HRO Today March 2021 - 41

LEADING WITH EMPATHY
Men's Guide for Leading with Women
Figure 1: Empathy Model
EMPATHY
EMOTION
i
Neuroscience
Brain & Mind
THINKING
POWER
EGO
Copyright © 2021 Peter J. Dean, Ph.D. All rights reserved.
* 74% of employees said they would work longer hours for
an empathetic employer;
* 75% of all employees and 83% of Generation Z employees
would choose an employer with a strong culture of
empathy over one that offered a higher salary; and
* 83% of employees would consider leaving their current
organization for a similar role at a more empathetic
organization.
This guide is meant to help you lead and specifically lead with women effectively.
It covers emotion, ways of thinking, power, empathy, ego, and communication largely
based on a neuroscience point of view. It is a framework that allows a man
to ask one question whenever dealing with a woman at work.
In a world rocked by crisis, people are depending on their
employers to be understanding and help them adapt to
adversity. But the research suggests that there is often
a disconnect between employees' and company leaders'
understanding of empathy: While 91% of CEOs say their
company is empathetic, only 68% of employees agree.
" If she were a he, would I have said that
or reacted in the way I did? "
author of " Cultivating Leaders " . " For far too long, we've
tried to strip the workplace of emotions. "
Empathy is also about finding balance. According to
Dean's model of empathy (see Figure 1), good outcomes
result from the balance of three opposing forces:
empathy versus ego, emotion versus thinking, and ethics
versus power. In this model, empathy, emotion, and
ethics form one pathway while ego, thinking, and thirst
for power form another. Leaders who can balance these
impulses in themselves and in their workforce through
the practice of active listening, respect, and curiosity can
become more empathetic and, ultimately, more effective.
" Ego is really the enemy of empathy, " he explains.
" Operating with an unhealthy ego means protecting
To make meaningful change in the lives of their employees
and truly set their business up for future success, leaders
need to embrace emotion, empathy, and vulnerability in
ways that they have not had to do in the past.
" When I think of empathy, what I think of is the practice
of caring enough to want to know how others are feeling
and then being able feel those emotions, " says Peter J.
Dean, founder and president of Leaders by Design and
Copyright © 2020 Peter J Dean. All rights reserved.
yourself against any threat of humiliation or negative
feedback. By learning to be empathetic, leaders can
actually strengthen the healthy ego because they become
more aware of their and their employees' emotional
states; they make sure they're not overburdening other
people with their stress; they're willing to identify how
a tiny decision made in the C-suite affects the entire
organization; and they're willing to act ethically on
behalf of their employees. "
According to Moe Vela, chief transparency officer at
MARCH 2021 | www.hrotoday.com
[41]
WOMEN
& MEN
DISC Behaviors
L.E.A.D.E.R.S. Skills
For Communication
ETHICS
a
e
C
n
e
o
l
a
e
r
l
a
A
a
b
o
e
i
r
l
a
r
t
s
u
i
p
v
h
P
e
b
S
c
h
r
d
L
d
http://www.hrotoday.com
HRO Today March 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of HRO Today March 2021
