6 ways to bring empathy to work

In our last edition, I wrote about a thought exercise centered around gratitude called Then, Now, Next. Today, I’m going to talk about incorporating gratitude into the workplace, and I’m going to start with a quote:

"When you go out into the woods and you look at trees, you see all these different trees. And some of them are bent, and some of them are straight, and some of them are evergreens, and some of them are whatever. And you look at the tree and you allow it. You appreciate it. You see why it is the way it is. You sort of understand that it didn’t get enough light, and so it turned that way. And you don’t get all emotional about it. You just allow it. You appreciate the tree. The minute you get near humans, you lose all that. And you are constantly saying, ‘You’re too this’ or ‘I’m too this.’ That judging mind comes in. So, I practice turning people into trees—which means appreciating them just the way they are." — Ram Dass

I get it, work is hard. Working with people is probably the hardest part of it all. Relationships in and out of the office are complex. Human dynamics are forever challenging, but with a little mindful thinking we can approach them with more care.

Here are six things to remember to help practice gratitude and empathy in the office:

1. Life: All of your colleagues were born somewhere, to some kind of family, with various cultures, traditions, and parenting styles. The aggregate of all these things makes us all show up and communicate differently in certain situations.?
2. Work Trauma: It’s most likely that your team members have worked somewhere in the past. And in doing so, they might have accumulated some experiences that were negative to them. Without regular, hard internal work, some of those fears persist and take form in completely new relationships with colleagues who have no idea of those difficult experiences.
3. Positive Starts: I like to remember that the large majority of people who start a new job are hopeful. They come in with a positive mindset that is eager for change. They want to make the greatest impact on the job, they want to have healthy and inspirational relationships… sure, that doesn’t always happen in reality, but it’s helpful to remember that there is a very high likelihood that’s where their intention started and still exists somewhere.?
4. Taboo: Talking about challenges in and out of work, as well as setbacks that keep us from becoming our best selves, can be difficult to do. It’s also a skill we were not all taught. In some workplaces, it’s still considered taboo and many companies express this ‘work-life separation’ when in reality these two are very intertwined.?
5. Jobs: We’re all just trying to do our jobs. Sometimes those motives conflict with one another and require work to reprioritize. Sometimes our approaches to solutions are different and we need to talk through those to get to the right first, next step. But at the end of the day, we’re all just trying to do our job and ‘not look bad’.?
6. Money: The large majority of us would all probably love to win the lotto, quit our jobs, and pursue things without the complexity of money. Maybe you would still love to do what you currently do, but you’d approach your day-to-day differently if more money wasn’t even a question. We all have our own unique dreams and aspirations, and the need to make a living for ourselves and our families requires us to do things and be things we don’t always want to do.?

Hopefully, considering the ways we differ across the areas above helps give you a blanket of grace to yourself and your colleagues as you understand each other’s perspectives, intentions, and backgrounds. With a little understanding, we can be better allies to our colleagues and succeed at navigating new challenges together in the coming year. ??

Talk Again Soon

That’s all for this Culture Corner edition! ?? Tell me! How are you showing your colleagues gratitude as the year wraps up? Do you have any other thoughts stirred up by today’s Culture Corner? Reply here — let’s keep the convo going!?

P.S. Join us at our next hello&demo on Tuesday, January 23rd at Noon ET/9 AM PT! You’ll enjoy an introduction to Confetti, a round of Black History & Culture Trivia, followed by a Q&A with one of our fabulous account managers. We hope to see you there ?? Register today!?

With love,?

Lee Rubin (she/her)?

CEO & Founder of Confetti

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