ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE - How do you become a more empathetic business leader or manager?
How right was John Lennon when he wrote the song “All you need is love” for The Beatles, way back in the 60s? Since the pandemic, we have had greater needs and crave love and empathy even more these days from our partners, friends, and family. But now, in this post-pandemic era, we expect companies, but especially the managers we work for, to show empathy and love like never before.
We are seeing many HR departments in organizations making well-being a focus for their employees but this is just not enough, this must be accompanied by empathetic leadership.
Vision, inspiration, strategic, critical thinking, communication, and dependability have always been the main leadership traits that were required. Empathy has always been a critical skill that one desires in a leader, but empathy is now fast turning into one of the most important skills to have in modern-day leadership. Although traditional management skills are essential, a higher level of emotional intelligence is required to nurture, motivate and create high-performing teams.
Why is empathy so important as a business leader or manager?
There are a lot of theories, but they all come down to the simple fact that regardless of the job title or position in a company, all of us, managers and team members alike are human beings, and human beings are extremely emotional beasts.
Your ability as a manager to understand the emotions felt by your team members not only enables you to become a more efficient communicator and problem solver, but it also provides you with the biggest asset which is to build rapport, trust, and relationships that fuel team success.
How do you become a more empathetic business leader or manager?
Improving your emotional intelligence is not easy. However empathy is a skill, so all skills can be learned, improved, and developed. With patience, time, and coaching anyone can improve their empathy skills to a level that is guaranteed success.
Here are 5 strategies to help you demonstrate understanding, recognition, and empathy:
1. Be Authentic
One thing is for sure, empathy can’t be forced. If you don't care about your people and how they feel, it will be very clear to them. The only way you can truly win their trust is to be authentic. Strive to develop meaningful relationships with your employees based on trust and transparency.
2. Be a Better Listener
Many people don’t know how to truly listen. Pay attention, don’t interrupt, don’t be distracted, is all that we need to do to become better listeners. Practicing your active listening skills enables you to show your team that you value what they have to say, that you value their opinions and that you value them.
3. Be Self-Aware & Compassionate
You will seldom be able to fully understand you’re people's experiences and journeys – so you need to try to connect to the emotion that they display. Discover how they feel and compare it to when you felt similar. It will also help you to be more compassionate and attuned to the mood of people.
4. Be Motivating
An empowered and motivated employee is a highly effective one. Start making your people feel like they have a voice in the team. Encourage your people to speak up, be innovative, participate, and take on new challenges. Also start to delegate to your people when they are ready, this will help create a sense that their leader trusts and believes in them, and therefore empowers them further.
5. Seek Support from an Executive Business Coach
Incorporating empathy and emotional intelligence into your management style is a skill that can be learned just like any other. While some will do fine following the advice above, others may find it easier to build their skills by seeking expert advice in the form of an executive business coach. Executive Coaching is an efficient, high-impact process that helps high-performing people in leadership roles improve results in ways that are sustained over time.
Final thoughts
When you learn to understand your people better, you will start to have a workforce that trusts you and feels empowered to help the business achieve its goals.
Empathy is often overlooked or seen as a trait that isn’t important in a leader, and some go as far as to say it can make you seem weak. However, this couldn’t be further from the truth, empathy is one of the most valuable traits a leader can demonstrate and have.
Effective leaders are made, not born. However, the best leaders are those who learn to harness their strengths to not just lead but inspire their teams to become the best versions of themselves. Through working with an executive business coach you will master the craft of leadership and learn to lead with passion, purpose, and empathy that ultimately delivers results.
