A leader’s ability to use the power of emotions is key to his/her success. Research on leadership shows that highly successful leaders have greater emotional competence than their less outstanding peers. Empathy – the ability to
know and feel what others experience – is the foundation of emotional intelligence. Companies ranging from health care to high tech are realizing benefits to their bottom line by creating cultures that promote emotional intelligence in interactions with customers and employees.
What are the benefits of emotional intelligence?
Empathy, the foundation of emotional intelligence, is key to achieving results in a number of arenas, from customer satisfaction to leading change. For example, at a large medical center, focus groups showed a key factor in patients’ satisfaction was the sense that “doctors, nurses and other providers genuinely care about me.” In a company undergoing major organization change, employees who felt “listened to” responded more readily and decided to stay with the company despite better financial opportunities elsewhere. Customers of a high tech company acknowledged that they are more likely to develop loyalty to and share critical information with sales people who demonstrate empathy.
Customer Intimacy
Customer intimacy is widely viewed as key to customer satisfaction and increased sales. While many companies strive for customer intimacy, few achieve the desired results. Those who understand, however, that customer intimacy is not a technique but a way of relating are realizing significant gains. A handful of companies, including Altera Corporation, Google and Abbott Laboratories, are using consultants who focus on building an empathic culture to achieve the rarely realized goals of customer intimacy.
One high tech company identified self-awareness and empathy as critical competencies for everyone from senior executives to front line sales people. They re-designed and implemented an organization structure, rewards, information systems and training programs to achieve a culture of customer intimacy/empathy where employees are emotionally savvy and empathic, technically competent and understand the customer’s business. They have seen an 11% increase in revenues, soaring employee satisfaction, and the best sales people in the industry are knocking on the company’s doors seeking employment. This company has achieved the true gains from creating an empathic culture. Others can too.
Can Empathy Be Developed?
Empathy is an innate capacity that can be honed and amplified. To do so involves adopting an empathic stance in order to heighten receptivity to important cues; learning to sense, attend to and interpret these cues; and responding in ways that convey emotional connection. Some professionals like Michael, a sales manager in a high tech company, find it difficult to shift their focus from driving a goal or a task to listening empathically. Examining underlying assumptions and experimenting with new ones can help. Michael has always believed that people would follow him due to the quality of his ideas and their confidence in his strategies. He focused only on managing people in the execution of plans and measuring results. He was, by comparison, ignoring the human side of the equation.
“Michael takes the wind right out of my sails,” said one employee. “When he called the other day, I was excited and telling him about progress my guys were making on a tough account. He cut me off with, ‘That’s good,’ and didn’t even take a breath before letting me know he was upset with me because he hadn’t yet received data he needed for a report. He really burst my bubble. When the call was over I just shut my laptop and was done for the day.”
Frustrated that his sales team was not achieving their goals, Michael agreed to experiment with a more empathic approach; to listen with greater attention and to be more of a coach and supporter. The employee quoted above speaks differently of Michael now. “I don’t avoid him anymore. I call him, let him know what’s going on and ask for his input and advice.”
Things look a lot different from Michael’s perspective as well. “Now that people know I care, they are asking, ‘What can I do for you, for the company?’ There is buy in to the message that comes from me as a leader. Critical things are getting done with much less push from me and more pull from them.” Michael’s region has exceeded their sales goals every quarter for the past year. They are the first region in the company to achieve greater than 50% market share in the U.S.
The Scientific Evidence for Empathy
Thoughts and ideas point us in a direction, but emotion fuels us to act and turn ideas into concrete reality. We are “excited” about the idea; “frustrated” when we do not bring it to fruition; and quot;fulfilled” when we do. Empathy is a catalyst for transforming emotion and directing energy. Scientific research is beginning to explain how this happens.
MRI studies indicate that during the course of an empathic “match”, the brains of both parties start to show similar patterns as if each is influencing the other’s brain activity. We see this in our daily lives. When a mother calms a crying infant, her voice and face match the baby’s pained expression. Then her soothing voice says, “You’ll be okay.” The baby’s cry softens and eventually stops. A customer service representative shares the customer’s sense of outrage over the way he was treated and apologizes on behalf of the company. Then calmly and confidently she assures action to resolve the issue. The customer responds by calming down.
When a sales person or a leader empathizes with a customer or employee, both people are on the same “wavelength”. Just like the mother with her infant, this opens the opportunity to influence both emotion and
resulting behaviors.
Empathy in the workplace is here to stay. Increased sales, strong customer loyalty, and increased employee commitment are just a few of the benefits realized by organizations that make empathy a part of their culture. Empathic leaders’ ability to direct people’s energy to realize a vision and affect change earns them respect and loyalty. They build trust by demonstrating an appreciation for what is important to those around them. Trust, in turn, is a clear competitive advantage that enables the entire organization to respond to the realities of the business landscape. When the leader demonstrates empathy, employees behave in similar ways with each other and with customers. This is the most direct and effective route to achieving customer intimacy.