Effective Empathy: The Secret of Successful Leaders and Organizations

Empathy Overview

Empathy is one of the most important business skills because it is the foundation of leadership and sales success in today’s diverse world of work. Individuals with the skill of empathy know how to anticipate and meet the needs of co-workers and customers and develop innovative products and services. We define the word “Empathy” as the ability to understand someone else’s feelings, experiences and influences by imagining what it would be like to be in that person’s situation.

People who are empathetic have a more refined understanding of the perspectives of employees, customers and clients. They are more engaged in their job, work well with different people and are more successful leaders. Empathy also drives innovation by enabling people with this skill to intuitively identify new ways to meet the needs of others.

Need for Empathy Training

Some people do not believe that empathy can be taught. However, we discovered that the secret of teaching empathy is helping people understand the role of influence in a person’s perspective and behavior. All people are a product of their influences. Their language, accent, culture, favorite music, preferred sports teams, political beliefs, etc. are developed from the many different influences in their life. People do what do, think the way they think and accomplish what they accomplish because of influence. The skill of empathy can only be developed when a person understands how their own influences relate to other people’s influences. I created the “Effective Empathy^TM” training program to help people through this empathy growth process.

In today’s global economy, diversity is the rule not the exception. Companies are hiring and selling to people with different nationalities, cultures, genders, races, religions and special needs. The most successful companies will utilize Effective Empathy training to hire and develop diverse employees. They will also be able to use the skills developed in this training to sell products and services to a diverse customer base.

Effective Empathy vs. Ineffective Empathy

The Effective Empathy training program helps individuals and organizations become more successful in hiring, developing, retaining and selling to diverse individuals. This training is aligned with the extraordinary Sourcabled employment program developed by Rangam Consultants whose motto is “Empathy Drives Innovation.” We define the word “Effective” as producing the desired results. Effective Empathy is the process of understanding other’s feelings and supporting those individuals or groups in a way that is meaningful to them. Too many organizations utilize an approach that can be described as “Ineffective Empathy” where they understand the needs of others but implement programs that are meaningful to the organization not the people they are supposedly trying to support.

For example, many companies hire individuals on the Autism spectrum. However, only the exceptional organizations utilize the Effective Empathy training provided by the Rangam Sourceabled program. Other organizations hire individuals on the Spectrum without training their staff on ways to effectively and sensitively provide positive support and development to these employees with unique talents. This results in employees who are not able to reach their full potential.

Effective Empathy Training

The Effective Empathy Training is successful because it utilizes four powerful steps that apply to individuals in any organization in any industry.

Step 1: The first step in the training process is called “Empathy Awareness.” Many people are not aware of their personal influences and do not understand why they do what they do. In this section of the training, we help participants uncover their personal influences and learn how to develop a healthy “Self-Empathy.” This self-awareness is the foundation of the process of enhancing a person’s ability to empathize with different people.

Step 2: The second step of the process is called “Empathy Impact” where we identify the areas where participant’s influences have made them empathetic or insensitive to different people or situations. We discuss participant’s empathy strengths and weaknesses and the impact that they have on the people they work with and the organization as a whole.

Step 3: The third step of the process is called “Empathy Management” where we teach participants how to enhance their empathy skills based on the things we identified in Step 2. We develop specific customized strategies to help people overcome their empathy weaknesses and build on their empathy strengths.

Step 4: The fourth step in the process is called “Empathy Maximization” where we teach participants how to maximize the effectiveness of their empathy skills in the workplace. We utilize real life scenarios, videos and role play to help participants develop and enhance their Effective Empathy skills in a way that will be beneficial to their boss, co-workers, the people they supervise and the organization. 

Contact Information

The Effective Empathy training will help organizations not only retain and engage employees, it will provide valuable leadership skills to every participant. It can also help companies significantly increase sales of products and services to a new and diverse customer base. If you would like more information about our Effective Empathy training program, please contact Nish Parikh, CEO of Rangam Consultants, at (908) 704-8843 extension 124.