Dr Brené Brown - Empathy vs Sympathy

All credit to Dr Brené Brown 

with Animation by Katy Davis (AKA Gobblynne) - www.gobblynne.com  

This is a fantastic video that really complements our thinking on empathy within emotional intelligence (EI). It beautifully sums up how careful we have to be about sympathy and how honest we MUST be when we offer empathy to others. 

“Perspective taking, the ability to take the perspective of another person, and recognise that their perspective is their truth”. Our Moccasin Approach^® and how “their belief creates their reality”. “Recognising emotion in other people (Social Awareness), and then communicating that”. All of this resonates so deeply with our thinking that we MUST know our people really well, and our main aim is to build superb, open and honest relationships with our people. This will allow them to be open and honest and feel they can say anything they want or need to us as their manager or leader. 

Note the important point that “rarely what we say will make something better”! This is SO important to understand. If you can’t feel their pain because you have not experienced it, then tell them you just want to be there for them and with them as and when they need you.