5 Empathy Skills You Need In Your Work Life

Do you sometimes feel like there’s no room for you in the workforce? Do you feel like you don’t belong or that people won’t promote you because of your empathy skills? Empathy is a skill we can all improve upon, and it plays an essential role in every career. Whether you are working toward your own personal career growth or looking to break into a new career path, being able to recognize & respond to other people’s emotions is a must-have skill. If you work in a professional environment, chances are pretty good that you spend most of your time interacting with people. This means that it’s not just basic social skills that are important — but also genuine empathy and other empathic skills.

What is empathy?

Empathy is a concept that describes the ability to understand and share feelings, such as sadness, happiness, or frustration, with another person. This can be done through verbal communication, non-verbal communication (e.g., body language), or a combination of these communication channels. Studies suggest that empathy is a two-layered concept – the first layer deals with understanding the emotions of others, and the second deals with putting yourself in another person’s shoes.

How to effectively demonstrate empathy

The most important thing you can do to be perceived as a “people person” is to have the ability to demonstrate empathy. This can be difficult to do, and it can feel like the “elephant in the room” when someone is trying to focus on your work abilities. But it’s doable! Empathy is not simply about feeling another person’s emotions. It’s about showing that you understand and recognize other people’s emotions through your own emotions. Making a sincere and conscious effort to demonstrate empathy is just as important as having the ability to do so. To take it one step further, it’s also important to use your empathy skills in a positive way.

The 5 Empathy Skills You Need in Your Work Life

Whether you are looking for a new job or just trying to improve your current one, it’s important to remember that people notice your skills, as well as your weaknesses, when you’re interacting with them. We tend to notice things about ourselves that we don’t notice about others, and our actions, as well as our words, reflect this. To effectively demonstrate empathy, you need to pay attention to these 5 empathy skills:

1. Recognition: This is one of the most important skills in empathy. When you are able to recognize another person’s feelings, you are showing them that you care about what they are feeling. It is also important to note that you don’t have to respond to every feeling someone might have—only to the most obvious ones.

2. Repair: This is perhaps the more difficult skill of the 5 empathy skills to demonstrate, but it’s also one of the most important! Repairing a broken relationship, for example, might require thought or two, but still, it’s the essence of repair. You need to be able to recognize when you have broken a rule, or done something wrong, and then be able to repair the situation so that the other person feels comfortable enough to be with you again.

3. Transference: This is the part where you show that you understand another person’s intentions in a situation. It’s not about imagining what the other person would do in a given situation, but about your own actions in that situation. In a nutshell, you need to be able to let go of your own feelings, and instead, try to imagine what the other person would do based on their situation.

4. Countertransference: This is the other side of the coin: you have to show that you understand the other person’s feelings, but also that you take the other person’s side. This means that you need to be able to identify when someone is being unfair, and then be willing to fight for your viewpoint. It could sound tougher than it is, as you only have to try this a couple of times before you feel comfortable doing it well.

5. Conclusion: The final point in this list is the easiest one to forget, but it’s also the most important: demonstrations of empathy require input. You need to be able to tell when someone is having a problem, and then you need to be willing to put in the work to help them out.

Conclusion

While it’s easy to think of empathy as a “nice to have” when it comes to being a professional, it is still a crucial skill that every career path needs. If you are looking to break into a new career path or improve your current job, it is important to remember that people notice your skills, as well as your weaknesses, when you’re interacting with them. If you are feeling like you don’t belong in the work world anymore, or that people won’t promote you because of your empathy skills, it’s important to remember that there is a reason for these things. You are a valuable member of the team and people want to be able to rely on you for help and advice when needed.