From the course: Leadership Foundations: Leadership Styles and Models
Empathy and leadership
From the course: Leadership Foundations: Leadership Styles and Models
Empathy and leadership
- Have you ever heard the expression, it's lonely at the top? This is certainly true for leaders but the walls of isolation can trap all of us. Isolation is associated with lower productivity, diminished creativity and poor decisions. One of our deepest needs is to feel connected to others. For that reason, experts have drawn a clear relationship between leadership and empathy. Let's look at how empathy contrasts with sympathy, how empathy helps leaders and ways to put it into practice. Empathy is not a standalone model but it is an essential quality of effective leadership. Brene Brown, leadership expert, contrasts sympathy with empathy. She says sympathy drives disconnection. Sympathy is feeling a sense of pity for someone else's situation. Sympathy says, "Oh, you poor thing. "You're in a real bind." In this way, it creates a barrier between people. In contrast, Brene says empathy connects us. Empathy is about making ourselves vulnerable so we can feel with a person. Empathy brings…
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