The Synergy of Empathy and Drive

By Hubert Saint-Onge

Some leaders believe that you can’t drive performance if you connect with how people feel at a personal level. However, data-driven evidence shows that connecting with colleagues at work results in better performance.    

In a previous blog on leadership presence, I mentioned that empirical research conducted by Zenger Folkman with a sample of 4,000 leaders concluded, contrary to common belief, that the combination of empathy and drive led to top-quartile performance. Project Oxygen at Google conducted an internal study showing that empathy was one of the critical characteristics of successful leaders. In a recent white paper based on data from 6,731 mid- to upper-middle managers in 38 countries, the Centre for Creative Leadership found that “empathetic leadership is positively related to job performance, particularly among middle managers and above.”  Managers rated as empathetic by subordinates were viewed as better performers by their bosses.”  This research shows that empathy is fundamental to leadership: not only is there a strong relationship between empathy and performance, but it is also a critical element of leadership practice to unlock the full performance potential of an organization.

These findings are further validated by Jacinda Arden, a Prime Minister in New Zeeland, who became a global example of authentic and empathetic leadership. In 2021, she was named at the top of Fortune’s World’s Greatest Leaders list. In the wake of the Christchurch tragedy, she rallied the country in a highly collaborative and decisive manner. She was consistent throughout in relating to people by sharing the pain people were experiencing.  As she handled a horrid crisis, she dealt with people as human beings experiencing fear and pain: she comforted them instead of seeing them as objects to be kept under control. Pointing to the people involved, she said, “They are us; we are one.” 

Far from showing weakness, Arden’s leadership style demonstrated courage and strength as she decisively tackled the issue of gun control despite opposition. Later, she imposed a wage freeze on public employees. There was no contradiction; her empathy and courageous strength dynamically reinforced one another. Through challenging times, she was able to harness the country's energy and unify it. Her support rate across the country reached 92%, a testament to the power of empathetic leadership.    

I. The definition of empathetic leadership   

Although empathy is a more nebulous concept in an organizational context, leadership drive is more familiar: setting stretched goals, setting incentives for meeting them and measuring performance.  The best way to describe empathy is that it relates to how people understand and relate to one another. It involves connecting with others at an emotional level. First, it consists of opening up to the emotions experienced by another person; second, trying to understand what is involved and why; and third, having compassion and sincerely wishing for them to feel better.  Compassion and kindness go further by extending a hand to help someone having trouble.  Empathy is fundamental to leadership. It becomes more critical in organizations that serve clients experiencing challenges such as health services.  Empathy helps people feel better about themselves, regardless of the circumstances.  

If people are more receptive and productive in an organizational context where they experience empathy, it begs the question of how leaders foster an environment where empathy is the norm.  Empathy is a skill that leaders can develop by spending more time building connections with authentic conversations.  Culture plays a key role because empathy becomes more challenging to express in an environment characterized by polarization and sarcasm.  Undoubtedly, a more conducive culture will help develop empathetic habits, highlighting the crucial role of culture in fostering empathy.

I.  The behaviours supporting empathy  

To enhance their performance, leaders must develop the capability of showing empathy to others. Developing empathy requires a more profound, longer-term commitment. Unlike other development goals they set for themselves, leaders must commit to practicing this skill whenever the opportunity presents itself.  As an integral part of their ongoing leadership practice, they need to give particular attention to the following behaviours:

• be attentive to people, show appreciation for others;
• show interest in the needs and aspirations of others;
• read their state of mind, sense disquiet and ask questions about how they feel;
• connect at a personal level and speak from the heart;
• listen skillfully, confirm what you have heard and express understanding;
• hold judgment, provide encouragement and support;
• focus on providing a warm, generous presence as if nothing else matters;
• put yourself in the other person’s place and convey compassion;
• support managers who show empathy

Of these behaviours, listening is the most important. Empathy is only possible with focused listening—as the adage goes, “The quieter you are, the more you can hear.”  Unfortunately, leaders often value what they say and their conclusions more than what they are told. Empathy is only possible when the leader has the self-confidence to listen to what is happening to the person, how they feel about it, and what they aspire to achieve. Leaders can ask the right questions to identify the most supportive paths forward by listening first.  Co-creating what needs to happen next will naturally emerge with trust and co-ownership. The drive then comes from mutual accountability. This applies just as well to a team member, a boss or a client, underscoring the importance of listening in empathetic leadership.  

