In the chemistry of an organization’s culture, empathy is the catalyst that energizes a motivating, mutually beneficial deal between individuals and their companies. Relationships based on empathy feel comfortable, like those well-worn slippers you wear on Sunday morning. Moreover, workplace empathy pays off, both for individuals and for organizations (see Part 1 of this two-part post).

So how do you weave it into the cultural fabric of a company? Empathy is essentially individual – humans have it, organizations don’t. How do you both nurture it in people and make it a cultural norm?

Psychologists debate whether empathy is a trait (innate to an individual’s personality and mostly stable over time) or a state (a way of perceiving and acting that may improve with effort). Physicians participating in a study of doctor-patient empathy said that empathy encompasses both skill and attitude. Some doctors said they could not imagine not being empathetic with patients. In contrast, others stressed the importance of working to develop their empathic techniques. Almost three-quarters of the respondents to the Businessolver empathy survey said they believe empathy can be learned.

If you want to enhance empathy among the people in a company and also make it an abiding cultural value, what steps can you take? Here is one approach.

First – Hire for empathy

Recognizing that empathy has both trait and state elements, organizations should begin by hiring people who have consistently demonstrated empathetic responses. You can teach a hippopotamus to climb a tree, but you’re better off hiring a squirrel. Accordingly, start with an interview and background assessment process that identifies candidates whose history of empathetic perceptions and actions stands out as a hallmark of their approach to working with and leading others.

Second – Teach empathic expression

Next, deliver training that gives people the tools they need to recognize others’ states of mind, share their emotions (within limits) and take action. This skills training could incorporate:

  • Verbal elements (eliciting information and gathering insights about others’ emotional states)
  • Reflective elements (clarifying, paraphrasing, acknowledging)
  • Body language (eye contact, tone of voice, facial expression, appropriate touching).

Decades of research has shown that managers routinely misapprehend what motivates and engages employees. Analysis by Teresa Amabile, who has studied what it takes to keep people motivated at work, shows that managers tend to put recognition and clear goals at the top of the motivator list. Employees differ – they say their number one motivator is progress in accomplishing meaningful milestones. Does this mean managers as a group suffer from a systemic lack of empathy? Probably not – their population levels of empathy probably vary along a normal distribution curve. But it does mean that organizations must be aware of two important factors:

  • Managers are the organization’s most critical source of empathy
  • Because most managers weren’t hired or promoted for demonstrated empathy or trained in empathetic response, they will often fall short, individually and as a population.

Therefore, an organization’s greatest payoff will come from making managers the primary focus of empathy training.

Third – Build Empathetic Behaviors

Part 1 emphasized that empathy encompasses action. You recognize that my feet hurt because you’ve had blisters before, so you’ve helped get more comfortable shoes. In your organization, some factors (autonomy to act, appropriate job challenges, recognition for success, for example) expedite workplace accomplishments (Amabile’s number one motivator). Conversely, your work landscape could be rife with impediments (internal politics, lack of information, administrative burdens, for instance). Train managers to recognize the factors that smooth the pathways to success and also see where the potholes lie and give them the authority to make changes.

Fourth – Weave Empathy into the Culture

When leaders define, express, reinforce and reward values, these principles become part of culture. Incorporate empathy into the corporate lexicon, making a requirement of leaders and managers at all levels. Recognize and reward supervisors and managers whose empathetic perceptions and actions made a difference in the success of teams and the lives of individual employees. Note how stress and engagement levels vary in departments with more and less empathic leaders.

At a corporate level, targeted benefits can reflect a culture of empathy and give managers useful tools for responding to employee needs. For example, liberal policies encouraging flexible schedules and comp time for extra hours worked can enable managers to take action on their empathetic perceptions of employee stress.

The challenge is two-fold: embrace empathy as a corporate value and also deliver an employment deal that responds flexibly to employees’ health and emotional wellness needs. Organizations that meet both challenges can say they are on the way to creating an empathetic workplace.

Sources:

Shapiro, Johanna, “How Do Physicians Teach Empathy in the Primary Care Setting?” Academic Medicine, Vol. 77, No. 4, April 2002, p. 324.

Businessolver, 2020 State of Workplace Empathy – Executive Summary, p. 7.

Hastings, Rebecca H., “Managers Don’t Know What Motivates Employees,” Managers Don’t Know What Motivates Employees (shrm.org), June 25, 2012.