Empathy: A Necessity At Workplace
Ever heard the expression: “To put yourself in someone else’s’ shoes? That is a summary of the definition of empathy. Empathy is the action of understanding, and the ability to share someone else’s feelings or experiences by visualising what it would be like to be in that person’s situation.
Showing empathy at work is very important especially if you hold a crucial position in the organisation. This is not to say empathy cannot be shown by everyone at work. It is very easy to get caught up in just performing the duties as the boss alone while turning closed eyes to subordinate’s challenges rather than performing the roles of a true leader.
A leader’s duty is not only to boss the subordinate, in fact, one of the qualities of a true leader is showing empathy. When the work pressure is on leaders they often tend to forget how to feel what their subordinates are truly going through and as earlier said, this is not to say that empathy cannot be shown by the subordinates as well.
The question here is why is empathy necessary at work? Empathy is powerful that it brings social order and cooperation. This is a pointer to why Barack Obama opined, “Learning to stand in somebody else’s shoes, to see through their eyes, that’s how peace begins. And it’s up to you to make that happen. Empathy is a quality of character that can change the world.”
Bringing peace to the work place is essential and that can be achieved with empathy. What Empathy does is; it helps with altruistic behaviour, strengthens relationships, improves mental and physical health as well as also reduce aggression and judgment. It also helps with productivity and job satisfaction.
In the field of psychology, empathy is categorised into; Cognitive Empathy, Emotional Empathy and Compassion Empathy.
Some people fall under the category of the Cognitive empathy. Cognitive Empathy is seeing from people’s perspective when their views are shared. It is nice to see from others perspective but this does not mean you are showing empathy. There is need for those exhibiting the cognitive empathy to grow from this stage.
Another is Emotional Empathy. People who show emotional empathy are able to feel another person’s emotion, which speaks a bit on what empathy is about. Emotional empathy has the positive and the negative side. It is good because you can feel others emotions, it is however bad because you feel so much emotions like the person with a challenge such that you cannot help solve the person’s challenge.
And the last which is Compassion Empathy speaks exactly on what empathy is about. Compassion empathy is feeling the pain of others and taking the necessary actions to help them.
So how do you show empathy to your co-workers?
- By listening when your colleagues are talking and do not talk over them
- Ask questions when in doubt
- Learn not to judge your co-workers
- Act! Do not just listen and do nothing
Empathy is not just feeling people’s pain but it requires looking for ways to help them with whatever challenge they are currently facing. The workplace is not a place to carry out your work duties alone and you do not have to be close to your colleague to feel empathetic towards them.