I. The benefits of empathetic leadership

When leaders consistently demonstrate empathy, they develop strong connections that help build a culture of trust, collaboration, and coherence with greater receptivity to change.  These connections contribute to creating shared alignment and commitment across an enterprise.  

Empathetic leadership significantly boosts employee morale by creating a supportive and inclusive work environment where employees feel valued and understood. When leaders show empathy, employees are more likely to experience increased job satisfaction and engagement, as they think their personal and professional needs are being acknowledged. This leads to higher motivation and productivity, as employees are more willing to contribute to an organization that cares about their well-being. Empathetic leadership can reduce stress and burnout by fostering a culture of openness and mutual support. It enhances team communication and collaboration, leading to more cohesive and effective work dynamics. The overall result is a positive organizational culture that attracts and retains talent.

The long-term benefits of empathetic leadership include enhanced employee retention: team members are more likely to stay with an organization that values and supports them. It also improves organizational culture, characterized by trust, collaboration, and mutual respect. Over time, this environment fosters innovation, as employees feel safe to share ideas and take risks without fear of judgment. Empathetic leadership also strengthens team dynamics because understanding and cooperation become central to how teams function. Ultimately, organizations with empathetic leadership are more adaptable and resilient because it enables them to navigate challenges through strong interpersonal relationships and communication.

Empathy goes beyond simply understanding others' feelings; it involves building a work environment where employees feel genuinely supported and valued. Open dialogue and feedback allow leaders to understand their team members' unique needs and challenges. By addressing these needs, leaders can foster a sense of belonging and commitment, which enhances overall job satisfaction and productivity. Empathetic leaders are also more adept at conflict resolution, considering multiple perspectives and striving for solutions that benefit all parties involved. This helps maintain a harmonious workplace atmosphere.

Empathetic leadership fosters innovation. Knowing that their leaders support them, employees feel empowered to express their ideas and take initiative. Such leadership provides stability and reassurance, helping teams navigate challenges more effectively. When recently interviewed on a podcast, Satya Nadella of Microsoft took this further when asked about the key to innovation. He answered ‘empathy’ and explained why an empathetic perspective toward the outside environment and consumers is essential to innovation. He further commented that empathetic exchanges open the possibility of learning and understanding.

All this is only possible when empathy becomes the norm in an organizational culture.

IV. The challenge of building organizational empathy  

Helping individual leaders adopt empathy in their interactions is necessary: more is needed to optimize individual and organizational performance. The expression “Clean fish, dirty pond” powerfully describes how more enlightened senior leaders might aspire to improve leaders' empathetic behaviour (cleaning the fish). But they often end up surrounded by the wrong signals (the dirty pond), where potentially empathetic leaders struggle with an environment where every system, process, and decision conspires to discourage them from having meaningful conversations with people.

Leaders not aligned with the need for empathy in an effective organization can destroy an empathetic way of operating and cancel any benefits accrued in the past. Without a comprehensive approach, initially defined empathy standards can quickly lose currency. Eventually, leaders with poor interpersonal skills and a lack of natural empathy are caught fighting fires and end up cutting corners when confronted with what seems like less pressing, time-consuming conversations with people.  

Over time, especially if the unskilled leader is particularly influential, cutting corners may become “how we do things here” without realizing how counter-productive it is to sap the commitment and shared ownership of people around them. Without a sustained effort, the proverbial ‘elastic band’ effect pulls any change back to the norm.  The rationale becomes that it takes too long to be empathetic as leaders fail to realize that cutting corners results in conversations that end badly with dispirited staff who feel pressured without support or recognition for their efforts.  This is when the ‘empathy effect’ fades out, and leadership work centres on a single-minded focus on driving performance.

