Empathy is required of all leaders most times in all organizations to foster performance but being an empathetic leader works both ways, the positive side and the negative sides and if not properly channeled can be a source of negative enablement.
On the positive sides, empathy means understanding that there are both cheetah-speed and snail-speed individuals in the organization and it is expected that you respect both equally as you are working with them. Empathy is recognizing the feeling of others and connecting with them. I would say that, empathy is showing a human face. Because as a leader, you are human, people expect you to be human to them too which is perfectly normal. People tend to react to other people showing care for their feelings and it has proven to work in corporate organizations. But there is an old saying that goes, for every advantage, there is a disadvantage. This is true for showing empathy.
When as a leader, you recognize and connect with the feelings of your under-leaders, they tend to bond to you and respect you. They become aware that their feelings are valid and are not scared to show them. Showing empathy will involve, reaching out to your under-leaders when they are sick, when they lose someone, just reaching out to them when something bad happens in their life. And on the other hand, celebrating with them when something pleasant happens in their lives also. It isn’t wrong to be present in your under-leader’s house when you are invited to his/her birthday party. And you go there as a well-wisher not as a boss. Being empathetic is just being human.
On the other hand, overly, misguided empathy for your team of under-leaders can be counterproductive as it may make out of you, a laissez faire leader. This means instead of spurring your people to be better performers, you allow them get away with certain things that they should not get away with. This may involve taking over or reassigning tasks unexecuted or done shabbily without reprimand or some sort of consequence. When under-leaders know that you are ‘kind’ or ‘empathetic’ and you will let them off the hook easily, they tend to behave whichever way suits them. They may not finish assignments and will give you a flimsy excuse for it and because you’re being empathetic, you do not scold them. No, that is the wrong side of empathy. Empathy does not mean putting all your weight behind the weak, it just respecting them for their consistent tiny bitty contributions, whilst you help them stretch and grow, even if it is a little bit at a time. Empathy towards the highly contributory, will be to flag their efforts and reward more their achievements as a result of collaboration with others, especially the weak in the organization.
Whilst being empathetic is good, it is important that you do not let it get in the way of your under-leader’s performance.
