Effective Conversations: Demonstrating Empathy
Empathy requires you to understand another’s feelings and concerns, flowing from awareness of your own feelings, while interacting with another human being. You can literally feel as they feel. An empathic person can read emotional currents and notice nonverbal cues, such as tone of voice or facial expression and, with sophisticated emotional intelligence, can move or adjust their behaviour based on what they sense. They can appreciate not only
what the other person is saying, but also
why they are saying it. At the highest levels, they also understand where the other person’s feelings come from – their source.
In a pragmatic sense,
demonstrated empathy can include:
- Having noticed an emotion or mood, acknowledging it, such as … and it upsets you that … or So you feel anxious about …
- Repeating back what you thought you heard, such as I want to be sure I understood you or What I hear you saying is … or If I got your message here …
Other useful phrases include:
- You seem to be … am I right?
- You feel … have I read you correctly?
- You appear to be … have I read this well? If not, what would you say?
How good are you at demonstrating empathy in conversations?
Download our
Free demonstrating empathy self assessment below, an extract from our highly pragmatic
Leader As Coach Workbook. Determine what areas you think you can improve or maintain and how.
JGA Leader As Coach Extract – Demonstrating Empathy Assessment
Read more on Effective Conversations here:
Effective Conversations Part 1: Conversation Not Debate
Effective Conversations Part 2: Thinking Together