At that point, leaders find that their work becomes much more demanding, with higher attrition and lower levels of commitment, collaboration, and alignment. Instead of correcting the situation, they often turn to external recruitment. This push becomes challenging when high-performing external recruits do their due diligence and avoid organizations that many want to leave.

V. A systemic approach integrating empathy and drive at the organizational level  

At a broader level, organizational empathy is best defined as the collective capacity to demonstrate empathy not only to employees but to all stakeholders, including a commitment by the organization to develop a deep understanding of its customers' needs. To achieve this, the organization needs to take a systemic approach to reinforce the consistent adoption of empathy-driven behaviours. A well-articulated ethic combining empathy and drive must be reinforced in the organization to avoid the emergence of organizational countercurrents.   

Empathy becomes more abstract and challenging to describe when moving from the leader/individual interactions to the team and organizational levels.  The most effective approach is to adopt clear principles that include empathy in guidelines for how people deal with one another at all levels. Tighter accountabilities and performance criteria increase the propensity to de-personify and treat the other as an object instead of a human being.  As they experience the ups and downs of interdependence, teams can become critical of different teams for limiting their success and can be acerbic in reviewing their performance. Over time, they can become entrenched in negative perceptions and criticisms, forgetting that they depend on one another to perform. Highly critical comments can destroy the collaboration that is essential to their success.  Objectifying people as pawns that need to be pushed around only leads to dissension and resentment. To sustain collaboration, they must recognize the humanity of colleagues and team members and treat them accordingly.

To delve deeper into fostering empathy between teams, it's essential to focus on consistent communication and understanding across teams. One way to do this is by organizing regular inter-team meetings where members can openly discuss their current projects, challenges, and successes. This encourages transparency and mutual understanding. Implementing cross-functional projects or task forces can also provide solid foundations for team members to work closely together, fostering empathy through shared goals and experiences. Creating a shared platform or digital space where teams can share real-time insights, feedback, and updates promotes continuous dialogue. It's also beneficial to conduct workshops on optimizing performance with empathy, providing frameworks and tools for team members to practice and improve their skills to make this happen. Celebrating collaborative achievements is essential to reinforce the value of empathy and teamwork across the organization.

When working to reset the norms, one of the first agreements to be reached is that individuals or teams are not allowed to speak negatively of others when they are not present. These criticisms have a way of getting to the person targeted by these comments, and trust is immediately negatively affected.  

The synergy between empathy and the drive for performance is even more relevant at the team and organizational levels than at the interpersonal level.  The only way to ensure that empathy is realized is to agree that this is a key practice in teams, functions and even across organizations. Organizations not adopting this principle will pay a high price in terms of trust, collaboration, and interdependence.  Those who fail to maintain a high level of empathy as they go through periods of uncertainty lose considerable ground: not only will they need help attracting and retaining staff, but their customer service and financial performance will suffer.   

An organization can instill empathy and drive in parallel by fostering a culture where people support one another to meet clear, ambitious goals. To achieve this, leaders must prioritize and show open communication, active listening, and understanding of individual team members' perspectives. Regular feedback loops and reflective practices can help the organization align its values with its performance goals. When issues inevitably arise, they deal with them with candour and respect by working on the different aspects until there is an agreed-upon resolution. The performance management process can be an appropriate channel to provide straightforward, supportive feedback with fairness.

Balancing recognition for empathetic behaviour and achievement ensures that both factors are considered. Encouraging collaboration within and across teams, where members support each other while striving towards common goals, helps maintain this balance.

VI. The role of leaders in fostering an environment with empathy and drive   

Leaders play a crucial role in fostering team empathy by setting the tone for the culture and modelling empathetic behaviour. They can encourage open communication by actively listening to team members and showing genuine interest in their concerns and ideas. Leaders can also recognize and reward empathetic actions, reinforcing the importance of empathy in achieving team and organizational goals. Leaders help build a more cohesive, supportive, and effective organization by creating an environment where empathy is valued and practiced.

Leaders can model empathetic behaviour effectively by demonstrating active listening, fully concentrating on, understanding, and responding to team members' communications. This includes acknowledging emotions and validating feelings, which helps build trust and rapport. They should also practice openness by sharing their experiences and vulnerabilities and encouraging others to do the same. Admitting mistakes and showing appreciation for team members' contributions fosters a positive and supportive work environment.

