天美传媒

You don鈥檛 have to be domineering and bullish to be successful in business. Dr Ileana Stigliani explains how empathetic leadership can improve employee engagement and retention

If I were to say the word 鈥渓eader鈥� to you, of what kind of person would you think? A dominant, assertive, Type A character? Someone who pulls no punches, who takes no prisoners, who leads singlehandedly from the front? Looking at the leaders we choose 鈥� in business, politics and beyond 鈥� you certainly would not be alone in thinking so.

It鈥檚 time, however, we moved our thinking beyond this outmoded concept that has been culturally and societally ingrained for so long. A good leader is not an action hero. They are inspiring, nurturing and caring figures; a leader, in short, is empathetic. Some of you may already be thinking, 鈥淭hat sounds lovely, but when it comes to business, what鈥檚 needed is hard, tough, masculine qualities.鈥� Let鈥檚 put this in language you might understand: empathy has a direct impact on your bottom line.

There are numerous studies that confirm this. The top 10 companies in the latest edition of the annual聽聽register earnings 50% higher than the bottom 10. In their study of competitive advantage聽聽found companies who placed an emphasis on the organisational health of employees performed two times better financially. Or to look at this from a different angle, a聽聽shows lost productivity resulting from a lack of employee engagement costs US companies $450-550 billion annually.

Not taking out your problems on others requires a good deal more strength than simply barking orders and insults

Cultivate a culture of trust

A business is more than one person. It鈥檚 not just how the boss performs, it鈥檚 about how everyone pulls together. A study conducted by聽聽found employees performed better if four basic needs were met: renewal (physical needs), value (emotional needs), focus (mental needs) and purpose (spiritual needs). Employees who felt respected were 63 per cent more satisfied, 55 per cent more engaged, and 58 per cent more focused. They were also 110 per cent more likely to stay with their organisation 鈥� if your best and brightest are leaving you because they don鈥檛 feel happy with their lot, then you have a problem.

There鈥檚 plenty of literature out there still that treats business as is it were warfare, seemingly taking inspiration from the behaviour of the drill sergeant in聽Full Metal Jacket. Ray Williams, writing for聽Psychology Today, does a fine job of聽debunking this sort of thinking. You could, however, look to the military for a more positive sort of inspiration, as Simon Sinek has done. The title of Sinek鈥檚 book and subsequent TED Talk聽聽came from speaking to Lieutenant General George Flynn of the US Marine Corps. Flynn explained the order in which Marines take their meals is in inverse relation to their rank; the lowest first, the highest late. By putting the needs of others above their own, the leaders cultivate a culture of trust, through which the units can operate as one. If this behaviour allows people to trust each other with their lives, then imagine what it might to do in a business environment.

It鈥檒l take more than eating your lunch later than your reports, of course 鈥� though any small action that demonstrates you put their needs above yours would certainly be a step in the right direction. William Baker (who served as president of WNET for 21 years) and Michael O鈥橫alley (Principal at Cine谩ltas Human Resource Consulting), authors of, advocate what they call a 鈥渢ransformational鈥� leadership style to improve engagement. This is defined by compassion, integrity, gratitude, authenticity, humility and humour, and, yes, empathy.

Employees who felt respected were 63 per cent more satisfied, 55 per cent more engaged, and 58% more focused

How to be a more empathetic leader

Here are a few practices you might try if you want to improve engagement and retention:

• Try to cultivate curiosity about other people, inside and outside your organisation. Curiosity expands our empathy when we talk to people outside our usual social circle, encountering lives and worldviews that are different from our own.
• Challenge prejudices 鈥� especially those that encourage non-empathetic thinking 鈥� and seek out commonalities between people and ideas. Challenge your own assumptions about other people, always maintaining an open-minded attitude.
• Put yourself in other people鈥檚 shoes, and try to experience the world through their eyes. This habit allows you to understand your employees鈥� motivations, hopes and difficulties, and to create the right support mechanisms to allow them to achieve at the highest-possible level.
• Listen to your employees, and open up to them by sharing your own personal experiences, setbacks and feelings too. Employees who feel they are seen and heard are likely to be more motivated and more productive, and to display a higher commitment to their organisation.
• Inspire collective action and collaborative teamwork. Leading by example, empathetic leaders inspire the same actions in other people in their organisations, a phenomenon called mirroring. Moreover, as empathy strengthens bonds of trust, it will lead to better and healthier team dynamics.
• Think creatively and embrace design thinking, of which empathy is very much the cornerstone.

What makes human beings special

Look closely at these qualities and reflect; you鈥檒l see there can be no conflating empathetic leadership with weakness. Indeed, being alive to the needs of others, not kowtowing to damaging ideas from above, and not taking out your problems on others require a good deal more strength than simply barking orders and insults at those below you in the pecking order. It is of crucial importance to look for these qualities in your hiring process, to encourage this sort of thinking at every level.

Gender balance is no panacea 鈥� 鈥渞eptilian behaviour鈥� (Sinek鈥檚 term) still pervades the thinking of those of both sexes who believe they must act in a dominant fashion to get ahead 鈥� but some semblance of gender equality could still have a positive effect.

One final thing to think about: the increasing prominence of robots and automation. This has reached a point where even the man hotly tipped to be the next Governor of California is ready to聽over the ethical questions it poses. 鈥淵our job,鈥� said Gavin Newsom, at a UC Berkeley commencement speech, 鈥渋s to exercise your moral authority鈥� to do the kinds of things in life that can鈥檛 be downloaded.鈥�

AI will be become more and more advanced as the years go by. There is one thing which it may never be able to do, though: empathise. It鈥檚 what makes human beings special, and what has got us to our position of global dominance. Perhaps it鈥檚 time we acknowledged and embraced it.