29.07.2024

How to practice leadership with empathy?

Effective leaders are those who have strategy, vision and strong ideas. They inspire and are role models, authentic are and practice behaviors that make everyone feel included.

Globally, leadership training is an industry for 366 billion dollar. That's how much companies invest annually in developing their talents.

At the same time, scholar Jeffrey Pfeffer tracked organizational culture studies for 50 years and consistently found that between 60 and 75% of respondents say the most stressful aspect of their job is their line manager. Thus billions are lost in lost productivity. Why does this dissonance occur?

A look inside

Leaders who fall into routine and thus stray from the path of empathy. In the beginning, they rely more on the completion of given tasks, and subsequently their role requires managing relationships between people. This is when dissonant leaders become more arrogant, cold, and distant, and exhibit insensitive and rude behavior. This causes talent from the team to leave the organization.

It gets to the point where leaders work at high speeds with no time to rest or recover. More focus is placed on gaps or problems, and so negative emotions take over. There is also a moment of self-delusion that the actions are effective, when they really are not.

Empathic Network

A person's brain has a logical side and an emotional side. The ability to analyze, to solve problems and to focus attention falls to the logical side. The emotional side is responsible for creativity, empathy, understanding people and openness to new ideas.

Self-awareness is an important part of empathy. Knowing yourself includes strengths and weaknesses, as well as managing your own emotions. A clear understanding of character traits, values, beliefs, and motivations is also an important part of empathy.

How a person is perceived by others

Part of leadership dissonance also comes from the fact that one cannot always accurately predict how others perceive one. Rarely is time taken to reflect on one's impact on others. If time is invested in making a prediction, but then seeking feedback on whether it is indeed the case, rather than simply assuming it is true, then it is put into practice.