{"id":5187,"date":"2020-10-26T09:14:38","date_gmt":"2020-10-26T06:14:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tmc.ke\/staging\/?p=5187"},"modified":"2020-10-26T09:19:01","modified_gmt":"2020-10-26T06:19:01","slug":"empathy-in-the-workplace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tmc.ke\/staging\/empathy-in-the-workplace\/","title":{"rendered":"EMPATHY IN THE WORKPLACE"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Empathy!\nFor a successful company culture<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe more empathy becomes an integral part of culture, the stronger local, national, and global communities will be. But empathy has its enemies as well, in the form of racism, sexism, classism, and ethnocentrism, to name an important few.\u201d<\/p> (Christensen, 2003)<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Of late, a lot of what is being broadcasted in the media is the sexism, prejudice and xenophobia experienced by people in various situations including the work environment. These prejudices termed as the \u2018enemies\u2019 of empathy, so inversely mean that empathy is the answer to counteract these and better people\u2019s lives in all areas, especially the work space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Carl Rogers, a humanistic\npsychologist, empathy is the ability to see another person\u2019s world through\ntheir eyes. It is being able to understand things from the other person\u2019s point\nof view, putting yourself in the other person\u2019s \u2018shoes\u2019. It is an important\nvalue of society that helps avoid hatred and hostility. In it\u2019s place, empathy promotes\nunderstanding, peace and altruism. Further, it has proven beneficial to\ncompanies\u2019 success. This is because it is fundamental in maintaining a healthy\nwork culture as it creates an environment that can readily foster and stimulate:\nstronger, more cooperative relationships, greater morale, less stress and the\nability of employees to bounce back faster from tough times like downsizings. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cognitive empathy, which is seeing someone\nelse\u2019s point of view, \u201chelps teams engage with each other and allows them to\ncollaborate and communicate effectively with each other,\u201d states Rob Volpe, CEO\nof the consumer insights and strategy firm Ignite 360 (Engholm, 2019). So it\nprevents conflicts and misunderstandings, as well as poor morale, which\nsubsequently enable employees to build significant and long- lasting\nrelationships with each other. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Furthermore, this ability to see the world from the perspective of others has proven vital in bettering a company, for instance, according to the 2016 Empathy Index, the highest performing companies top the list of the Most Empathetic Companies (Ross, 2018). This is a report published by UK consulting firm, The Empathy Business, whose aim is to analyse the internal culture of 170 companies on major financial indexes, and its findings are that, \u201cThe top 10 companies \u2013 on the 2015 list \u2013 increased in value more than twice as much as the bottom 10 and generated 50 percent more earnings. Therefore, apart from improving the work culture, empathy increases the competitive advantage and market value of a company (Ross, 2018).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moreover, empathy sets the tone that people matter (Gallo, 2019). What this does in turn is that it motivates employees to increase both their individual and group performance.  Knowing that their voices are being heard and that attention is being given to their workplace requirements makes the employees feel valued by the company, a feeling that enables them to work calmly, alone and with others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a matter of fact, these are conditions in demand for skilled workers. Empathy lets employees know that in the case that they are not performing as well as they might hope to, the company will first try to understand the issues behind the drop in performance before making any judgment or decision. This is important because anxiety driven performance might encourage employees to do their best,  however it quickly proves ineffective. It might derail their focus from the job and instead put it into intra-company competition. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thus, empathy builds loyalty between employees and employers. It is not surprising then that empathy is in high demand among both employees and employers. According to the \u201cState of Workplace Empathy\u201d study by Businesssolver (2019), 90% of employees say they\u2019re more likely to stay with an empathetic employer, and 87% of CEOs believe empathy is linked to financial performance (Gallo, 2019). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a company, empathy can be practiced in\nnumerous ways like showing respect for your colleagues and leaders, actively listening\nto others, and motivating workers based on their individual needs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Respect<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

This goes both ways; employees have to\nrespect their superiors and vice versa. Feeling respected makes a person more\nlikely to be active in the workplace and take personal responsibility (Ross,\n2018).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Active\nlistening<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

This is important, more so for leaders, as\nit builds a better ground for understanding employees and having a supportive company\nculture. It refers to when a listener focuses fully on the speaker, and shows\nverbal as well as non-verbal signs that they understand and remember what has\nbeen said. So when your colleague is offering ideas or suggestions, actively\nlistening to such increases individual engagement, team collaboration and a\nmore positive and supportive work environment. For leaders, it shifts the\nmindset from a more personal and self- improvement one, to thinking of what is\nbest for the company as a whole too, and further helping their team with their\ndevelopment career wise (Lucken, 2017).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Motivating\nemployees based on their individual needs<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

First, as a leader, you have to let the team members know that their work is valuable through both word and action. Additionally, not everyone views financial rewards as desirable, so asking employees what they would actually like would be more effective when trying to reward or motivate them (Ross, 2018). You would be seeing things from their point of view and consequently, working together with them to find out what can work best for both sides rather than making assumptions. Employees then feel like their opinions matter, cultivating loyalty and a more empathetic environment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also See:<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\n
FAILURE<\/a><\/blockquote>