Human Resources Issues for Senior Management
Issue link: https://digital.hrreporter.com/i/699912
18/CANADIAN HR STRATEGY PHOTO: SHUTTERSTOCK your employee base is, what the needs of your organization is, then you can really organize your management, leadership and organizational practice to address that," he says. "Given the recent economic crises that have happened and the profound mistrust that people have in organizations, and that people are starting to demand more from an organization and start to understand how they're ethically oriented, it makes an amazingly compelling case for why empathy is going to be an essential trait for leadership teams within organizations in order to be successful." Without a doubt, the better a leader can understand his team and workforce, the better the productivity's going to be, says Carreau. "If you're disconnected from your workforce, you're not go- ing to be able to leverage the full value of your human capital." Empathy can also help on the global stage, as broader aware- ness can help set people up for success, says Dowden. "With empathy comes a natural curiosity for someone else's reality, to make us more open to other people's circumstances and experiences. So it maximizes the chances that we're go- ing to pick up on critical information that we may miss if we're looking to advance our own agenda, so then that broadens our perspective." LEARNING TO BE EMPATHETIC So, can empathy be learned or is it something a person has to be born with? It's a good question, says Carreau. "Often, if (they) can reframe how others see them and they understand it, it helps people change. But the reality is not ev- eryone wants to change so it's a little bit of that can-do versus will-do as well. So it takes a little bit longer, and it's de nitely a different leadership skill than someone who's particularly busy and isn't spending a lot of time with their team. To truly under- stand where someone's coming from, you've got to be a great listener, you've got to be able to repeat what they're saying to you, make sure that you've heard them well, all those kinds of pieces, but you need leaders that are willing to invest that time There's also been a shift from IQ to EQ in the boardroom that has carried with it more empathy skills, without necessarily targeting empathy, he says. "If you have a fairly high EQ, that would almost presume by de nition that you must have some empathy skills because it's part of emotional intelligence. And I think there's also the sus- tainability so I think, in some circumstances, leaders can have short-term success with a lack of empathy skills but over the longer haul… in a turnaround or in certain circumstances where a lack of empathy can work quite effectively, there'll likely still be a change going forward at some point because I just think it's not sustainable for a long period of time without some degree of empathy and emotional intelligence." The expectations of leaders have changed, says Carreau. "People expect a much more well-rounded, holistic leader. We all know, decades ago, the command-and-control leader- ship style was prevalent and expected. Today, workers are abso- lutely demanding a different kind of leader and different work- ing conditions for sure." LINKING EMPATHY TO PERFORMANCE Strong empathy skills and strong relationships build much higher levels of engagement, and the statistics on disengage- ment, in North America and around the world, are alarming, says Town. "Empathy demonstrates that you care. And I think that builds engagement, so you get discretionary efforts, you get better productivity, people come to work more motivated, they want to work for you, back to the gen y and gen x — I think they are more dedicated to their boss than they are the orga- nization." One of the strongest drivers of engagement is around trust in senior leadership, says Dowden, meaning employees believe their leaders have their best interest at heart and are actively looking out for their well-being. "It's easy to make the argument that empathy would be a key cornerstone of that because being aware of what the needs of "Given the recent economic crises and the profound mistrust people have in organizations, it makes an amazingly compelling case for why empathy is going to be an essential trait for leadership teams."