If you want to lead a high-performance team, simply develop the skill of empathy that helps create a safe work environment.
The well-known American Entrepreneur website published an article by Angela Cox, in which she talks about that if you want your team to be open, you need to develop the skill of empathy so that you can open up to them and their problems and meet their needs as a leader, and if If you think a manager's job goes beyond helping your team, maybe it's time to rethink your priorities. Leadership requires that you be empathetic with the people who work with you.
Writer Cox says that she tried to solve a problem between her teammates, so she reached out to her manager with a suggestion to solve the problem, but he responded to her request immediately and angrily and said, "I'd like to stay home in my pajamas all day and have my salary mailed to me."
The writer explains that her manager's interaction at work was a sign of his lack of empathy for the team, which really needs a sympathetic and understanding leader, and his lack of openness and compassion on that day indicated that he was not fit to be a leader capable of solving his team's problems.
What does a sympathetic leader look like?
The writer quotes Microsoft CEO Satya Nadala as emphasizing the power and effectiveness of empathy in an interview with Harvard Business Review, where he saw that empathy is not only taking care of the team’s concerns, but also fostering design ideas and innovation and customer service.
The writer points out that the first lesson we received about defining empathy is that it means putting yourself in someone else’s shoes and seeing the world from their perspective, but really powerful forms of empathy do not start and do not stop there, but penetrate all areas of our lives and work, and empathy helps us to stand out. Our presence in the community and our ability to communicate with others and interact with their problems.
A sympathetic proactive leader
The author shows that effective leaders not only seek to solve problems as they arise, but actively seek ways to facilitate their team tasks and remove obstacles that they are likely to face in the future through the skill of empathy, as this type of proactive activity may require doing research around employees to understand their strengths and their challenges, and you may need to put pressure on leaders and tell them that their strategy is not working with their team.
Cox stresses that while the move is difficult, this kind of investment in your employees will improve your team's performance.
An empathetic leader shows a great deal of cognitive empathy
The writer goes on to say that cognitive empathy requires understanding and willingness to deal with the concerns of employees, and emotional empathy is the one that depends on emotion, as someone cries about your pain or feels your anger, this is emotional empathy at work, noting that people can enjoy high or low levels Of both types of sympathy.
She stresses that the best leaders are those with high cognitive empathy and low emotional empathy because this allows them to react empathetically to employees, their feelings and frustrations without getting drawn into emotional outbursts.
A sympathetic leader should be inclusive
In her article, Cox says that empathy means more than just understanding the opposite person's point of view, as it means understanding the needs and thoughts of others, and then helping them find the working ground that best suits them, adding that spending time seeing people as individuals with different needs and motives. Creates security and inclusion that are critical to building an effective team.
A sympathetic leader makes you feel safe
The writer points out that the best leaders are the ones who create safety, cultivate empathy, respect the diversity of their team, and make sure that every employee feels job security and is valued and appreciated for the efforts he makes in the team, stressing that without psychological safety teams will stumble and ultimately fail because their members do not feel Safe enough to sharpen their full forces into action.
The writer concluded by saying that if you want your employees to give their best and you want to encourage innovation and creative thinking and reap the fruits of working in a psychologically safe environment, you should make sure to improve your degree of empathy with others.
According to the author, building empathy as a leadership skill is the single largest investment you can make for yourself, your people, and your organization in a world where compassion has become one of the most important values.