How I Learned Empathy

Empathy is an essential skill that everyone should possess. It helps us connect with others on a deeper level and understand their experiences and emotions. However, empathy is not something that comes naturally to everyone. It is something that we learn over time through our experiences.

For me, my journey to empathy started with a tragic event, 9/11. I was originally supposed to be in New York City on September 13, 2001, but I decided to stay home. However, we had numerous people from a new company that we had acquired on the ground in New York when the Twin Towers fell. I was in our chairman’s office when we turned on NBC and saw the devastating news.

The aftermath of 9/11 had a significant impact on my life. As a brown man in redneck Atlanta, I started to experience racism for probably the first time in my life. I would get on a plane, and the other passengers would look at me funny. I had always grown a beard every winter, but my friends made me stop. It was a challenging time, but it taught me what it was like to be “the other.” That was the real beginning of empathy for me.

Over time, I developed the ability to treat the people I worked with well. I learned that aggressive stances aren’t helpful and fill you with regret. People often ask me how to respond with empathy to employees. My advice is to treat workers like other people’s kids. There’s a different kind of care and responsibility when you’re trusted with someone else’s children. Treating workers this way can help prevent you from being pissed off at everyone and prevent everyone from being pissed off at you.

When you start treating people well, you have to be prepared for mistrust. Nearly everyone is used to mean, narcissistic bosses, so they’ll analyze your kindness to find the catch. It's important to communicate clearly and consistently that you genuinely care about your employees' well-being.

In conclusion, empathy is a valuable skill that can help us connect with others on a deeper level. It's not something that comes naturally to everyone, but we can all learn it through our experiences. For me, 9/11 was the catalyst that taught me the importance of empathy. It taught me to treat people well and to understand their experiences and emotions.