Haris Ahmed | Chicago | Empathy in Leadership

Haris Ahmed Chicago Consultant Shares His Thoughts on Empathy in Leadership

Haris Ahmed, Chicago-based executive coach and business consultant, has always believed that a good leader should take care of every member of his or her team by paying attention to their individual needs, recognizing their strengths and weaknesses, and generally, contributing to their wellbeing. If you hold a leadership role in your company, you can do these by putting yourself in your team members’ shoes. While it’s not an easy thing to do, it’s still completely necessary if you wish to drive your organization to success. You may know this behavior better as empathy.

A research conducted by Development Dimensions International involving 15,000 leaders from 18 different countries found that “listening and responding skills outranked all others in producing the most successful leaders.” And in another study, this time by the Empathy Business, it was found that the top 10 companies in the Global Empathy Index generated fifty percent more “net income per employee” compared to those in the bottom 10. What do these conclusions mean? In simple terms, employees perform better when they feel that they are heard and appreciated, and they know that they are working in a nurturing environment.

Recognizing that empathy delivers far greater results and delivers more personal rewards for employees than monetary compensation or other commonly employed motivators, companies have taken it upon themselves to sign up their leaders and executives for empathy training. This doesn’t mean that that these leaders lack empathy, but they recognize that further developing this skill will benefit the leaders, their subordinates, and the organization.

Building a culture of empathy and compassion in the workplace

Apart from directly benefitting the company’s employees, nurturing a culture of empathy in your organization can greatly benefit your consumers as well. How so? By putting yourself in your consumers’ shoes, you feel what they feel, you experience what they experience (at the very least, in a simulated environment), and you see things through their eyes. These, in turn, can help you enhance your products to address the concerns of a specific demographic of your consumers while still keeping your existing ones for regular patrons. This culture can also inspire the development of new products to address the need of a budding new consumer group.

Just as you show every member of your organization where they’re coming from, so to speak, you display the same behavior towards your consumers. More than anything, it also reflects how a company truly sees its consumers, because it shows you understand them, and they appreciate this above all else.

In a nutshell, empathy is appreciated by consumers because it makes them feel that you’re not after making money off of them, but instead, you’re more concerned about how to improve their lives, no matter how big or small your contribution is.

What are your thoughts on empathy in leadership? Please feel free to share them with Haris Ahmed of Chicago in the comments section below. The reader is also encouraged to get in touch with him for questions or inquiries about his services.

Please stay tuned to this page to read more posts on leadership from executive coach and consultant, Ahmed Haris.

 

 

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