“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” -Maya Angelou
In the world of Digital Transformation and rapid change for businesses, we need to work together and stay connected for continuous success. Work is more human and collaborative than ever before. Human experience journey has become the most relevant factor in the corporate world, it can be a consumer journey, business or internal workforce flow. As time is changing, and the workplace should, too.
A lot of studies have shown that the nature of productivity is varying, from leadership to teamwork, placing a great emphasis on building and maintaining relationships. In the digital world, success is not only related to individuals anymore but rather on complete team. The team’s collaboration barometer is a measure of organizational success. To build high-performance teams, leadership and team members must adopt a strong trait called Empathy.
- Cognitive Empathy (Think) is basically being able to put yourself into someone else’s place and see their perspective. In other words, it is ‘empathy by the thought’, rather than by feeling.
- Emotional Empathy (Feel) is when you quite literally feel the other person’s emotions alongside them as if you had ‘caught’ the emotions.
- Compassionate empathy (Do) is what we usually understand by empathy: feeling someone’s pain and acting to help.
Empathy is the skill that enables understanding of each other and adapts appropriately so interactions can be effective. Empathy has become a fundamental attribute and a key element of professionalism in the current consumer-driven business environment. In collaborative teams, where success hinges on mutual support, cultivating an environment of understanding and cooperation is essential. When you employ empathy at workplace, you’ll be more aware, more present, and have a better understanding of how to work well with others.
Historically, the work environment was always seen as transactional where the left hemisphere of the brain is always seen as dominant & money considered as the sole motivation of higher productivity. Even though we were using empathy in our day to day lives but at the workplace, it was always missing. These beliefs are slowly changing now. Currency is just one motivator and non-financial factors like purpose, learning, recognition and organization climate are equally important. All these factors part of the mutual relationship of trust and sensitivity essential to attain team goals. And empathy is the foundation of these positive relationships between individuals. It positively enables job performance and improves perceived effectiveness. Research also suggests that purpose-driven individuals amass more wealth compared to those who perceive their lives as devoid of meaning.
Leadership has the biggest role in driving cooperative culture. When leadership increases their awareness and understanding of empathy (particularly in their cultural context), they can identify actions they can improve and conditions where showing their empathy could make a difference. As leaders hone their empathy skills through listening, perspective-taking, and compassion, they are improving their leadership effectiveness. This results in increased chances of success in building a collaborative environment.
Its important for you to become more informed and aware of the importance of empathy. Only then, you firmly start expanding your relationship and capacity to empathize with your colleagues.
The more aware and skilled you are at practicing empathy at workplace, the more effective your work interactions will become. Communications will be smoother, collaboration more productive, and any conflict more easily resolved.
Photo Credit : By fauxels
