Leadership and Empathy – Day Three

We’ve established that empathy is a worthwhile trait to develop for leaders. Today we discuss a few exercises you can practice to build your capacity for empathy.

 

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Transcript

Good day and welcome to the elite in with nice daily. My name is  Mathieu Yuill and this week we’re looking at leadership and empathy. So we’ve already talked about empathy and how it definitely benefits the bottom line, both through employee engagement, less absenteeism, and how employees who work for a boss or a leader with high empathy will actually be less demanding of raises and other benefits. So today let’s talk about a few techniques and exercises you can do to increase your capacity for empathy. And the first one is this, and I love it. It’s my favorite. And I’ll preface it with a quote from the philosopher Aristotle. He said this, if you want to know what did happen, read nonfiction. But if you want to know what could happen, read fiction. But what is encouraging you to do is to read fiction because it will give you the opportunity to imagine and dream and think what it might be like to be somebody else to be in that world of fiction. The other thing you can do is visit a place of worship that is not part of your own tradition. So if you are a Christian, perhaps attend a mosque. If you are Jewish, attend a church and it will really open your eyes and introduce you to an experience you probably have never been to or experienced before.

So that’s all for today. For more on this topic, visit leadingwithnice.com where we want to help you inspire others, build loyalty, and get results. Talk to you again tomorrow.