Cracking the Leadership Code

Chapter 4EMPATHYThe Basis of Connection

You can only understand people if you feel them in yourself.

—John Steinbeck

People with a finely tuned sense of empathy are better at building relationships, trust, and collaborating more effectively than others. They're the ones who colleagues refer to as having a “knack with people.” And because every business is a people business, this is a knack worth having.

Empathic leaders are skilled connectors. Development Dimensions International (DDI), one of the world's largest leadership development consultancies, studied more than 15,000 leaders across 300 companies in 18 countries. They found that leaders who master listening and respond with empathy will perform more than 40% higher than their peers in overall performance, coaching, engaging others, planning and organizing, and decision-making.¹

Richard S. Wellins, senior vice president, states, “Being able to listen and respond with empathy is overwhelmingly the one interaction skill that outshines all other skills leaders need to be successful.”

This chapter explores the complex dimensions of empathy. You'll get to know what it is and what it isn't. Empathy is much more than a touchy-feely concept, and you'll get a firm grounding in the business benefits that empathy brings. You'll walk away with a clear understanding as to why it's so essential to your leadership.

Before we begin, I want to share a personal experience of the connection between empathy and leadership. It all started ...