Empathy - The Power to Productivity

It is 9 PM, and we are still working. We must deliver an important build today and we are faced with a problem that we are unable to solve. It was all working fine until the QA started testing and noticed a small issue. It's been two hours since then. Our developers are not able to figure out the root cause to mitigate the problem. I can feel the pressure mounting and how exhausting it is for them. They have given exemplary effort to the application, and they can solve the issue with ease, but the pressure is making them feel shaky. I can either aggravate this pressure or play my part in relieving it. I decided to go with the latter. So, I call for a dinner break to lessen the stress. I wonder if this would work.???

Living in a competitive world driven by capitalist principles, burning the midnight oil to meet strict deadlines has become the norm. I see people working tirelessly for the job, all day and every day. In this fast-paced world, I sometimes wonder if the jobs that these hard-working individuals perform provide them with any source of joy. I believe that it should, and it must. Hence, a year ago, I decided to walk down a road that I had not explored before. As a young project manager, I had to make my team feel ecstatic about their work. To achieve this, I just added one extra requirement in the role of project manager. I decided to become more empathetic towards my team members and was able to achieve wonders.????

Let’s delve further into the aforementioned situation and how being empathic as a project manager helped alleviate the problem. The problem that was not resolved in the last two hours in panic mode was mitigated in less than 30 minutes with a relaxed mind. I could have gone home, asking the team to get it done, as it seemed to be a small problem, but I preferred to stay, to work with the team, to support them, and to make sure they were comfortable putting in extra productive effort resulting in a quality that can serve the client’s needs. This empathy can motivate my team to become the most productive team, which can be beneficial for the company.???

Emotions play a major role in human behavior, and it can be challenging to get team members to fully understand and align with the goals, importance, and quality expectations of a task. However, this can be made easier through the use of empathy and the development of a strong, trustworthy relationship with the team. As leaders, it is important to listen to and understand the problems faced by the team, provide solutions, and show appreciation for their efforts.??

It is not uncommon for people to try to pressure their team in order to get them to perform, but I believe this is a harmful approach. Pushing a team to work extra hard without considering their needs or well-being can put the quality of their work at risk. Instead, we should try to understand and support our team members by putting ourselves in their shoes and showing that we care about them. When a team feels motivated and valued, it will be able to give its best effort and produce high-quality work.??

When the team is happy and motivated, they start to feel the client’s problem as their problem. With empathy towards the client, we start moving towards excellence. They consider the client’s values as our values, which ultimately leads to developing an application that is not just a need but can become the road to success. This is what we were doing at 8 PM to mitigate a very small issue to ensure that our client is always happy to use the application we are developing for them. We were focusing on making every piece of the application tell the client that this application is developed with great care, so as not to miss out on a single detail.?????

Empathy is one of the most important leadership skills, to me, it is a key skill to possess. Being empathic with your client leads to a successful project. Being empathic with your team earns you respect and gives you a productive team. Being empathic with the world makes you solve greater problems, in everyday life, with near and dear ones. To me, it is a skill that can help avoid wars.??

I want to close out this blog with a person by reading whose book, I learned what empathy is,???

“If you could understand impermanence deeply, you would develop more equanimity. You would not get too excited about either the ups or downs of life. And only then would you be ready to develop that deeper sense of empathy and compassion for everything around you.”??

— Satya Nadella??