Empathy

What is the the one thing that makes a speaker, a leader – and an individual – great?

An underrated, often underdeveloped sense – namely,
Empathy

What is empathy?

It derives from the Ancient Greek words:

en (meaning ‘in’) + pathos (meaning ‘feeling’, ‘emotion’)

It enables you to put yourself in to someone else’s shoes and see things from their perspective and understand how they may be feeling. It is a key aspect of emotional intelligence.

What it is not:

Sympathy
Agreement
Weakness

Why is it difficult?

People are often not taught to see things from the perspective of others – and look at a situation solely from their own viewpoint. This leads to polarised arguments, cul de sacs of thought, entrenched positions which the executive can’t see beyond.

Empathy requires the executive to look at a person or problem from other angles and brings with it the ability to compromise or change tack. It can be emotional. It can be humbling. But it’s a sign of strength and maturity.

What does it enable you to do?

It helps leaders to create messages which are truly audience-centric. Messages that will connect and resonate with whole audiences and each individual in it. Have you heard a colleague at a conference saying that they felt that the speaker was talking directly to him/her?

It enables the executive to:

Listen
Build trust
Build credibility
Handle challenges and objections
Resolve conflict and problems
Turn round negative perceptions
Develop rapport with others
Influence people
Have two-way dialogues
Get people on side
Create a more positive culture
And become a skilled communicator.

Empathy is fundamental to leadership communication. When you have empathy, it means you can understand what a person is feeling in a given moment, and understand why people have the opinions they have and do the things they do.

Empathy helps us to communicate our ideas in a way that others can understand, and it helps us understand others when they communicate with us. It makes the difference between getting people to follow you, your ideas, your leadership – or not.

Can you develop it?

With the help of a skilled coach, you can develop a better sense of empathy and learn how to build it into your communications.

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About the Author

Marie Lester

Marie is one of the founders of Vocal Edge, established to provide coaching to executives in how to create and deliver effective and memorable business messages. She helps senior executives to develop their skills to meet the challenges of their existing roles, or to take the next step in their career.She teaches simple and practical techniques and coaches the client to apply them to a range of business situations. This includes planned speaking: change management presentations, strategy reviews, new initiative launches, client proposals, investor meetings plus all forms of impromptu speaking. This includes thinking on your feet in Q&A sessions (including interviews), handling challenging situations, influencing colleagues and shaping opinion in team discussions and leadership meetings.Marie has extensive experience in the corporate world and running a small business. She has an honours degree in Business, where she specialised in Finance. She also holds a degree in Classical Greek which has enabled her to study the art of storytelling and the art of rhetoric in the speeches of both ancient and modern orators, along with the fundamentals of language and how to use it.