadership style? Ill reference the article again, as they provide three key points:

1; practice cognitive empathy - pretend you are in the other persons' shoes to think 

A recent example was a coworker saying no to everything, I placed myself in their shoes to consider that they might be thinking about risk mitigation. Saying YES could put the company at risk of noncompliance. 

2; practice emotional empathy - pretend you are in the other persons' shoes to feel 

In the same example, the coworker might be coming from a position of fear. They are scared of what will happen if they say YES and then dont get the required budgetary support to follow thru on the commitment.

3; express your concerns; inquire and listen

In this example, I listed these potential scenarios to my team member who was directly struggling to work with the always no coworker. This changed our communication strategy to get our coworker back to a Yes.

I chose to use a very professional example here, but the same goes for connecting and empathizing with your coworkers personal challenges as well. Put yourself in their position, express your concern for their wellbeing, and simply be genuine about caring for them.

Thanks for listening in, until next time stay safe everyone!