Leading with empathy is a huge part of creating a positive spiritual workplace environment, and it can be one of the toughest things to do in practice. Sure, it may seem easy, but how important is it for you to be right? How important is it for you to be heard? How important is it for things to go your way? When truly leading with empathy, these things take a backseat, and your priority is seeing situations from the other point of view, and allowing your employees to have their time to shine.
The first step to leading with better empathy is simply to stop and analyze situations and opinions from the other side. Don’t put why you’re right first, but instead take the time to hear what the other person is saying, and how you can effectively place yourself in their shoes. While this may be tough at first, you’ll soon see that you can be opened up to all sorts of other viewpoints, and you’re given new pathways to take and new solutions because of it.
The first step leads right in to the second one, and that’s learning how to listen. How many times, in conversation, have you thought about what you were going to say next while the other party is still talking? What this does is limits how much you truly listen to the other person, and prioritizes what you yourself are saying instead. While you may not want an awkward silence, and this could be why you’re hurrying to come up with your part of the talk, by doing this, you’re not truly opening yourself to what others have to say.
The last step is adopting trust, and this means trusting in your employees, their abilities, and their judgement. Micromanaging is so damaging because it shows a lack of trust, and it gives employees no freedom to really use and develop their talents or show their own creativity. When you open yourself up to trust those working with you to achieve a goal, you’re going to receive the best of them!
Leading with empathy not only allows you to flourish, but it allows your employees to flourish as well. As a sign of a great leader, empathy allows your employees to open up to you and give it their all as you’re working toward a shared goal, making it one excellent leadership trait more than worthy of adopting!
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