Kick off 2025 with a Culture of Connection
Daniel Murray
Transforming Business Culture with Empathy | Keynote Speaker, Empathy Expert & CEO at Empathic Consulting
Welcome to a new year and the first edition of Leading with Empathy for 2025. With my new book on the horizon this year, I am excited for what is coming and looking forward to working with so many wonderful people unlocking the importance of empathy and connection in the world of work.
Why Pity Holds Us Back: The Profound Lesson I Learnt in Thailand...
Sometimes we search for wisdom, other times it simply hits you in the face when you need it most. In my travels to Home Hug, a home for many disadvantaged, sick and disabled children in the north-east of Thailand, I had found myself feeling sorry for some of the kids there.
Many had been through incredibly challenging beginnings before arriving at Home Hug. Abandoned by family, hurt by people they trusted, dismissed by their communities, these children desperately needed the support and safety this home provided. I was involved through the brilliant Australian charity, Hands Across the Water , who supplied the vast majority of the funding to run the home and I knew without this, many of these young lives would be a serious risk. I sometimes felt saddened by their situations. Through no fault of their own, they had been dealt these conditions and relied on the kindness of strangers to survive.
One day I was sitting with the Director of the home, Mae Thiew. She had founded Home Hug in 1987 and had seen thousands of children come through her home, far too many of which had not survived. I was feeling saddened by this, but Mae Thiew then said something that has forever changed my life.
“Don’t feel pity for these children. They don’t need your pity, they need love.” she said in her kind yet impactful way. “Pity is a negative emotion and you will want to avoid it. They need love. If you love the children, you will want to return to keep helping them. If you pity them, don’t come back.”
I’m not 100% sure if that last part was lost in translation - “you won’t come back” - or a direct instruction, but either way the point landed. Pity serves no one, dragging us all into negativity. Love is what was needed to lift up the kids, it was what would embolden the hard working staff but also what was needed for me. Without having a genuine care for them, I would not be the right person to visit.
This is not merely semantics, how we feel about a situation, the attitude we hold shapes not only our actions but also what we observe. In a 2017 study published in the journal Nature Human Behaviour, researchers found that an individuals’ political attitude directly influences their ability to interpret numerical data. Data presented in an objective, neutral format on a non-political issue, such as the efficacy of skin cream was correctly interpreted. However, when given equally objective data on topics such as climate change or gun control, participants' interpretation of the data was heavily bias.
This concept of motivated reasoning shows us that our pre-existing beliefs affect our ability to process information accurately. The more emotive or passionate we feel about the situation, the more impacted is our ability to see the world in front of us clearly. We can see a smile as a smirk, a gift as a bribe or a child needing support to grow as a victim needing to be coddled. Once we have a strong preconceived idea, our brain is motivated to find a path to reason that matches the existing belief and we are very creative in finding them.
This is why building deeper levels of understanding between our people is so important in teams. It is not enough for them to be clear on their processes and policies, we need to ensure the attitudes and beliefs they hold of each other are based on the good intentions and positive assumptions that are present in cultures of trust. It only takes a few misinterpretations for bad blood to start pumping through a team. If addressed only through policy and process, both sides can view the same situation as unjust or benefiting the other side. Future actions are interpreted with similar biases and we find ourselves sinking into a toxic culture.
With the year beginning, it is a perfect time to bring people together and help build deeper, more fruitful connections. This is why for my newsletter followers I have a special offer to kick off 2025 with trust and empathy. The details of the offer are below, but here is what it looks like:
Connected Culture (TMS) Workshop
The most successful organisations know the key is a committed leadership team that is aligned on both driving the strategic performance and working in a highly trust-based culture. This is not a group of individual experts but a team with shared commitment, strategic clarity and personal understanding of each themselves and each other. The highest performing teams are a tightly woven group, embodying the values and supporting each other with a commitment to shared success. This enables a greater visionary outlook and greater confidence around the leadership table in critical decision-making. We call this an Unrivalled Team founded on trust, understanding and curiosity.?
This workshop is designed to tackle the diversity paradox: that we like to work with people like us yet we need to work with people who are not like us! By creating a shared understanding across the team of individual preferences and then exploring the ways these impact our interactions and behaviours, this workshop helps teams to implement new ways of working to improve team performance.
BENEFITS OF THIS PROGRAM
But working with Empathic Consulting is more than just a workshop…
Individual Profiling
Each of your team will complete a TMS Survey and receive a personalised report into the psychological work preferences and insights into areas for development and focus.
Personalised Coaching Debrief
Your team members will also be able to access a one-on-one debrief session to explore their individual profile and develop an action plan for continued personal growth and development.
领英推荐
Facilitated Team Workshop
Full-day team workshop to unpack the preferences of the individual team members, develop clarity on strengths and weaknesses across the team and develop skills to improve team culture.
Embedding Ways of Working
Ongoing implementation of strategies and processes enables teams to develop powerful team rituals which embed a highly committed culture harnessing their individual skills and preferences for performance.
This workshop is usually over $9,500 for a team of up to 10 people, but our 2025 New Year Special means you can develop a more connected culture early in the year and save $2,000. Click here to set up a time to discuss and explore this offer.
Who Do You Want To Hear From?
The podcast is set to launch again in a few weeks and I'm on the hunt for wonderful guests. Will it be you? Do you know someone who I should speak to?
Please drop me a quick email if you do... [email protected]
Here is one of my favourite interviews from 2024 with Rachel Golding (Mayes), PhD :
Commitments & Feedback Masterclasses January 2025
Our public masterclasses have launched for January 2025, are you in? These are exceptional opportunities to invest in your leadership and develop critical skills to be a leader worth following in 2025. The links below will also give you access to masterclasses with a juicy 33% discount (just because I love people who read my newsletter).
Thanks all, with empathy,
Daniel