Leading with Empathy

Chapter 8Optimism, Evolution, and Empowerment

To build high-performing teams, leaders need to prioritize trust, empowerment, and empathy over deadlines and performance.

2020 was the year that we lost our comfort and safety. COVID-19 forced organizations to change their ways of working. It made them stop and evaluate their current processes and business models, and pressure-test their ability to pivot quickly in a dynamic setting. It was also a year where words like unprecedented and new normal became trending topics and were used by almost everyone.

It was also the year of the introvert and a chance for everyone to become a video celebrity with the number of conferences attended. As a society, we finally learned the importance of washing hands, sanitizers, and social distancing. 2020 was the year of the teachers who heroically had to abandon their teaching methods and quickly adapt to an entirely new platform and way of engaging students. Kudos and immense respect to them, and even more so for teachers who had their own children in school.

2020 was indeed the year of digital. Everything had to switch to a contactless, digital platform. Zoom meetings, virtual classrooms, virtual enrichment, subscription-based online physical fitness, virtual social hours, happy hours, eDates, and eCommerce.

Adversity in 2020

2020 also taught us that we are a fragile and delicate species despite all our technological and medical advancements. Our hubris of development was decimated by nature ...