Empathy in the Workplace

 Hello Everyone,

I am going to write up a little about a passion of mine and how it should alter your hiring and managing methods: empathy.

We have a hyper competitive environment in the United States where every executive learns the right thing to say and is sure to check those boxes.  I have unfortunately encountered too many executives who just check the boxes for areas such as "Servant Leadership", which they can define in limited fashion but can't practice, and have seen the dire consequences of these failures.

Empathy in the workplace is the single biggest differentiator a manager can bring to add value to the company.

It starts with recruiting and hiring with empathy and a little solution selling:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbeshumanresourcescouncil/2022/05/19/recruiting-with-empathy-how-to-succeed-in-the-war-for-talent/?sh=71899acc468d

Here is a snippet from that:

When was the last time a recruiter called you and said, "I have an opportunity you are going to love." I am? How do you know? You don’t know me. It’s a short-sighted approach that focuses on the what instead of the why. It doesn’t sound like an empathetic approach. Empathy is rooted in recognition and appreciation for the "why." It involves putting yourself in another person’s shoes. When done well, we can better understand and provide solutions.

Here is a nice Medium post I agree with that states we should hire for empathy and train for everything else:

https://medium.com/@ioanabelu/hire-for-empathy-train-for-everything-else-3b434ba06cae

Here is a snippet from that:

We cannot outrun a car, outfly a plane or outsmart a computer; it would be foolish to even try. If a machine can do it better, maybe that’s not where we should try to excel. We can instead choose to focus on that which I cannot imagine will be technologically replicated too soon — empathy, sensorial intelligence, introspection.

So, here we are.

If we know it is important how do we hire for it?

Think of your behavioral questions and look for those with an opportunity for the person to see another viewpoint.  Ask questions such as "when did you not get your way at something you really wanted? How did it come about and how did you handle it?"

Best of luck,

J.W. Gant