Here are 20 handy ways that you can improve your empathy at work
Forging solid connections between co-workers will make you feel better and work better. Image: nazire avlar/Shutterstock

Here are 20 handy ways that you can improve your empathy at work

8 Dec 2017

It is more important than ever to foster good relationships in the office, both for the sake of your team and for your own wellbeing. Here’s a handy guide on improving your empathy.

The need for empathy in the workplace has never been more apparent than today.

Employers are increasingly stressing a soft skills requirement when seeking out candidates. Work environments are more collaborative than ever before.

The jewels in the soft skills crown are, undoubtedly, empathy and compassion. Being able to relate to your co-workers is the essential step to being able to communicate effectively.

In turn, for bosses to be able to demand anything of their employees, said employees need to feel like they are valued and understood. The more traditional view that the best way to do leadership is to drive productivity at any cost, regardless of the impact of this kind of behaviour on staff, has been thoroughly debunked in recent years.

It is easy to approach things like empathy with a pretty fixed mindset, assuming that it is something you either are born with or aren’t. It’s not exactly something people can be easily assessed on, since it’s a pretty subjective concept.

However, that is not to say all hope is lost. There is no reason you cannot make small, tangible changes to help bridge any gaps in your emotional intelligence. Fortunately, Get CRM has compiled a number of tips for improving your empathy.

The infographic below takes a two-pronged approach to the question of productivity. You can boost your own personal levels of empathy by travelling to new, far-flung places (I’m sure most people don’t need to be too forcefully convinced to take a holiday), read more and conduct a sort of personal inventory of your own personal biases, which you can set out to circumvent with a number of checks and balances.

You can then demonstrate this empathy at work by listening to co-workers without interrupting them, not multitasking during conversations and acknowledging the perspectives of those around you.

For more information, check out the infographic below.

Image: Get CRM

Eva Short
By Eva Short

Eva Short was a journalist at Silicon Republic, specialising in the areas of tech, data privacy, business, cybersecurity, AI, automation and future of work, among others.

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