The Association Blog

What does empathy look like at your organization?

In her recent article in Harvard Business Review, “Empathy Is a Non-Negotiable Leadership Skill. Here’s How to Practice It,” Palena Neale reminds us that “organizations with empathetic leaders displayed increased employee engagement and a reduction in staff turnover.”

Neale also noted that empathy is a concept that, unless defined, means many different things to just as many different people. “Without a clear definition,” she writes, “empathy could mean anything (or nothing), which influences how a leader practices it (or doesn’t).” It’s hard, after all, to practice and implement something without a shared agreement on what that something is.

Neale suggests creating a shared understanding for your organization or team by discussing:

• What is empathy?
• What does empathy mean in our particularly context?
• How does empathy add value to our organization?
• How will it be behaviorally expressed in our organization?

Read the complete article to continue to develop your organization’s empathy protocol.