The empathetic leader
In an often anxiety-inducing economic climate, the empathy of executives and managers has a beneficial effect on employee commitment. But that empathy still needs to be applied judiciously. How can we turn empathy into a strategic resource?
Demonstrating empathy is beneficial, as much for ourselves as for our teams. Empathy is a component of the emotional quotient, a more predictive indicator of professional success than the intelligence quotient for many supervisory and leadership roles. More focused studies on compassion—defined as the sincere intention of being beneficial to others—have shown that leaders who demonstrate it are more successful and generate greater commitment within their teams. These leaders who are attentive to the needs of others also report being notably less stressed than their colleagues. Finally, numerous studies have shown that more empathy in the workplace translates into more satisfied, more creative and more mutually supportive employees, into fewer psychosocial risks and into greater resilience.
And yet, empathy is far from being a miraculous cure-all. For while it provides important benefits, it is also demanding. Being attentive to others and taking a concern for their well-being burns up psychic and cognitive energy. Thus, in the care professions in particular, we observe the phenomena of “compassion fatigue”: a form of emotional exhaustion, often a source of distress, which translates into a decline in empathy and commitment. Empathy is not inexhaustible. The more we strive in this direction at work, the less we are able to do so in our private lives. And empathy is not always a good advisor. It can incite us to attach undue weight to the feelings of the people we are faced with, which can lead to our making decisions that are ill-suited, or even unfair to others, if not to the majority. We can therefore understand why it was once considered preferable for managers and decision-makers to leave their emotions at the coat check.
The idea is not to elevate empathy to the pinnacle, but to turn it into a strategic resource. In the first place, we benefit from cultivating its mastery: techniques exist to reinforce our ability to better understand others. The next step is to gain a good understanding of its benefits and limits, in order to deploy it judiciously, for our own good, for the good of those around us, and for greater performance.
In this synopsis:
– Developing your empathy to improve your interpersonal skills
– Shouldering difficult decisions with empathy
– Preserving your emotional energy during difficult decisions
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