Compete by Leading with Empathy

“Focusing on the human element is becoming one of the most important factors in unlocking and sustaining organizational performance” – Deloitte, ​Global Human Capital Trends Report 2024​

Your organization and operations is primed to stay agile. AI agents and augmentations are being prepared to power new capabilities. Work is being unbundled into tasks and matched and assigned by skills. Yet human understanding is always at the core of value creation in the flow of work:

• CEOs energizing the workforce with inspiring purpose.
• Executives adjusting expectations and motivating teams as they adapt for change and ambiguity.
• Managers engaging each team member and rallying the group to maximize results while trying to mitigate intergenerational friction.
• Distributed team leads interpreting cues and signals across video calls, coaching and course correcting to keep projects on track.
• Frontline employees listening actively, recognizing and quickly responding to customers' changing behaviors and demands.

EMPATHY—tuning into how another person thinks about and experiences the world—is at the core of each of these activities and fundamental to achieving clarity and beneficial outcomes for any interaction.

"In order for businesses to successfully transform, they must put humans at the center with empathetic leadership to create transparency and provide employees with psychological safety." — ​Kim Billeter​, Americas People Advisory Services Leader, EY.

EXPERIENCES—employees' and CEOs' experiences of many corporate cultures and work environments differ substantially, showing leaders who aren't tuning into what others go through and business results suffer:

​2025 State of Workplace Empathy,​ Business Solver

“You cannot reskill your way to the future without leaders who understand the humans doing the learning.” — ​Ravin Jesuthasan​, Work Without Jobs.

DISCONNECTED—leaders who do not strive to understand and relate to their team members as individual people (humans) face multiplying issues as employees disengage and well-being deteriorates:

• 46% of employees believe their boss only somewhat or rarely understands their contributions [​2025 Workplace Perception Gap Survey​, The Predictive Index].
• Employees at unempathetic workplaces are 1.3X more likely to experience a mental health issue.
• 50% of employees report mental health issues. 61% experience burnout at unempathetic organizations, while 45% experience it at empathetic ones. [​2025 State of Workplace Empathy,​ Business Solver].
• 78% of executives say workers are/will be affected by burnout and exhaustion, 81% by rapidly evolving skills needs, and 73% by the increasing complexity of work [Deloitte ​2024 Well-being at Work​].

Empathy is second nature to us as humans. Empathy skills are not often used to foster productive work environments and team interactions, or support employee well-being. Consider these core empathy habits:

LISTEN ACTIVELY - Are you sure you understood what your direct report meant? You can confirm at the end by restating in your own words.

ASK OPEN QUESTIONS - Are you drawing out the necessary information about a situation? Query so you get useful, explanatory answers.

WITHHOLDING JUDGMENTS - Do your reactions impact your responses? Put your opinions aside until you know the details and get others' opinions.

COACH NOT COMMAND - Do you feel the need to have all the answers? Asking for ideas, and help, stimulates employees' trust and contributions.

FACILITATE COLLABORATION - Do you share first as the leader? Solicit everyone's ideas before offering yours to prompt open discussion.

“In addition to confidence, a CEO must have empathy.” In Nadella’s view, empathy is a key source of business innovation. – ​2018 Wharton interview​ with Satya Nadella, CEO Microsoft.

Purpose: Assess how well empathy—a core value of a human-centered culture and a core human-centric leadership skill—is practiced and perceived across your team or organization.

SECTION 1: TEAM MEMBER EXPERIENCE (Employee Self-Report)

Instructions: Answer based on your experience with your direct manager or team lead over the past 3 months.

Scale: 1 = Strongly Disagree → 5 = Strongly Agree

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‍SECTION 2: MANAGER/LEADER REFLECTION (Self-Audit)

Instructions: Managers answer the following prompts to reflect on how much they recognize and practice their empathy skills.

1. When was the last time I asked someone on my team how they think and feel about a project or change?
2. Do I know the top stressors that my team is currently navigating?
3. How do I adapt my communication style to each team member?
4. When conflict arises, do I seek clarity and understanding before trying to resolve the situation?
5. How often do I give teammates feedback that includes praise, concern, and curiosity?
6. Am I aware of how my own stress or emotions affect how I lead or react in different scenarios?
7. What’s one thing I’ve done in the last two weeks for each team member that made them feel seen or supported?

SECTION 3: TEAM PULSE SUMMARY (Optional Checkins)

Use this pulse every 6–12 weeks and discuss as a team - “Where do we feel strong?” “Where can we improve together?” Aggregate anonymous scores across a team/department using a Likert average to track:

When you intentionally practice empathy, you can improve your relationships and interactions with customers and coworkers alike.

📘 ​Empathy Works: The Key to Competitive Advantage​ in the new work era.

🗞️ ​Five Leadership Lessons for 'Tough' CEOs​ — Learning what works.  

📹 ​Satya Nadella on empathy​ — The most formidable skill of all.

🎶 ​Understanding​ by Ray Charles — Putting yourself in another's shoes.

Would you or your managers benefit from leading with more empathy to reduce friction and achieve greater insights, impact, and progress?

I offer tailored executive coaching and human-centric leadership sessions at organizations look to scale and grow during uncertainty. New slots for June and July - ​Click here to book a trial 30-minute session​.

Next week when I will be focusing on distributed teamwork.

See you again then!

Sophie