Leadership in its true essence is more about helping others than yourself. Empathy means the ability to understand the needs of those around you. Empathy is an essential quality of an effective leader.

As a leader, you must be aware of what those who have chosen to follow you are thinking and feeling. This will help you in defining your relationship with your team and lead more effectively.

It should not be misunderstood here that as a leader you are supposed to agree with the viewpoint of others, but it means that you are willing to acknowledge and appreciate their concerns.

Empathy is often misconstrued as a quality that makes leaders weak and ‘touchy-feely’. The reality is that an empathetic leader understands the strengths and skills of people better.

As a leader who practices empathy you also gain the trust to be able to push your team to work on themselves, enhance their capabilities, and lead and inspire them to thrive in the right direction.

“Empathy is the foundation of a true leader.”

Traits of an Empathetic Leader

The three key traits of an empathetic and effective leader are:

– Being a Good listener

– Non-judgmental

– Heightened Emotional intelligence

Empathetic leaders should be good listeners so that they can communicate efficiently with people. This does not mean that talkative people are not empathetic leaders.

“Sharing your thoughts and expectations with people is equally important to listening to them.”

However, you must know when to talk, when to listen, and more importantly what to say after they talk. This is only possible when you establish an open and fair communication channel with people.

Empathetic leaders are non-judgmental, and they respect the differences of opinions in the team. Even when some people are in direct disagreement with them, leaders must first understand their perception and reasons behind opinions.

Instead of judging if they’re right or wrong in having such feelings, empathetic leaders should acknowledge their thoughts and then decide on what is best for the organization.

Finally, emotional intelligence is of utmost importance for empathetic leaders. You should analyze the feelings of people in an objective manner and not let personal biases influence your decisions. This will not only strengthen your bond with people you serve, but also instill their faith in your leadership.

Significance of Empathy in Leadership

It is often observed in the workplace that managers expect their employees to conform to their thoughts and ideas. For instance, many managers expect their teams to work very long hours consistently without even considering that each individual may have a different personal situation at their home.

This makes employees feel that their managers are insensitive towards the concerns of the team and they end up getting painted as an enemy. Each team member then starts looking out for their own emotional interest which eventually disrupts the workplace.

Noticed I called these types of leaders, managers? The above are not the traits of a leader.

“An empathetic leader ensures that the feelings of the employees are never overlooked or ignored.”

Empathy lays down the foundation of the most important element in the workplace — trust.

You can never be an effective leader if your team doesn’t trust you. When you show that you are considerate towards the feelings of your employees and understand their concerns even when you don’t agree with them over a few things, you develop trust.

Employees notice when you are acknowledging their feelings and respect their personal opinions. Once you bond with employees and they trust you, you can then inspire them to succeed by mentoring them where they are lacking.

This will further strengthen your relationship with the team, increase collaboration with them, and improve the overall productivity in the organization.

Developing Empathy

Empathy is not a special talent or something that needs years of experience. It is not something hard to grasp or difficult to inculcate. All it requires on your part is some forethought.

Simply take a step back in any situation and try thinking about what others are feeling around you rather than focusing on how you feel.

It does not mean that you have to disregard your own feelings. But when you are working with a team and they are looking up to you, it becomes your responsibility to handle things with care when they are hurt, irritated, or upset.

“An empathetic leader focuses first on what people are experiencing instead of focusing only on their own feelings.”

You must consider them as individuals with personal lives and not just employees. When you start treating them right with respect, they will also trust your leadership skills. You can then focus on the mutual growth of the team that will lead to efficient and considerate work culture.

Being an empathetic leader builds trust and strengthens your relationship with people. They will see that you care, value, and understand them.

When you are not judging them, you will be able to get to the root of problems and effectively collaborate to solve them.

Your concern and personal interest in the team will ensure that employees become more engaged, loyal, and productive.

The weight of pressure is an inborn piece of work culture. Each of us faces pressure regardless of position, profile, title, insight, or sexual orientation.

Steady pressure can cause us to fail to remember that others around us may be experiencing similar circumstances.

As a leader, if you trouble your workers with an excessive number of tasks, it can later turn into reason for frustration and demotivation for your whole team. It doesn’t make a difference if the weight of pressure is coming from the top, from your friends, or from yourself.

In the long run, it will negatively affect the psychological and actual prosperity of everybody. It is fundamental to not just acknowledge when there is unnecessary tension, but to successfully oversee and evade it.

Habits to Avoid

As a leader, you should be aware of how your workers are reacting to you. In the event that they are disappointed, you should be tuned into the clues. Like when you stroll into the workplace and the energy in the room goes cold. That can be an indication that your bad policies are influencing camaraderie in a negative way.

You need to comprehend that the way you personally handle the weight of pressure may affect those working around you as well. So, the first step to helping your team manage pressure is to learn how to yourself.

Here are the most noticeably terrible behaviors you should avoid as it causes superfluous tension on teams:

Unreasonable expectations — It is justifiable that occasionally there are undertakings that have an exacting timetable. In any case, before you trouble your team with such, you need to survey whether your team is equipped for it. If you think it is conceivable, instead of pushing them through it, it is imperative to help them so they can work more effectively. Ridiculous expectations and micromanagement tactics may demotivate them and cause unnecessary tension on everyone.

Altering course on a whim — Some leaders have the habit of altering the course of a project midstream, or when they wish to. This eccentric approach and disarray in the work cycle may cause wastage of time and frustration for your team. It doesn’t imply that you can’t reexamine the course of a project, however as a solid chief, you should have lucidity of the targets prior to starting a project and cautiously think about the expenses prior to rolling out a change. On the off chance that you discover a move in direction essential, you should plainly discuss that with the group and gain their support by enrolling them.

Ignoring people’s significant time — As a leader, you ought to permit adequate time for your team to be fruitful grinding away at work and having time for a home life too. When you expect over the top responsibility from your team and anticipate that they should be available to you no matter what time of day or week, it shows that you are discourteous of their time. In the event that you are more focused on their own existence and well being, they will focus on the work needed to be done and have more confidence in you.

Understanding and Managing Pressure

Being a leader accompanies a specific degree of weight. There are numerous leaders who frequently stretch themselves and create unnecessary tension on others. As a successful leader you should figure out how to manage the weight of pressure in a sound manner.

Here are a few different ways that can assist you with overseeing pressure better so as to not to put it on your team:

Figure out how to adapt to pressure by zeroing in on the positives and deciding not to create unfavorable conditions. As you handle pressure better yourself, you can help your team too. That is the reason you need to keep yourself engaged and alert under pressure by being reasonable.

Undue weight is generally brought about by ridiculous timeline expectations from yourself and your team. A decent leader should realize how to oversee tasks by keeping things simple. You should organize and lead your team towards what is significant. Interruption in objectives additionally prompts disorder in the work environment.

You should characterize the roles and obligations for everybody on your team, including yourself. Along these lines, it is essential to comprehend when to say no, when to concur, and when and who to appoint duty.

You will find that occasionally your team will stall out on an issue. In such a case, you ought to dedicate more time to working on finding answer as opposed to stressing over the issues. This will assist your team with being effective and save them unnecessary pressure.

It is your obligation to survey the climate of your working environment and follow up on it effectively. You need to put forth every cognizant attempt to kill excessive pressure from the work culture. Your team will value your endeavors and react with appreciation rather than disappointment.