In almost every role we have in our lives, we need to work with other people – colleagues, managers, customers and others. And to do that effectively, we need empathy.
Empathy helps us connect with others. It’s at the heart of building meaningful, trusting relationships.
Empathy might seem vague or even “unlearnable”, but it’s a concrete capability that we can develop with practice. To empathise, we need to master three key skills:
- perspective-taking
- connection
- compassion.
Why is it useful?
As leaders, we need empathy to engage and inspire the people around us, and influence them when we need to.
There will be times in your leadership journey when you’ll need to put your own perspective aside, and find out what’s going on with someone else. But you’ll need to build rapport and trust before they’ll want to share their view. And you’ll need to show you care.
All that might sound simple, but to apply these techniques intelligently, as needed, moment-to-moment in a pressurised work environment takes conscious practice. Fortunately, Leda is here to help.
