Embark on a journey through the heart of emotional intelligence with us as we delve into the world of empathy, a crucial skill sharpened in the shadows of the pandemic. Discover the profound ways in which empathy can transform workplace dynamics and personal connections. Through an enlightening exercise at a client site, we witnessed the power of truly listening without judgment, and Ken's story illuminates the unexpected revelations that come from tuning into colleagues' emotions. Prepare to be inspired by the dramatic shifts in communication and team bonding that arise when empathy takes center stage.
Our dialogue traverses the nuances of empathetic interaction, where care and concern go beyond innate traits and become skills to cultivate with intention. Learn from our experiences and the changes we observe when empathy is actively practiced within professional environments. This episode is not just an exploration, but also a practical guide to enhancing your own empathetic listening. Join us to transform your approach to relationships and communication, and experience the ripple effect it has on your world.
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Speaker 1:
Now, the third tenant of emotional intelligence is really an important one empathy, and we've heard a lot about it, especially since the pandemic, and when you think about it, it's the ability to understand others' emotional makeup and attributes. Skill or with people according to their emotional makeup, meaning we subscribe to be around people like us, someone who's very volatile versus very calm. They're going to have a tough time working through things, but it's the ability to understand others' makeup and attributes. Want to share with you a very quick exercise we did at a client site and we asked everybody in the meeting one half of the meeting, I should say participants to not offer opinions or suggestions and to not offer judgments but to dive in empathetically to what other people were going through.
Speaker 1:
And remember this guy, ken, called me later and he said it was amazing. He said you know what I found is I found myself resisting to judge or have an opinion. He said that was hard. He said, but you know what was more amazing when I dove in and asked people well, how does that impact you? What does that do for you? And he said I heard people say it's devastating. This is overwhelming. I'm not sleeping, he said.
Speaker 1:
I never once knew the impact of the work we were doing was having that dramatic of effect on people. We just tend to focus on the issues and if we don't get our way, we kind of like pound our feet and stomp our hands, or pound our hands on the table and stomp our feet like kids. He said it was amazing how much we had better communication with people in terms of teammates within the meeting. He said I've never been that intently focused, finding out how other people feel. Now, the funny thing was the other half of the group did not know this was occurring and they walked out and said, wow, this is really different. People really started to care about us. I think people always cared. Yet if you don't practice empathy, you can't show empathy. If you don't show empathy, we also can be judged and labeled.