Leadership and Empathy

Posted on August 08, 2024 by Tara Lehman, One of Thousands of Life Coaches on Noomii.

Just like everything else, we need to update and develop our leadership skills. Empathy has fast become a key leadership skill leaders need to have or develop. Empathy does not just mean a basic understanding of employee’s emotions, but it means that we try to connect with employees and use that in order to understand each other better – and leading more effectively.

When it comes to leadership, we have to understand others, how to communicate to be understood and understand, and listen so we can lead more empathetically. We need to understand what others are feeling, what their thoughts may be, how they make decisions, to knowing how to support our employees or others within our organization. Support does not mean you need to be a therapist by the way, it means providing the resources to your team or listening (you will see that word a lot throughout this blog).

Leadership needs to include great communication skills, something you likely know I am passionate about, so we can help our employees feel welcomed to share with us, have an open and honest feedback atmosphere, and encourage collaboration and teamwork. When people feel valued, heard and listened to, the leader to employee relationship changes. We learn more about their needs (perhaps they are left-handed with right-handed scissors) or learn where we may be missing things in our communication or our leadership (do you know your company’s vision, mission and values?). Leaders who understand how to communicate empathetically, will see a difference in employee relationships, or even how you can handle their conflicts, as you now understand that we are all different in our reactions and emotions – some people need space others need a listening ear. Knowing employees a bit better allows you to tailor your approach to conflicts and even disciplinary meetings.

Here are a few key ways to create your leadership empathy:

1 – Listen. Actively listen to your employees – no phones or distractions while they are talking to you. They need to feel heard and they deserve this too.
2 – Ask for feedback on safety, process improvements, new ideas, and your leadership. Then work with your team to make improvements and not a “in one ear and out the other”.
3 – Communicate to be understood and to understand.
4 – Be an inclusive leader (think Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging).
5 – Build a great company culture by leading by positive example.
6 – Continue to build the skills of your team and yourself as a leader.
7 – Take care of yourself and encourage wellness as part of your workplace culture.
8 – Welcome ideas, listen to them, use them and if you can’t use them, tell employees why.

As you move to add empathy into your leadership journey and development, know you are not alone. In some organizations, this is the way to lead and in others, well this is still something to work towards. You can take that step forward by leading by example, walk the talk, listen and then listen some more. Others will follow.

Do you need some help? We have you covered from leadership coaching, training, to our leadership community. You can see all our leadership offerings at www.amplifyingleadership.ca.

Written by: Tara Lehman