Empathy, What Is It And Why Is It So Important In Leadership

<p>Why is empathy so important? What is empathy and what is it not? What are the risks of empathy in leadership?</p> <p>When we talk about empathy, we often talk about putting ourselves in other people's shoes. According to Paul Ekman, there are 3 levels of empathy:</p> <ol> <li>Cognitive Empathy - knowing and understanding the other person's perspective</li> <li>Emotional Empathy - understanding the other person's feelings and experience</li> <li>Compassionate Empathy - combining both the cognitive and emotional empathy and then taking action</li> </ol> <p>In the workplace, there are employees who feel empathic to their colleague but their colleague doesn't feel their empathy and gives them feedback that they are not being empathic enough.</p> <p>With empathy, it's one of those situations where we need to be able to stop and slow down and reflect.</p>