Why do the world’s leading organizations need employees with high empathy? People with high empathy have a broader set of soft skills that are highly crucial for business success this decade. According to a Deloitte study soft skill-intensive occupations will account for two-thirds of all jobs by 2030.
There are five reasons why empathy is crucial for business success. So let’s take a look why empaths can make a difference.
Reason 1: Business success requires great communication – here is how empaths can help
Empaths are perfect at managing workplace conflicts. Because of their high emotional intelligence they quickly get to the root of the problem. What might be a rational problem on the surface often is caused by a bruised ego or hurt feelings. As a result empathy in the workplace is crucial for any business success.
According to the CPP Global Human Capital Report “U.S. employees spend 2.8 hours per week dealing with conflict, equating to approximately $359 billion in paid hours in 2008.1 The question for management, therefore, is not whether it can be avoided or mitigated; the real concern is how conflict is dealt with. If managed improperly, businesses’ productivity, operational effectiveness, and morale take a major hit, as evidenced in our finding that 27 percent of employees have witnessed conflict morph into a personal attack, while 25 percent say that the avoidance of conflict resulted in sickness or absence from work.”
As a result, empaths can have a huge impact on cost reduction. This will lead to your business doing well.
Why Empathy is Crucial for Business Success – Reason 2: Empathic People Can Take Care of People
Empathic people have the ability of truly caring for others. No matter if those people are employees or clients. One of the reasons is that they have a higher level of self-awareness and are more engaged in self-care.
An Example for Empathy and Business Success
If you ever feel like experiencing empathetic people in action, I strongly recommend visiting the Waldorf Astoria in Orlando.
I don`t love it because it is the newest, biggest or most beautiful hotel. I love the way they train and seem to treat their employees. As a customer I interact with different staff members: at valet parking, check-in, the restaurant or the house-keeping. Wherever I am in the hotel, they always give me a very authentic feeling that they truly care about my experience at the hotel.
They seem to be trained amazingly well. Whenever I ask for something and they cannot fulfill it they try to compensate for it with giving me a little incentive like a voucher for a drink or breakfast. It is not mainly monetary compensation. It leaves me with the feeling that they are empathic with the fact that they could not meet my expectations and fulfill my requests. Many of them are truly empathetic.
The service industry is a people`s industry. As a customer I heavily depend on the interaction with employees. People who are tired, burned out or work in a company that doesn`t fit with their needs of social interaction will never be able to give us customers the feeling they care and want us to be happy and satisfied. In Orlando, more modern luxury hotels open all the time. But as a customer I want to make sure that I spend my time with people who care and are cared for. Consequently, the Waldorf Astoria gets my business.
Empaths can help to lower employee retention
Emapths can help to identify employees’ needs in the workplace. The happier your team members are the more likely they will stay.
Employee retention programs usually have different elements. What works for one person, might not be motivating for the others. An empath has the ability to clearly understand what matters for an individual. Keep in mind that according to the Deloitte study “Soft Skills for business success” “businesses spend $7 billion annually on recruitment.” If the empath helps you to lower the employee retention rate, your company’s cost saving can be significant. Therefore include empathetic people in your cost saving strategy.
Recommended for you: Simple and Savvy Stress Management.
Reason 3: Data analysis is a key for business success – here is how empathy can help achieving better results
Empathetic people can use their emotional intelligence to do better at data analysis. This helps boost business success. But why do employees with higher levels of empathy have an advantage when analyzing data? With all the data that is produced, the skill to decide which data is relevant becomes absolutely crucial. According to a study by he Australian researcher Joel Pearson and his team were the first to prove that applying intuition to decision making leads to better and faster decisions.
So what does intuition mean? Pearson and his team defined intuition as the influence of “unconscious emotional information” from the body or the brain, such as an instinctive feeling or sensation.
Other scientists support this thesis. One of the is the American scientist Gary Klein. He has already worked with the military.
Klein has proven how important it is to pay attention to hunches, impulses, insights and gut feelings. All of them occur below the conscious level.
Empathetic people usually have a higher rate of self-awareness. Thus they get more relevant information and can make more successful decisions. In addition Gary Klein emphasizes the importance of experience. Hence more experience will usually leads to better decision making.
Reason 4: Empaths can detect early warning signals
Empaths with a healthy body and a trained intuition can identify dangers that might be invisible to the eyes, but identified by a gut feeling. Especially in industries where knowledge needs to be protected they can be extremely valuable.
Can empaths read minds? Empaths don’t read minds. Instead they use all their senses to create a picture of what is going on in another person. Thus they have the ability to understand if someone is honest for example or simply reveal the unknown. This might be especially helpful for the Military and Intelligence Services.
Why Empathy is Crucial for Business Success – Reason 5: Empaths can help finding the right work force
Empaths have the ability to choose the right person for the right job. Especially In crucial industries like defense, success and failure of a single person can impact the whole organization. Therefore, the challenge and responsibility to pick the right person for the right job is tremendous. A highly empathetic person will ask: “is this the right person for this job?” He or she will get more information through his or her mirror neurons and can then sense if the chosen one truly has the confidence and skills to take on the job. Consequently, try to hire a consultant if you don`t have an empath in your HR team.
Also Read: Six empathetic questions to ask a job interviewer
Be savvy – Be smart – Hire an Empath
Your business success is most important. Try to implement empathy to your own advantage.
Give it a go. You will love what you can be.
If you want to know more about Highly Empathic People read our article “Are you an empath?. If you are looking for an empathetic leadership consultant, talk to us. We are happy to help.
