Cultivating empathy at the workplace

Nobody likes to work in an environment where the team members and your manager are just not interested in listening to your concerns. Yes, I am talking about the ability to share, feel and understand the feeling of others at the workplace. In other words, the ability to empathise at the workplace is extremely essential both for the employee and the company.

Suppose, you appear to be disinterested in working on your project due to some personal problem. But, your manager is just not concerned about the reason for this disinterestedness. Moreover, you are unable to share your problem with your colleagues as well. Now, this kind of working environment is certainly not wanted by an employee.

It is vital to develop an empathetic atmosphere at the workplace because it simply increases the productivity of the employees. In addition, this is an essential trait that every manager should possess if he wants his team to excel above others. It gives a feeling to the employees that there is someone to listen to their woes. Hence, developing the quality to empathise is beneficial at the workplace.

Let us understand few simple ways in which you can develop the quality to empathise at your workplace.

1. Develop the Ability to Listen: While working in your office, it is essential to develop the ability to listen to your team members working around you. Now, listening is just not hearing but understanding the meaning behind the words. It is to be noted that even by watching the body language of your co-workers; you can understand their mood and state of mental being.

However, in the post-Covid-19 scenario, you might wonder how to develop this feeling of understanding and sharing the feeling of your co-workers. These days, remote working has become the order of the day for most companies. It is also to be noted that the concept of remote working has brought about feeling of demotivation and low morale among the employees. So, it has become all the more important to develop this feeling of empathy in you in order to survive in this uncertain and unpredictable work environment.

Here, you can take the help of video conferencing to understand the feelings of your team members. Video conferencing once a week helps to cultivate the team building spirit and you can easily listen and comprehend the views and ideas expressed by your team members. It is to be noted that even teleconferencing is helpful wherein you can understand the true feeling of the other via the tone or pitch used by the individual.

2. Ask Questions: Simply listening to your co-workers is just not enough. It is vital for you to ask questions either at the workplace or while working from a remote location. When you ask questions, your team member gets the feeling that you are concerned about him. This in turn will lead to a conversation between you and your colleague disclosing a lot of things both at the personal and professional level. Thus, when you begin to converse you get to know several things about your co-worker which gradually helps you to empathise with your team member.

3. Remember that people have feelings: It is to be noted that while working overtime to achieve deadlines, human beings have become more or less like a robot. You need to remember that every one of us has feelings and emotions which when subdued can be extremely harmful for the growth of the individual employee and his organization. So, the next time, do not ignore a smile or a sign of acceptance from your co-worker, instead go ahead and talk to him. Only when you talk and comprehend the feelings of your co-workers, then can you truly empathise with them.

4. Only gradually, can you learn to empathise: Cultivating the quality to empathise at the workplace is necessary but unfortunately, it cannot be developed overnight. It is a human emotion and hence, unless you feel for the person next to you; you can never learn or acquire it. The ability to understand and share the emotions and feelings of your team members has to come from within and it can certainly take time to develop. You need to have patience to listen to others and understand their concerns both personal and related to work. All this cannot happen at the click of a mouse or at one go; it will take time and you need to constantly endeavour towards talking and starting a cordial conversation with your co-workers in order to understand their feelings and emotions.

Therefore, do not undervalue the importance of empathy at the workplace. Employees who feel that their voices and concerns are being listened to, tend to contribute actively towards the productivity of their company. Employees look forward towards working in a workplace which is compassionate and empathetic towards them.