Empathy can be a powerful tool for building positive relationships both at home and at work.
However, being empathic doesn’t always come easily for everyone, despite the fact that 98% of all people have the physical ability to empathize hardwired in their brains.
If you can’t learn to show empathy at work it could lead to conflicts with your colleagues, damage your reputation within the company, and negatively impact your productivity. If you’re not empathetic to your coworkers’ plights, they could even wind up hating you and nobody wants that!
Fortunately, if you struggle with being empathetic at work there are some techniques you can practice to boost your empathy. These practices include:
- Traveling to new locations.
- Learning new skills.
- Getting feedback from friends and family about how you can be more empathic.
- Engaging in deep, philosophical conversations.
- Reading emotionally-driven books or stories.
- Analyzing your own personal biases and prejudices.
Improving your ability to empathize isn’t easy and it takes dedicated work. But you can leverage these techniques to steadily become more empathetic to others’ situations.
Showing empathy for clients and customers is also important.
Research shows that 42% of consumers won’t do business with brands that they feel are not empathetic. However, if you are empathic to your customers’ problems and show them you understand how they feel, they’ll keep coming back and become loyal buyers.
To learn about the importance of empathy in the workplace and find out a few more tips for being empathetic, check out the visual below.
These tips will help you be more empathetic at work and build better relationships with your colleagues and clients alike.
You’ll be amazed by how much of a difference smiling more or using your coworker's name can make—simple actions like these will make you seem more empathic at work.
Whether you’re interacting with a colleague, friend, or even an angry customer—showing empathy will help you build better relationships in all facets of your life.
Sources:
Businessolver | SAGE | Autism Research Centre
