A Little Empathy Makes Good Leaders Great

Everyone knows that business is a contact sport with leaders who are supposed to be tough, persistent and willing to pick a fight for market dominance. Yet business leaders who also feel real empathy for their employees, customers, and partners usually end up building the most lasting organizations.

Empathy is a kind of deep emotional intelligence that allows one to view situations through other people’s eyes and comprehend their differing perspectives. Arrogant or narcissistic entrepreneurs who lack this skill often find themselves at a competitive disadvantage in our fast-changing, people-oriented economy.

Empathy is a vital talent because it helps entrepreneurs grasp their actual competitive standing. It provides insights when naysayers and devil’s advocates describe what’s going wrong. Most importantly, empathy helps entrepreneurs face down problems with a heightened awareness to inform their decisions.

To find out about the pros of empathy and ideas for how to show more empathy to your employees, read Brian T. Anderson's full article here on Entrepreneur.com.