Leaders can further engage in regular one-on-one meetings to understand individual team members' challenges and provide support to resolve issues. By being approachable, maintaining an open-door policy and making themselves accessible for team interactions, leaders reinforce a culture of empathy. They can also lead by example in conflict resolution by addressing issues with understanding and compassion.

Empathetic leadership significantly boosts employee morale by creating a supportive and inclusive work environment where employees feel valued and understood. When leaders show empathy, employees feel their personal and professional needs are being acknowledged and, as a result, are more likely to experience increased job satisfaction and engagement. When individuals are more likely to consider and appreciate each other's perspectives, it creates an atmosphere that reduces interpersonal conflicts and increases cooperation. The cause-effect involved is relatively straightforward: it leads to higher motivation and productivity because team members are more willing to contribute to an organization that recognizes what they need to thrive. It creates an environment of trust and mutual respect that fosters mutual accountability, leads to more cohesive work dynamics and enhances communication and collaboration within and across teams. The overall result is a positive organizational culture that attracts and retains talent and sustainably leads to higher performance.

VII.  Empathy within and across teams

The key components of a successful empathetic team include effective communication, where team members actively listen to each other and express their thoughts and feelings openly. Trust is another crucial element, as it allows team members to feel secure in sharing their ideas and concerns without fear of judgment. Mutual respect ensures that diverse perspectives are valued and considered, fostering an inclusive environment. As they gain self-confidence, team members become more willing to explore and test new ideas at the edge of what is familiar to them.  Their empathy can extend to their customers or internal colleagues, who look for creative ways to resolve their problems.    

Collaboration across interdependent teams naturally emerges in such an environment. It encourages teams to work together towards common goals, leveraging each other's strengths, supporting one another through challenges, and recognizing opportunities to help one another better.  

Enhancing relational proximity becomes key for teams engaged in high levels of interdependence. The more distant people are from one another, the greater the propensity to objectify others and unduly criticize their performance.  With the greater proximity of my own team members and members of other teams, they are no longer distant entities encroaching on my work; they are partners that help me overcome obstacles. Examples of empathetic inter-team practices include regular check-ins, where team members can share their current workload and challenges. Encouraging open feedback sessions across interdependent teams allows team members to express their thoughts on processes or projects and suggest improvements, promoting a culture of openness and respect. Celebrating the joint successes of collaborating teams can significantly reinforce the links between collaborating teams.

Empathetic leadership gives rise to mutual accountability, which is more inspiring and impactful than vertically managed accountability, which all too often invites a more protective and minimalist stance in terms of performance.  

Conclusion

In organizations that cultivate a culture shaped by empathic leadership, there is an undeniable dynamic flow where empathy and drive powerfully reinforce one another.  Others are encouraged to pursue more challenging goals as they see individuals who are driven to excel. The self-reinforcing feedback loop where feeling understood, supported and valued creates new possibilities. It amplifies the level of commitment and sense of ownership. Ultimately, it expels a context of fear where team members must protect themselves against the ‘slings and arrows’ of a leadership axed on free-floating criticism instead of coaching to help build talent.  

Empathetic leadership is an approach that fundamentally transforms how leaders interact with their teams to optimize their effectiveness. It involves recognizing and genuinely understanding employees' emotions and viewpoints, which helps build trust and strong connections. This leadership style encourages a culture of openness where employees feel comfortable sharing their thoughts and concerns, leading to better communication and collaboration. Empathetic leaders listen and respond compassionately, providing support and guidance tailored to individual needs. This boosts morale and job satisfaction, enhancing employee engagement and the drive to perform.  

By prioritizing empathy, leaders create an inclusive environment that values diversity of thought and encourages innovation. This is because employees are more willing to contribute new ideas and take calculated risks when they know their contributions are valued and have a supportive leader. Empathetic leadership helps reduce stress and improve mental well-being, as employees feel more secure and understood. It leads to a more resilient organization better equipped to adapt to change and confidently face challenges.