The empathic leadership It is a type of leadership that allows the leader to place himself in the place of the followers. As its name suggests, it is a type of leadership that uses empathy with others as its main tool..
Empathic leadership is carried out through knowledge of individuals, negotiation skills, and intervention and integration techniques. Carrying out this type of activity allows the formation of work teams with a high added value in their actions, today it gives a certain competitive advantage and manages to increase the performance of the teams..
Empathic leadership constitutes a new leadership alternative that aims to respond to the particular needs of the members that make up the teams.
Currently, empathy is one of the most valued elements in a great diversity of group, which is why more and more organizations choose to use this type of tools.
Article index
Empathic leadership emerges in response to the basic needs that organizations and work groups increasingly present. In recent years, multiple social movements in different regions of the planet have shown a high rejection of authoritarian and absolutist positions..
In this sense, the leadership of groups of people today requires tools and actions different from those used decades ago. Specifically, the need to grant personal and individual value to each of the subjects that make up the groups is notorious..
Carrying out such actions is a basic aspect in order to increase group motivation and leadership that is accepted, supported and valued by all members. Multiple investigations have shown that empathy is the most effective tool to respond to such needs.
Knowing the interest, needs, concerns and requirements of people provides direct benefits towards these. Likewise, it increases their well-being and increases group cohesion..
It is concluded that empathic leadership can be one of the main tools that improve the functioning of organizations and increase their productivity..
Empathic leadership encompasses a series of characteristics that define how to manage a team. These characteristics are based on the actions and attitudes that the leader must develop.
In this way, empathic leadership does not only define a type of leadership that incorporates empathy in its activity; goes much further and currently consists of a well-defined and delimited process.
In this sense, empathic leadership has six main characteristics proposed by Guillermo Velazquez Valadez, a researcher at Universidad La Salle in 2005. These should guide the leader's actions and specify the type of relationship that he establishes with the rest of the people in the group..
Actions taken in empathic leadership should give off a high sense of enthusiasm. That is, the leader takes a fully active role in the direction of the organization.
Leadership must be governed by dynamism and carried out with energy and passion. These elements must not only be developed by the leader, but he also has the responsibility of transmitting and extending them to each of the individuals..
Warmth refers to the affection and understanding that the leader makes of the other subjects in the group.
Empathic leadership should be warm, so you should take a series of actions that show and express affection directly.
This second characteristic requires a certain skill of the leader to relate in an affective way. And it goes far beyond concrete actions that show sensitivity to colleagues..
In fact, the warmth that characterizes empathic leadership defines the relationship that the leader establishes with the members of the group..
This should not be merely technical or professional but the leader should show concern for each of the needs (professional and personal) of the members.
The warmth of empathic leadership can lead to overly emotional or sentimental management. This fact must be overcome through the serenity of leadership..
Warmth should not limit the rationality of the activities undertaken by the leader, quite the contrary..
Empathic leadership requires a broad study and evaluation of all possible solutions and activities to undertake. To carry out such tasks, both the professional and personal aspects of the situation are taken into account..
The three previous points can call into question the role of the leader before the group. Establishing close relationships with members can be interpreted as a certain loss of power and / or authority.
This factor must be carefully managed by the leader. Despite being warm and empathetic, there must also be a certain degree of rigidity in empathic leadership..
The leader assesses and takes into account the needs of all its members, but it must be he who makes the decisions. In this sense, the detection of activities necessary to undertake must be carried out from a subjective and fair point of view..
The leader must adopt a position of not compromising with anyone and putting institutional interests before personal ones. Even so, whenever it can and is fair to do so, it will try to respond to any type of interest that may arise in the organization..
Obviously, empathy is one of the main characteristics of empathic leadership.
By empathy is understood the cognitive ability to perceive what the other may feel. That is, it consists of developing a series of feelings that allow the person to put themselves in the place of the other.
The empathic leader should adopt this practice routinely in his activity. Specific actions related to empathy should serve to discover the wishes, needs and requirements of the group members..
Likewise, the information collected through the empathic process should be used to manage the group and decide the activities to undertake. That is, the leader must empathize and be consistent with said action.
Arrogance and pride are elements that cannot appear in empathic leadership. In fact, when the leader of a group adopts this type of attitude, he is no longer an empathetic leader..
Despite role differences, the empathic leader treats everyone in the group the same. Likewise, he does not differentiate between his personal and professional qualities and those of others..
The differentiation of role, that is, of leader vs. non-leaders, is reflected only in decision-making and management of activities, but does not concern the qualities and personal classification of the members.
The empathic leader does not believe himself better, he simply shows his greater decision-making capacity due to the position and the tasks that affect his figure.
8 principles of empathic leadership have been suggested. These must be internalized and shared by the leader, and must guide his behavior. The empathic leader must feel and share these basic elements that guide the way people function.
If the leader, whether due to personal convictions, personality traits or interpretation about the functioning of people, does not share these 8 elements, it will be difficult for him to develop empathic leadership.
This factor shows that not everyone has the necessary characteristics to be an empathetic leader. Likewise, achieving optimal empathic leadership is complicated and requires skills and training..
To develop an empathic leadership process, the leader must share the following principles both in his personal functioning and in his professional performance:
The empathic leader must by definition be human. That is, they must be able to understand the personal aspects of the members and manage to integrate them with their own.
Obviously, the empathic leader must be a specialist within the field of action in which he develops. Leadership must be justified by a broad capacity and knowledge of the activities to be carried out.
The empathic leader must possess a high ability to find the balance between rewarding and penalizing. It must govern its management actions through objective analysis and decision procedures, and insert reasoning in its activity.
The empathic leader must be able to transmit energy to the work team. Nobody can present more motivation and conviction in the tasks to be carried out than he.
He must adopt the position of guide and get all individuals to follow him through the firm belief and motivation that the leader presents about the activities to be undertaken.
The empathic leader must develop a method and a reliable strategy that allows him to decide on the best alternatives. It must guide its performance through congruent processes and not transmit instability or variance in its leadership.
For the members of the group to be at the service of the leader, this must also be for the others. The empathic leader works together with others and shows solidarity with colleagues.
The empathic leader doesn't just command or direct. He also advises and supports each of his colleagues. Respects the autonomy and initiative of the group members and offers them support just when they need it.
Finally, the empathic leader must encourage the observation of institutional and individual values. You must do it in a practical way and set an example to others about the values that must be developed within the group.
The empathic leadership model implies the development of a planning system that allows coordinating and integrating all other administrative and human systems.
The main goal of empathic management is creativity. Since in this way it is possible to obtain added value in the activities carried out. Likewise, for the leadership model to be fruitful, it must be inserted in an institutional framework duly delineated by the top management of the organization..
The leadership process must integrate within its strategies very specific goals for each of the fields of action. And its operation must be closely related to human and ecological principles.
The main areas of the empathic leadership model are: energy, projection, quality, creativity, innovation and research. These must work through the planning system and must be able to provide mutual feedback at all times..
Empathic leadership forms the foundation from which any organization must build. Specifically, this type of group management allows to sustain the two fundamental structural pillars: the individual and the organization..
In this way, empathic leadership forms a bridge of human resources that ensures that both pillars are fully unified and share objectives..
The bridge that makes up empathic leadership is characterized by the processes of communication, integration, motivation, training, conflict management, and decision-making..
The ultimate goal that is achieved through this type of leadership is organizational empathy. That is, the capacity of an organization to satisfy the needs of its work groups for the development of its activities..
Achieving these objectives leads to an optimal functioning of the group, an increase in productivity and the scope of excellence in the services and processes developed..
Yet No Comments