Functional Empathy™

Functional Empathy™ refers to empathy that is applied for a specific activity, purpose, or task. The value of empathy, empathy as a personal trait, and the skill of knowing how and when to make empathy functional, are all very different aspects of empathic leadership. Empathic Leadership has been on the forefront more and more in recent years… to create healthier, more successful and happier work environments. Not knowing when and especially HOW to use your empathic abilities, or not knowing how to cultivate it, can lead to the exact opposite of what we want. We risk to avoid conflict to spare people’s feelings, we could be avoiding taking decisions because of other people’s feelings. We may fail to address what needs addressing, because we’re concerned about people’s feelings. We might pick up feelings from others in ways that do not serve us or the other. Empathy is not just a trait that you have or don’t have; it is a multidimensional skill that can be learned, strengthened, and practiced. And that is where the word Functional comes in. Empathy in itself is not necessarily functional; it is more like a potential: if you learn to use it well and with purpose, it can become one of your most powerful tools in your role as leader and getting the very best out of people. The same goes for those who are less emphatically gifted: you can learn and cultivate an empathic approach to do the same. Functional Empathy™ offers that solution: an approach that can help leaders, wherever they are on the Functional Empathy Scale™, to adopt empathy as a value, a trait and a skill, with value, effectiveness and purpose.