-

 



It is just a seven letter word. However, this word and it’s meaning is what would define your leadership journey. No leader can ever be effective if he cannot be empathetic. It is that ability to empathise with your team, connect and relate with them and view the world from their eyes that sets you apart. 


“I think we all have empathy. We may not have enough courage to display it” - Maya Angelou.

 

Courageous leaders lead their troops with empathy. They are fearless enough to be vulnerable. And it is this very vulnerability that draws their subordinates to them. Most of us are not looking for infallible leaders who are almost God-like. We are looking for someone who understands us, the path we have been on and shows us the way ahead. 


One of those leaders who was an empath was my boss Vernon! The man was the role model for empathetic leadership. He would listen to you like no one else could. I would just have to talk to him and I would find myself opening up to him in ways I never thought I could even open up to a shrink. He was a master at creating a safe space for me to be my true self in. He would never judge me for anything I told him. Yet, he would ensure that I understood my lesson. This self-discovery that he enabled meant that I had made it an intrinsic part of me and I would never ever forget the lesson. 


Empathetic leaders have the uncanny ability to marshal their troops very wisely and have their implicit trust. It is not the blind trust that charismatic leaders in cults can command, but the kind of trust that emboldens and enables you to go against the grain and even question your leader. And an empathetic leader would actually encourage that kind of questioning. 


In my journey as a manager, I have always strived to be like Vernon, very empathetic and understanding and it has yielded me a lot of results. Thanks boss for being who you are! :)


"Empathy is simply listening, holding space, withholding judgement, emotionally connecting, and communicating that incredibly healing message of you're not alone" - Brene Brown

Comments

  1. Ashwini SriramMay 8, 2021 at 9:43 AM

    Hi Abhi , so beautifully etched about the word of the century which is Empathy..most needed in this hour..be empathetic is one of the finest quality that differentiates you from the rest of lot..lending a patient ear and listening to them..getting into their shoes to understand their situation is Empathy...if we cannot do that then the least we could do is be non judgemental and be aside them

    ReplyDelete
  2. KavithaMay 8, 2021 at 9:53 AM

    Abhi ... EMPATHY - walking and feeling what someone else is feeling and responding accordingly ... I feel like so many soft skills, this is a behaviour that becomes better with practice but is it everyone's cup of tea - I don't think so. Thank you for the article and sharing your interaction about Vernon. Keep writing

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Thank you Daddy!

-
Image
“With sons and fathers, there’s an inexplicable connection and imprint that your father leaves on you.” My father, or Daddy as we fondly call him, has definitely had a huge imprint on my life. It is often difficult to explain this bond and this connection that fathers have with their sons. I have often found that daughters and fathers find it easy to express their love for each other. Also, mothers and sons find it easy to express their love for each other. However, fathers and sons have a beautiful, yet understated love. I have known my dad to be a doting son to his mother and father. The manner in which my dad took care of my grandparents in the last few stages of their lives is testimony to this. Throughout my life, never have I seen my father and grandfather explicitly tell each other how much they loved the other. However, during the last few years, I have had the opportunity of witnessing this manifestation of love between my father and grandfather through their ...
Read more

With great social media power comes great social responsibility

-
1969 was famous for many reasons. Right from the Bryan Adams song that pervaded pop culture for many decades to the landing of the Apollo 11 mission on the moon. 1969 witnessed Woodstock and the flight of the first 747 jumbo jet. Amidst all of these significant milestones in human history, there was a small step that was taken that would eventually change the course of human history. On an ordinary Wednesday, the 29 th of October in 1969, at about 10:30 PM, Charley Kline attempted to send a message from one host computer to another host computer. The first message that was ever transmitted on the internet was “lo”, a truncated version of “login”, which was supposed to be the original message. It was not until the dawn of the new millennium that social media took birth. In 2002, Friendster, the first ever true social networking site was created. It gained 3 million followers in just the first few months. Google then attempted to buy the company for 30 million dollars the next yea...
Read more