Make Empathy Your Way Of Life
In today’s customer-driven economy, understanding others is becoming a key driver of success.
Once the province of ethics professors and altruists, empathy is becoming a central concern in business. Most notably, Satya Nadella has made empathy the centerpiece of his tenure as CEO of Microsoft in 2014. In the seven years, empathy has helped Microsoft grow seven-fold in 7 years. It is now a $2 trillion company.
It is also now recognized that Steve Job’s success at Apple—another $2 trillion company—lay in his ability to understand what customers needed, even when they were able to articulate that themselves.
The emergence of empathy is a pleasant surprise for me, given capitalism’s well-justified reputation for heartlessness , starting with its claim—ever since Adam Smith in 1776—that pursuit of businessmen’s self-interest is the best basis for a thriving economy. This reputation was heightened by the misguided quest by big business over the last half-century to maximize shareholder value .
Empathy As A Personal And Business Strategy
Nadella took a risk in making empathy the centerpiece of his culture initiative. His personal philosophy is to connect new ideas with empathy for other people. “Ideas excite me. Empathy grounds and centers me.”
Yet Nadella saw that without empathy, Microsoft would never succeed in understanding customer needs—particularly needs customers themselves didn’t know they had—and delivering solutions to meet those needs. The bet paid off, as Microsoft’s staff found ways to upgrade and enhance products that had users exclaiming, “I didn’t know I could do that!”
A personal philosophy is one thing. A business strategy is generally seen as something to do with the hard calculation of the business numbers. Yet Nadella made empathy tcentral to Microsoft’s business strategy.
The term “empathy” has since figured prominently and consistently in Nadella’s internal and external presentations. It is mentioned 53 times in his book, Hit Refresh . Nadella argues there that without empathy, Microsoft would never succeed in understanding customer needs—particularly needs customers themselves didn’t know they had—and delivering solutions to meet those needs. The bet paid off, as Microsoft’s staff found ways to upgrade and enhance products that have had users exclaiming, “I didn’t know I could do that!”
What Is Empathy?
What then is empathy? It has been defined as “the capacity to understand or feel what another person is experiencing from within their frame of reference, that is, the capacity to place oneself in another's position.”
It involves “a person communicating an accurate recognition of the significance of another person's ongoing intentional actions, associated emotional states, and personal characteristics in a manner that the recognized person can tolerate.”
Cognitive empathy isn’t touchy-feely stuff. It’s about thinking through what another person must be feeling and thus understanding their needs might be and how their needs could be met.
Empathy Can Be Enhanced Through Practice
As it happens, my workshops on leadership storytelling have shown over the last two decades have shown how everyone can rapidly improve their ability to empathize with others I have spent the last couple of decades coaching executives how to get inside the mindset of those they are seeking to persuade to see and do something differently—the resisters. By working together in small groups, people can quickly intuit what others must be thinking and feeling. This enables in turn crafting a narrative that can resonate with such a person. Without such empathy and understanding a leader is flying blind.
You can find out what this means for you and your organization, at these two LIVE events::
领英推荐
Register for my FREE WEBINAR August 25th, 8am – 9am (PST) Register Here
In this quick introduction to modern leadership, we will show what’s involved in leading with empathy, and how it bears on your success. (Sponsored by The Rendanheyi Silicon Valley Center and given jointly with professors Bill Fischer, and Annika Steiber.)
Enroll in my online EXECUTIVE TRAINING COURSE Winning in The Age Of Digital October 27, November 3, & November 10, 2021. Register here
This interactive course is for executives—individually or in teams—who want to enhance their understanding and leadership skills for the age of digital. The course will cover six key areas:
What participants said about the April course: “Mind blowing!” “Inspiring!” “Life changing!”
Register here for yourself—and your team.
Learn more here
P.S. If you know someone who could benefit from these opportunity, send them this email.
P.P.S. Here’s another great opportunity to learn:
Attend the online conference WORLD AGILITY FORUM September 25-26. Register here .
“Doing the impossible by overcoming the obstacles” with a host of world class speakers including Aaron Bjork (Microsoft), Curt Carlson (former CEO, SRI), Michael Lurie (McKinsey), Darrell Rigby (Bain), Vivek Wadhwa Raymond Hofmann, Professors Rita McGrath, Carlota Perez, and Annika Steiber and myself.
P.P.P.S. When you are ready …. here?are more ways to get on top of the new leadership challenges from my Forbes column at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevedenning including
Steve Denning there is nothing that replaces the importance of Empathy in an organization. We are human beings and we need to treat each other as humans. We need to feel and understand what our colleagues feel in order for the organization to reach its maximum potential.
I help leaders empower people and enable better work flow.
3 年Enjoyed this Steve Denning especially the quote you called out from Satya Nadella: “Ideas excite me. Empathy grounds and centers me.”
AI Ready, Actionable Insights - Data, KM, CoPilot, SharePoint Premium Strategist
3 年How about lean agile story telling with empathy? Mr. Steve Denning