Empathy as a leader

The idea that a successful leader should be strict is widespread. Empathy is often seen in this context as "being soft" or as a weakness. Yet the exact opposite is true: empathy often requires a great deal of courage and strength. In fact, it turns out that the most progressive and forward-looking companies are often backed by leaders who demonstrate empathy. In the end, this promotes the innovation and creativity of the employees.

In the current blog post, we address this very topic and explain what makes an empathetic leader.

Empathy is defined as the ability and willingness to recognize and understand thoughts, emotions, motives and personality traits from another person and to empathize with the other person's situation. Empathic leadership is about taking the time to empathize with others and being interested in the person's ability to develop and not just perform or increase profits. It is therefore people-centered rather than performance-centered, and serves to build a supportive and collaborative corporate culture. Appreciation of employees in both everyday and difficult work situations is central to this. However, empathic leadership behavior by no means means always responding in an understanding and over-friendly manner; rather, it represents an appropriate mix of role model and authority figure.

Empathic leadership behavior is also a prerequisite for a transformational leadership style, which is intended to promote the intrinsic motivation of employees. Intrinsically motivated employees perform the activity of their own free will and are not only motivated by external factors such as rewards. They are therefore extremely desirable for a company. This contrasts with the transactional management style, in which extrinsic motivation is promoted above all. There, employees are primarily performance-motivated to achieve a certain goal and receive a reward for it, usually in the form of an extra bonus. Certainly, it is not possible to be exclusively intrinsically motivated; however, it is a fact that empathy on the part of the manager plays a major role.

Below, we list some factors that make up empathetic leadership behavior.

• Self-awareness is the basis for empathic behavior. First of all, self-awareness is needed to get to know one's strengths and weaknesses and an understanding of how one is perceived by others. In this context, one should also examine one's behavior and dealings with coworkers realistically and self-critically to see whether one's own behavior is fair and appropriate in emotional terms. Empathy towards oneself is also important in this context, because in the event of difficulties, one should also meet oneself with acceptance.

• The ability to empathize with the other person is the basis for empathetic behavior. Understanding the impact of one's own behavior on employees and knowing what really motivates employees is much more effective than spreading threats and fear, or only ensuring financial incentives. Empathic leaders often ask in conversations how employees are doing with the situation and try to put themselves in their shoes.

• Understanding different ways of doing things and that there is not always just one right way to do things is another important point. Empathic leaders provide their team members with the support they need to perform tasks according to their strengths in order to fully develop their potential. They therefore also accept different ways of thinking and acting than their own.

• The ability to give constructive feedback and advise employees on how to improve is very central in this context. It helps to state concrete facts and give examples in order to open the eyes of the counterpart to what changes are necessary for improvement.

• Paying attention to verbal and nonverbal cues in the conversation helps to be able to respond with empathy. Allowing the other person to finish and not interrupting, or not filling pauses in the conversation directly with your own contributions, but giving the employee the opportunity to finish expressing himself, are important behaviors in this context.

In summary, empathic leadership should not be confused with "being soft". At its core, it is about valuing every employee and supporting them in their development in the best possible way. Empathic leadership creates the conditions for more creativity, quick problem solving and more innovation within a company and is therefore a key factor for successful management. At Batterman Consulting, we discuss with you not only the professional requirements for a position to be filled, but also the personal strengths and weaknesses, leadership behavior and other characteristics that the employees you are looking for should bring with them in order to best advance themselves and the company in their development.