How Focusing on the Empathetic Leadership Journey Can Further Support Employees

For companies looking to retain employees and maintain a positive, productive work environment, empathetic leadership—or seeing and understanding your team's feelings, perspectives, and challenges—is a vital skill for managers and leaders to develop and enhance.

While the challenges of the last few years may have increased empathy within your workforce, it's important to continue building on your empathetic leadership approach and make this skill a central part of your management strategy.

Why is leading with empathy important?

In general, a workplace led by empathetic managers helps to create a sense of trust, comfort and productivity within a team. To effectively lead with empathy, managers need to develop effective listening and communication skills, mindfulness, compassion, flexibility and exhibit emotional intelligence.

According to EY’s 2021 Empathy in Business Survey, more than 80% of employees also believe mutual empathy between leaders and team members drives innovation, efficiency, creativity and even increases company revenue.

Unsurprisingly, many see empathic leadership as a key to attraction and retention. As a 2021 survey by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) discovered, nearly all workers believe empathy is essential to a healthy workplace culture. Nine out of ten job seekers said they’re looking for companies that demonstrate empathy.

How to continue to promote a culture of empathetic leadership

Chances are, your organization is already operating with a level of empathy for employees — whether offering flexibility in the mode of work or being a keen listener. But with employees requiring more workplace support in the face of ongoing challenges, it’s time to boost your empathy quotient. Here are a few areas to consider:

Take stock and keep evolving

Moving forward to a place of greater organizational empathy will require leaders to audit their current approach to this concept.

As Sherrie Nguyen, director of product marketing at Indeed and founder and co-chair of the Parents and Caregivers Inclusion Resource Group explains, workplaces need empathy in addition to implementing good policies, such as those designed to support parents and caregivers.

This, she says, involves regularly checking in with employees to ask what they need or what could be improved to help them feel satisfied at work.

As Indeed’s Group Vice President of Environmental, Social & Governance LaFawn Davis tells Whalebone, the pandemic has created more empathetic communication in the workplace with leaders talking to employees more, increased flexibility for workers to avoid burnout and companies implementing programs, such as open paid time off policies.

With leaders and managers setting the example for their teams, says Davis, it’s important to continue to build these initiatives. Indeed, for example, focuses on training, coaching, and conversations to ensure they’re continuing to foster a sense of belonging.

Looking ahead, consider the extent to which you are being authentic and transparent in the workplace, as well as your focus on being mindful and present for employees, all of which are essential qualities of an empathetic leader.

Foster a greater understanding

With empathy a vital component of inclusion in the workplace, as Davis notes, creating an environment where employees feel that their voice is heard and that they can contribute fully and thrive is about implementing belonging.

As such, increasing and building a culture of empathy throughout an organization starts with a deeper understanding of diversity through an intersectional lens.

This requires educating your workforce and managers on -isms and phobias, allyship and privilege for example, so they can further understand how employees experience the workplace differently.

“Start with educating, start with looking at all of those resources and make that a continual practice of learning. So that way there’s a deep understanding and a deep empathy when diverse job seekers join your organization,” explains Davis.

Ensure psychological safety

As nurturing wellbeing in today’s workplace takes a more central role, part of empathetic leadership is ensuring employees feel safe and supported enough in the workplace to share their true feelings without fear of repercussion.

A move to further increase workplace empathy, as the Center for Creative Leadership notes, will involve developing an understanding that employees are dealing with personal problems alongside their workplace responsibilities. It’s important to offer support to the team when needed and ensure they’re comfortable sharing concerns with managers.

Cultivating an empathetic leadership strategy is an ever-evolving process. Continuing to focus on education, adapting to changing needs and remaining flexible will ensure employees feel supported, valued and heard in the workplace as they move through new personal and professional challenges.