At the Source of Empathy

I once wrote an OP ED addressing abysmal leadership behaviors that almost daily were being reported in the news. The title of the article was: “It's the Values, Stupid.” Today, reading blogs, articles, and posts that talk about empathy, and the need for leaders to embrace and strengthen their show of empathy, I’m tempted to re-post the article. The way I see it, empathy isn’t a tactic to use or an action to be managed; rather, it's about what we believe to be right, decent, and true – empathy is a behavior that spawns from within.

 Sincere empathy comes from the expression of inner values. When our values include Respect, Compassion, or Caring, empathetic behavior is a natural manifestation. Values govern behavior; our aggregate behaviors result in a specific culture – good or bad – and that culture will deliver predictable results. A healthy team culture requires the sincere expression of empathy and is essential for creating the trust necessary to deliver consistently high corporate performance.

 In “Canoeing the Mountains,” Tod Bolsinger wrote: “Healthy culture is aligned, cohesive and clear. A healthy culture is one where there is minimal politics and confusion, high degrees of morale and productivity and very low turnover among good employees. In a healthy organizational culture people feel free to have candid conversations, to suggest new strategies or ideas, and to take risk and experiment.”

 Is your team culture healthy? Click here to arrange a confidential survey that offers qualitative and quantitative assessments of your team’s health. This survey is being offered on a complimentary basis through August 19, 2022.

 TAI Incorporated (www.taiinc.com) specializes in Values-Based Leadership. We help clients develop confident, values-based leaders, high performance teams and high trust, results oriented corporate cultures, satisfaction guaranteed.