Empathy: The Most Important Leadership Skill


Tim Cook, Apple CEO, declared to MIT graduates at their 2017 commencement, "People will try to convince you that you should keep empathy out of your career. Don't accept this false premise" (12). In fact, 20% of employers in the U.S. have empathy training for managers, and over 80% of CEOs in one survey stated that empathy was critical for success.


Researchers report that empathy can counter effects of burnout but also spur employee innovation and engagement. Catalyst reports that empathy is positively associated with inclusivity, innovation, performance, innovation, retention, and engagement (4). In addition, empathetic leaders can promote organizational agility in a crisis situation. These positive effects are no small thing for organizations, given that rudeness at work has increased 13% between 1998 and 2016 (3), which can prompt lower performance and lower creativity.


Empathy is the ability to understand others' feelings and a facet of emotional intelligence. It has surged in application to leadership such as in servant and authentic leader styles. Soft skills are grounded in empathy, so it is a basic platform for a leader's growth.


Whether or not empathy is learned or in genetics has been discussed, since children as young as 33 months display its indicators (6), but most research focuses on its development (7), which obviously makes sense in leaders where specific attention to employees is needed and may vary based on the type of work or industry. And it builds on itself once learned. Empathy leads to more empathy and cooperative behavior (8). This suggests that company's investment in empathy training may pay for itself in the longer term. Researchers proposed that the empathy growth process develops in 10 steps (9) A general overview includes development from the follower needing empathy, the demonstration of the empathy by the leader, positive reaction from the follower, lowered follower stress, higher follower satisfaction and performance, back to increased understanding by the leader and more positive interactions.


How is empathy developed? Emotional contagion can be a strong influence (7). Mirrored behavior builds capability, also indicating a work environment built on empathy should persist with continued attention to it. Leaders who are more empathetic use fewer second person pronouns ("you") and found areas of agreement with employees in performance reviews (10). Empathetic leaders are good listeners (11). They form personal bonds and get to know their followers. They also try to put themselves in the follower's place in situations. How would I react if I was in that position?


Topics

Leadership, Empathy, Emotional Intelligence, Leader Development, Servant Leadership, Authentic Leadership


Student Discussion/Assignment Questions

  1. What do we know about cross-cultural aspects of empathy?

  2. Design empathy training based on information online. Make it specific to the students' various job types/industries.

  3. Find a test for empathy online. Take the test and report whether you agree or not. These are likely private issues, so reporting in a paper is best.

  4. Students may wish to argue that empathy is not the most important skill a leader should have. What others are also important? This may relate to other dimensions of Emotional Intelligence.


Sources

  1. https://www.forbes.com/sites/tracybrower/2021/09/19/empathy-is-the-most-important-leadership-skill-according-to-research/?sh=57249ef43dc5

  2. https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/people-and-organizational-performance/our-insights/the-hidden-toll-of-workplace-incivility?cid=soc-web

  3. Academy of Management JournalVol. 50, No. 5ArticlesDoes Rudeness Really Matter? The Effects of Rudeness on Task Performance and HelpfulnessChristine L. Porath and Amir Erez. Published Online:30 Nov 2017

  4. https://www.catalyst.org/reports/empathy-work-strategy-crisis

  5. Clark et al. (2020). Why empathy is a superpower in the future of work. Catalyst.

  6. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/05/180515105634.htm Attentive adults increase children's ability to empathize 2018 Lund University

  7. Heyes C. ( 2018 ). Empathy is not in our genes . Neurosci. Biobehav. Rev . 95 , 499 – 507

  8. Evolution of empathetic moral evaluation . Evolutionary Biology (2018).Arunas L Radzvilavicius Alexander J Stewart, Joshua B Plotkin

  9. Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies 2019, Vol. 26(2) 217–236. Empathetic Leadership: How Leader Emotional Support and Understanding Influences Follower Performance. Ned Kock1 , Milton Mayfield1 , Jacqueline Mayfield1 , Shaun Sexton2 , and Lina M. De La Garza

  10. Meinecke, A. L., & Kauffeld, S. (2019). Engaging the hearts and minds of followers: Leader empathy and language style matching during appraisal interviews. Journal of Business and Psychology, 34(4), 485-501.

  11. https://www.northeastern.edu/graduate/blog/become-an-empathetic-leader/

  12. https://hbr.org/2019/05/making-empathy-central-to-your-company-culture