Put yourself in their shoes: empathy leader / Dr. Sharfizie Mohd Sharip

Empathy plays an important role in the development and maintenance of human relationships. Empathy is often confused with sympathy, where in fact there is a clear difference between the two. Sympathy focuses more on the feelings of love and affection whereas empathy entails a profound understanding of another person’s feelings. A person with empathy will put himself in the other person’s shoes and take an active interest in their predicaments. Why empathy matters?? In most organizations, the leader-employee relationship plays a crucial role in producing organizational effectiveness and productivity. A leader with a high degree of empathy will usually be able to understand behaviours in a relationship and use appropriate feelings and emotions in addressing the needs of the employees. Such leaders can form a meaningful bond with the employees and display a genuine concern for their well-being and emotions. Empathy is related to the leader’s interpersonal skills which enable him/her to respond appropriately and effectively to the employees’ behaviours Mahsud, Yukl, and Prussia, 2010). A leader with empathy usually expresses genuine humanity towards his/her subordinates (Mayfield, Mayfield, and Neck, 2017) such as giving compliments for a job well done (Mayfield, Mayfield, and Kopf, 1998). Such a demonstration of empathy and care can help the leader achieve the required behavioural enforcement among employees.