Workplace Empathy: Whys and Hows
In the time when change and uncertainty are creeping from every aspect of human life, our mental health and well-being are at the forefront of the battle. Amid the pandemic-driven stress and growing social justice movement, empathy is an essential ingredient for gaining a deeper understanding of others — it helps us collaborate, make better moral decisions, and act when needed. And it seems to hold great power in work environments as well. Empathy plays a key role in how employees assess workplaces and is a key driver of business impact and performance.
While lending an ear to your colleague’s concerns is undoubtedly a virtuous act, assessing which type of empathy is suitable for which work situation is critical for utilising its full potential. Research shows that less than 5 in 10 people consider their companies to be empathic and highlights the gap in how empathy is perceived and experienced by different workplace members, particularly between employees and executives.
Building an efficient culture of empathy means knowing which types of empathy exist and how they fit into the work landscape.
Emotional empathy
Three words, eight letters. Rarely does such a simple statement represent as profound a sense of human interconnectedness as “I feel you” does. And the best bit yet? Emotional empathy means that you indeed do feel what the other person feels. Studies suggest that witnessing another person’s action or emotion triggers the same parts of the brain responsible for executing those actions or experiencing those feelings yourself. Emotional empathy creates an emotional connection that helps build trust and helps us acknowledge the possible effects of our behaviour on others at every step. Emotional empathy is listening to how and why another person feels and reflecting on when you have felt or could feel similar.
Cognitive empathy
However, being fully absorbed in colleague’s/employee’s position can prove to be impractical for both them who are not getting any constructive help from your overwhelmed self and you who are activating a cascade of stress hormones when they should rather be skipped (yes, you are about to have a difficult conversation with your colleague, but a lion is not chasing you after all). Cognitive empathy refers to striving to understand rather than feel another’s point of view. This perspective-taking enables us to communicate more effectively and in ways that are meaningful to the other person. Cognitive empathy is thinking about and understanding another person’s perspective.
Compassionate empathy
Actionable empathy is the cornerstone of a healthy work environment, and that is precisely what compassionate empathy is all about. Compassionate empathy helps us move from a place of solely feeling or understanding to a place of taking appropriate actions that express our care. Luckily, the most constructive empathy is the one with the most straightforward instructions for use — you are simply ought to ask another person what you can do to help. If the answer is impossible to attain — be it that you are not in a position to ask, or the person is unwilling to respond — ask yourself what would have helped you if you were in a similar situation as your colleague/employee is.
Curiosity wins this one.
Studies show that while emotional empathy has its place in a work setting, such as tuning into your colleague’s emotions if they have been feeling under the weather, cognitive and compassionate empathy are better choices during negotiations and when faced with a difficult situation.
The key to taking another’s perspective and initiating an appropriate action (and not taking on undesirable emotions) is to become curious rather than emotional when presented with another’s challenge.
While some findings from the annual survey of workplace empathy are indeed discouraging — ratings of companies’ emphatic behaviours have fallen steadily since 2018, others offer a glimpse of hope — both CEOs and employees believe, now more than ever, that empathy can be learned. At Glasswall Solutions, we acknowledge the role that empathy has in building a healthy remote work environment and are making an effort to better understand empathy and find ways to systematically introduce it in work processes building a healthier culture.
