Importance of Empathy in Management

Good management takes its employees along with it to where it aspired the company to reach. One of the indispensable qualities that play a key role in successfully accomplishing this is – Empathy. Studies done on management found that employees are happy with management that shows empathy towards their feelings.

Empathy ExemplifiedSo what exactly is empathy? Is this same as the term that we hear too often – Sympathy?

Nope, it is not.

Consider this scenario. You go to a doctor who treats you and says you will be fine after the treatment. He gives courage with some good words and assures you that nothing wrong is going to happen.

Now imagine you are hospitalized and your nurse keeps assisting you in your daily chores. She ensures that you are at your most comfortable level and instills that feeling of being cared in you.

Here it comes. What the doctor did to you is purely out of sympathy. He did not feel your pain. He did not feel your suffering. The nurse felt your pain. She wore your shoes and did her best to reduce your pain. That is empathy.

Sympathy is just showing the feeling of compassion towards others. Empathy is understanding their pain by stepping into their shoes. This is the thin line between them.

Why Empathy in Management?

Now that we understood – Empathy is forming a personal understanding with the other person; while sympathy is witnessing their experience and responding accordingly, let us understand why empathy is necessary for management.

A workplace is inarguably a conglomerate of various groups of people differing in – personal backgrounds, family culture and traditions, habits, difficulties, experiences, etc. Not every time that rules and regulations that have been drafted on the paper help in bringing out the best out of your employees.

In situations such as interviews and meetings, it is common that different ideas come up. Chances of idea collision and disagreement may also arise. After all – opinions, ideas, and thoughts of people do vary with their upbringing and past experiences. Thus, inculcating the quality of empathy helps in understanding others better. Once you have this quality, you can analyze what makes the other person talk in that way.

Management cannot afford to lose a talented employee just because of some mismatch in opinion or thought. Here’s where the necessity of empathy for management arises.

Motivational speaker Oprah Winfrey says, "Leadership is all about empathy. It is having the ability to relate to and connect with people for the purpose of inspiring and empowering their lives."

How Empathy Helps the Management?

Better Work CultureMaintaining a good work culture and workplace is the secret behind the growth of any company. This is what Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Google opines in his book Hit Refresh, is the key behind the great work culture in the company. The foremost ingredient he attributes this success to is – Empathy.

Building TrustEmpathy helps in understanding your employees from their personal level. It helps in strengthening and maintaining good relationships among the employees, and between the employees and the management. This leads to trust in the company and ultimately the company grows!

Enhanced ProductivityEmployees feel valued and cared when management treats them with empathy. Employee satisfaction increases and hence the they take the feedback given to them in a positive spirit and start working towards overcoming them. This obviously leads to better teams and better productivity.

Blaming employees for failures often discourages them in bringing out their best and they stop being innovative. Management with empathy never blames an employee for failures. It guides and helps them to rectify their errors and drives them towards better productivity. As a result, an employee feels more responsible and show hancedoutput next time.

Other Aspects of Management That Improve with Empathy

Empathy can make a lot of difference in many aspects of management. Some of them are:

Choosing the Right candidateBy thinking empathetically, you understand the candidate sitting in front of you much better. You can identify their real potential and comprehend their ideas and words better. Thus your company paves way for better talent and passion.

Better Customer SatisfactionIt’s not just employee-management relation that betters with empathy. A management that has empathy can enjoy better company-client relation too. It can understand the needs of customers as well as clients well and build a good trust base in them too.

Gains Investors’ TrustDealing with investors is crucial for the growth of any company. Once the company is proven to be the one with good work culture and trust levels among the teams and employees, investors automatically hold a positive opinion about the company. Also, dealing with investors in person and winning their confidence becomes easy once the management deals with empathy.

Sales and Customer Service ProsperBoth these divisions need to deal with different people on a day-to-day basis more than any other teams of a company. Once the management has empathy, it will know what to drive into the customer according to the latter’s needs, rather than forcing the customer to buy.

Customer service executives would also be able to step into the customer’s shoes and serve them better, if once they practice empathy. This builds a positive customer feedback to the company.

Brand Value Remains ForeverA company thriving on empathy can undoubtedly beat all other competitors who run the business just for the sake of profits and have high attrition rates too. It will remain in the hearts of employees, customers, clients, and all other stakeholders forever! That’s what corporate giants such as Microsoft and Google have proved!

Empathy drives connections; strengthens trust and prospers a company.

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