Why Empathy is Important in Leadership

One of the top leadership trends for 2021 is building empathy. As per Entreprenuer.com, the future of leadership is empathy. 

Why is empathy becoming so important in leadership? What impact does it create?

In an organization and team, having empathy is essential. It can be one of the key strength of your organization. 

Here are 6 reasons why empathy is important in leadership 

1 – Builds Strong Relationships

There are two types of leadership: task-oriented leadership and relationship-oriented leadership. Task-oriented is one-way communication, where the leader has a task in hand that he/she wants to get done by their team members. There is no interaction outside that task. There are not a lot of opinions expected from the team member. 

If you want to become a relationship-oriented leader and build strong relationships with your team members, then you need to build empathy skills. 

The second is relationship-oriented leadership. This is a two-way communication, where ideas and thoughts from team members are respected and understood. Also, interactions beyond work are encouraged and established. 

Relationship-oriented leaders create strong bonds with their team members and also build an emotional connection with their team members. 

The core of relationship-oriented leaders is empathy. If you want to become a relationship-oriented leader and build strong relationships with your team members, then you need to build empathy skills. 

Also, remember you still need to hold task-oriented leadership skills as sometimes you would need to use those skills to get the work done with tight deadlines. However, it should reside in the umbrella of relationship-oriented leadership. 

2 – Long Term Productivity 

In most organizations, the general communication with team members is functional and to the point. We communicate less, stick to our work, get the job done and move ahead. We assume this to be productive. Yes, it is productive only for the short term. It does not build long term productivity at work.

Reflect on your experience and think about the time when you had some personal task to take care of. And your manager actually cared about it and granted you space to sort it out. He/She accepted your low productivity for a brief period. 

How did it make you feel? It would surely have increased your commitment to work and the manager. Do you know what happens next? You naturally become more productive, as now you care more about getting the work done. The manager would no longer need to push you every time to get something done. 

The overall productive level of your team will be enormous. And it will reduce your efforts of pushing your team members every time.

This makes you productive for a longer time. Imagine if everyone in your team becomes naturally productive. The overall productive level of your team will be enormous. And it will reduce your efforts of pushing your team members every time.

3 – Creates a Loyal Workforce

We all are social animals. We like to belong to a tribe of our own that understands us and accepts us. And we strive for social acceptance. 

And when a tribe and group accepts us and shows concerns for us, we believe to be part of it. Once you believe to be part of a tribe, it’s difficult to leave the tribe. 

What happens if employees felt that they belong in your organization or in your team? What if they think of your team or organization as a tribe that they are part of?

It will increase your retention rate drastically. It will create a strong loyal workforce. This workforce will become one of your differentiating factor and valuable asset. Just like they say spectators are the 12th man in a football or cricket match, your employees will add additional value to the organisation. 

Empathising with others will build your 12th man force

For this, you need to be empathic to your team members and employees. Thus, showing extra concern, being more acceptive of others, empathising with others will build your 12th man force.

4 – Handling Teams of the Future

Because of the pandemic and the rise of technology like Zoom and others, we have been successfully able to work remotely. This has made the world more connected. 

In the future, your workforce could be from different cultures and geographies. You could be a team leader from India handling members from different countries remotely. Each of them would be from different cultures and will have a completely unique perspective on life and work. 

Managing them will be a challenging task. It’s important to understand each one of their context and perspectives to effectively manage them. For this, you would need to have strong empathy skills so that you are open to various types of perspectives and thoughts. You need to have the ability to align team members to a single goal. 

You need to build empathy skills to be ready to manage the diverse workforce of the future. 

5 – Builds Intrinsic Motivation 

As per a Mckinsey report, when employees are intrinsically motivated, they are 46% more satisfied with their job and 32% more committed to the job.

Intrinsic motivation comes from the inside. You become motivated to do something that is personally rewarding. For eg – playing football because you enjoy the game. 

Intrinsic motivation is the key to building an environment where employees enjoy working. When we show empathy with our team members or employees, they enjoy their work more and they feel more engaged in their job. As they get more into the flow of enjoying the work, they become intrinsically motivated. Thus, increasing their level of commitment and job satisfaction. 

You create the best workplace where you have a combination of extrinsic and intrinsic motivation.

Also remember, extrinsic motivation is equally important as it covers the basic financial and lifestyle needs of the employees. Consider this is as a part of the Masłów hierarchy, where extrinsic motivation is the first 2 layers and intrinsic motivation are the top 3 layers. 

You build a decent workplace and work culture with good extrinsic motivation, but you create the best workplace where you have a combination of extrinsic and intrinsic motivation. 

6 – Stronger Collaboration 

A lot of times, we leaders have to manage internal conflicts and ego clashes within the team. There is always someone in the team who cannot get along with others. There are also a set of people in the team who don’t get along well. Thus, affecting collaboration and reducing efficiency. 

However, if you practise empathy as a core value of the organization, then such problems and issues can reduce significantly. 

Once you have successfully integrated empathy within the leadership team, the next step is to create a culture of empathy within the organization i.e. all employees and team members can show empathy to each other. Also, empathy will help you adapt to the design thinking process in the organization, which is another process that enables collaboration in the organization.

This will reduce the friction between different employees, get people to interact more with each other, and collaborate on projects much more happily and effectively. 

Companies need to make empathy one of the key values of the organization. This will lead to a collaborative, creative, and positive workplace for the future.

POPULAR READ – HOW TO BE AN EMPATHETIC LEADER

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