Empathy Leadership Is Even Needed as You Go Global in the Post Pandemic Era

In the practice of management, the word "empathy" is a frequent word. It is a consensus in international enterprises that the assessment of "empathy" is a key skill to evaluate a leader. However, after the epidemic, the significance and importance of "empathy" is rising to a new level in related leadership research. Research shows that empathy is not only a Soft Approach, it can drive significant business results.

Displaying empathy is known to be a positive motivator for people, but new research suggests it's important for everything from fostering organizational innovation to retaining talent. Great leadership requires a good mix of skills to create the conditions for employee engagement, happiness and high performance, and empathy is the first thing leaders must do right.

The reason empathy is so necessary is that people are experiencing multiple stresses, which the data show are being affected by the pandemic, which has turned the way people live and work around the world upside down.

A global study conducted by Qualtrics found that 42% of people experienced a decline in their mental health. Specifically, 67 percent reported increased stress, 57 percent increased anxiety, and 54 percent reported emotional exhaustion. Fifty-three percent were sad, 50 percent irritable, 28 percent inattentive, 20 percent took longer to complete tasks, 15 percent had difficulty thinking and 12 percent were challenged to juggle their responsibilities.

A study by Occupational Health Science has found that when we're stressed at work, our sleep can be disrupted. Research from the University of Illinois in the US found that when employees receive rude emails at work, they tend to experience negative feelings that spill out into their personal lives, particularly in their relationships with partners. In addition, a Carleton University study found that when people experience rudeness at work, they also tend to be more impatient and feel helpless in parenting.

A study published in the Academy of Management Journal found that when people are treated rudely at work, their performance suffers and they are less willing to help others. And a new Georgetown University study finds that workplace incivility is on the rise, and the effects are broad, including decreased performance and collaboration, worsening customer experience, and increased turnover.

Empathy contributes greatly to positive outcomes. When we're going through tough times, struggling with burnout, or finding it challenging to find happiness at work, empathy can be a powerful antidote and contribute to positive experiences for individuals and teams.

A new Catalyst study of 889 employees found that empathy has some important constructive effects:

Innovation. The leaders who reported back to them were the ones who were more empathetic and the ones who reported back that they were more willing to try to innovate. The empathetic leaders were 61% more likely to innovate than the 13% who didn't feel empathetic.

Engagement. The group of employees who felt empathetic to their supervisor reported being more engaged 76% of the time, compared with 32% of the "apathetic" group.

Retention rates. Fifty-seven percent of white women and 62 percent of women of color said they were less likely to think about leaving a company when they felt their living environment was respected and valued. However, when they don't feel that value or respect for their environment, only 14 percent of white women and 30 percent of women of color say they are less likely to consider leaving.

Inclusive. Fifty percent of employees in the "warm" group, defined as those with empathetic leadership, reported that their workplace was inclusive, compared with 17 percent in the "cold" group.

Harmony between work and life. When people felt their leaders were more empathetic, 86 percent reported that they were able to navigate the demands of work and life -- successfully juggling personal, family, and work commitments. In contrast, 60 percent of those in the apathetic group felt more mixed work and life pressures.

Teamwork is another factor. According to a study published in Evolutionary Biology, when empathy is introduced into decision-making, it increases cooperation and even subtly promotes empathy between people, and empathy nourishes more empathy, creating a positive cycle in which people are more attuned to team goals, the other person's position, and more able to communicate harmoniously. Meanwhile, Qualtrics' study found that people reported higher levels of mental health when they worked with more empathetic leaders.

A person's behavior and expression on the surface are actually influenced by the emotion, thinking and other mental models under the invisible iceberg, while the cornerstone of values and beliefs is actually the cultural code of different cultures. Cultural codes come from the natural environment, social system, historical development and other stable factors, forming different countries and regions with different ethnic characteristics, customs and habits, etc., which are often very important and stable cultural characteristics and not easy to change in a short time. Different cultural background, to a person from the physical to the profound influence of the psychological level, such as cognitive differences, ways of thinking, habits, values, social norms, language differences, the language differences, including eye contact, facial expressions, gestures, body space utilization and silence, etc.), the universal consciousness than people. However, despite the cultural differences, there are also common human characteristics.

The role of empathy lies in first accepting and deeply understanding differences with respect, instead of preconceived judgment, adjusting one's cognition realistically and seeking a common balance acceptable to both sides.

According to the viewpoints of scholars, Belay, a famous intercultural scholar, has integrated intercultural communication ability from three aspects and put forward a descriptive theoretical model: intercultural communication ability from the perspective of emotion, namely intercultural sensitivity; Intercultural communication ability from the perspective of cognition, that is, intercultural communication awareness; Intercultural communication ability from the perspective of behavior, that is, intercultural alertness. The three cornerstones of empathetic leadership are empathy, flexibility and commitment to self achievement.

Interestingly, empathy seems to be hardwired into human nature. In a study at Lund University, two-year-olds showed a different appreciation for others. And the University of Virginia study found that the same part of the brain lit up when people saw their friends being threatened, and the same part was affected when they were personally threatened. People feel as much for their friends and teammates as they do for themselves. All of which makes empathy an important part of our human condition at work and in our personal lives.

No matter how many cultures differ, human nature has something in common.

Empathy helps build positive relationships and organizational culture, but it also drives results. Empathy may not be an entirely new skill, but it has taken on new importance, and new research makes it particularly clear how empathy develops and demonstrates leadership in the workplace now and in the future. It plays an important role for Chinese overseas enterprises to participate in the global economic globalization and use empathy leadership as the entry point to solve the challenges of cross-cultural communication, reduce cultural conflicts and frictions among Stakeholders with different cultural backgrounds, nourish cultural confidence of the headquarters and communicate with international organizations participating in global competition.