Empathy

Today, Gen Z forms 30% of the world’s population (Zurich, 2022). By 2025, they will make up 27% of the global workforce. This highly ambitious generation of digital natives is changing the way we view leadership. Forbes (May 2023) reported that Gen Z considers empathy the second most important trait in leaders. Through empathy, leaders establish a value-based relationship with their employees focused on trust, respect, and curiosity. These relationships have a positive impact on organizational well-being.

Empathy, very different from sympathy, is your ability to internalize, identify with, and share in the feelings experienced by others. According to The Center for Creative Leadership (January 2023), empathic leadership is a leader's ability to understand the needs of their employees and be aware of their feelings and thoughts. Their research showed that emphatic leadership has a positive impact on job performance. A survey by EY (November 2022) validates and extends this. Not only are managers with emphatic leadership skills more productive, but so are their employees. More than 75% of employees experienced increased productivity when mutual empathy is present. This data shows that while new generations may prioritize empathy, all generations benefit from its presence in the workplace. Therefore, leaders must be hired based on their ability to display empathy or be trained to do so. Empathic leadership, resonating with the feelings of others, is a must-have skill for managers to ensure high performance.

There's a correlation between empathy in the workplace and employee retention. In EY's study (November 2022), 55% of employees indicated that they previously left a job because their employer did not value their well-being. 88% shared that empathy is key to cultivating an inclusive workplace. One of the factors leading to employee turnover is low engagement. In EY's study, 38% of disengaged employees say their well-being is not prioritized. At a time when talent has the upper hand in the labor market, companies have to ensure they're not giving employees reasons to leave. That's why they must address empathy and reevaluate whether leadership is prioritizing employee well-being. This requires actively listening to employees, especially those disengaged from work. To increase retention, leaders must be empathic, prioritize employee well-being, and focus on engagement.

We are very good at recognizing whether someone is sincere or not. Empathy is about sincerity. Nearly half of the employees (46%) feel that the efforts made by leaders to be empathic are dishonest (EY, 2023). When leaders are unable to empathize with their employees, the effects can be detrimental. According to research by T. Van Bommel (The power of empathy in times of crisis and beyond; Catalyst; 2021), employees with managers that display low empathy are less creative (13%) and less engaged (32%). Employees managed by leaders that are considered highly emphatic are 48% more creative (61%) and 44% more engaged (76%). There is no faking empathy. You can, however, learn to be empathic. Employees take notice of empathic leadership and reward it with more creativity and higher engagement.

The soft skills needed for empathy can be hard to train because practical exercises are difficult to come by. In 2021, Zendesk launched an initiative that facilitates a space for growth and change. Their so-called empathy circles are loosely structured meetups for employees to converse about social topics. What is shared by participants is kept free from judgment or retaliation and doesn't leave the empathy circle. 95% of participants in the initiative shared that these meetups helped cultivate empathy and a sense of safety in the work environment. The example provides leaders with an opportunity to practice empathy in a setting that employees crave. Companies engaging in such initiatives signal the value of empathy to their leadership. Through easy-to-start practical exercises, such as regular unstructured social talks, leaders learn to listen, adopt authentic perspective-taking,  and develop compassion.

How we perceive and experience empathy differs based on our demographics. Catalyst's research (2021) clearly shows that women of color are least likely to feel respected and valued (60%). White men, on the other side, are most likely to experience these feelings (79%). The study indicates that investments in empathic leadership have the biggest impact on underrepresented groups. There's a 40% difference between what women of color experience under the management of lowly empathetic senior leaders (40%) versus those managed by highly empathetic leaders (80%). For white women, the gap is the biggest, namely 51%. For men of color, the difference is 42%. For white men, the difference is just 22%. A negative effect of low-empathy workplaces is that 61% of employees mask their identities in some way because they fear drawing unwanted focus or making others feel uncomfortable (Deloitte, 2019).  Leaders must develop empathy to boost feelings of respect and value. Better representation of minorities in leadership roles is needed regardless. Meaningful investments in empathic leadership skills yield positive results, most noticeable among women and people of color.

The prioritization of empathy by Gen Z helps investments in leadership skills that drive up the productivity of managers and employees. Highly empathetic leaders understand the value of employee well-being, have more creative and engaged employees, and experience lower employee turnover. Empathy is trained through practical exercises and produces measurable results. Empathic leadership cultivates inclusion and equitability in the workplace.