- From day one of his tenure as Microsoft CEO,
Satya Nadella embraced empathy as integral
to his business strategy and believes it has been
instrumental to his success,
increasing the company's value significantly
since his appointment in 2014.
He believes nothing has a more positive
and productive effect than the ability to put yourself
in someone else's shoes, especially their customers.
We too can benefit from empathy,
to understand people's perspectives and experiences,
whether our clients or coworkers,
our partners or vendors across our ecosystem.
How else can we comprehend our customers
and their changing needs
so we can work out how to address them?
To accomplish this, our talent has to work together
more closely, connecting, communicating,
and collaborating effectively,
which means we need to recognize
the essential role of empathy
in a human-centric business and work environment.
How else can we gather multidisciplinary,
cross-functional teams who bring together
a diversity of backgrounds, opinions, and ideas,
and expect them to build
trust-based, productive relationships?
How can we have fruitful interactions
dealing with ongoing uncertainties,
working through challenging issues
and developing compelling solutions?
To nurture a strong cultural foundation,
empathy is a core corporate value to highlight.
Empathy is also a crucial mindset,
considering and respecting other's points of view,
reinforcing the open-mindedness and inclusion
that are essential in current, evolving
and unpredictable conditions.
To practice your empathy skills,
adopt the three steps of empathy.
First is think, cognitive empathy,
activating your curiosity to imagine how others
think about the world.
For example, how does your colleague think differently
to you about certain aspects of a project?
Next is feel, affective empathy,
identifying and connecting with how others feel
about particular matters,
such as considering someone's facial expression
and body language during a video call
to recognize if they're engaged, concerned, or distracted.
Lastly, act, empathetic action,
incorporating that information and acting
based on your new understanding.
For instance, exploring an uncovered issue in more detail
before continuing or postponing a discussion
until an unrelated situation is resolved.
Empathy is called a soft skill,
but it puts you in a stronger position
with more intelligence about another person's views,
where they are coming from, their state of mind
and how they are likely to react to different situations.
To enhance your awareness of other people's points of view
and what they're going through
in all your business interactions,
infuse empathy habits into your external
and internal work routines.
Here are some of the many daily habits you can start.
Paying attention during employee and customer interactions
to observe others demeanors, ways of talking
or responsiveness and tone of written communications.
For example, someone sounds hesitant so you discover why.
Intentionally stepping back from your judgements
and reactions to focus on another's reply.
Decoding and confirming their meaning
and validating their comments,
such as saying, "Can I confirm you meant," or, "Good point."
Purposely carving out time to develop relationships
with coworkers and finding common ground
to improve your mutual ability to empathize,
like finding out their latest binged watch series
or sports team.
The more strategic you are in how you integrate
and use empathy, the better your relationships
and results will be in your professional
as well as your personal life.