15 Mar 3 Empathy Rules To Make Your Work Better
There comes a point in every analyst’s career when you have to stop and take stock of what it is that drives you forward. What it is that keeps you doing what it is your doing.
Maybe it’s money. Maybe it’s the title. Perhaps it’s passivity or confusion at not knowing what else you could do. Or maybe you just love data and organizing things.
My contemplation point came over 10 years ago. I was transitioning between jobs and trying to figure out next steps. What did I love about being an analyst? What did I hate? When was I the best I could be? When was I the worst?
Working through these questions I figured out that empathy is one of my core drivers, but I wasn’t using it enough in my work. More truthfully, I wasn’t using it enough because others liked telling me it was useless or inappropriate. I knew they were dead wrong then. And they still are now.
Super-Analyst Power
Empathy is the super-analyst power everyone needs to nurture and respect, in others and in themselves.
Too often in work situations there is such a rush to met an arbitrary goal or deadline that the people on the receiving end of our actions are forgotten (if they were ever present, be honest). They become the after-thought, something to deal with (maybe) later but definitely not now.
I’ve witnessed so many instances where managers and executives and colleagues deliberately ignored the people side of the work equation. People, in their expressed terms, were problems or issues or annoyances. They disrupt the plan. They don’t know what they need. They are in the way of what I want to do.
And I admit, I am guilty of doing this a few times myself in the past. I’d get caught up in other people’s drama or stress and lose sight of what makes me great at my work.
But here’s my growth point – I don’t use my past behaviour as a reason or excuse to justify doing it in the future. I learn from my mistakes and am continually trying to be better for the next engagement.
To keep growing, I created a set of three empathy rules to keep me focused on being better for my clients and my colleagues.
empathy rules (or, empathy rules!)
RULE #1: BE CURIOUS
Learn more things you don’t know yet, and enable others to learn more as well.
Open yourself up to learning who the people are that you’re there to assist. Don’t hid behind methodology terms or superficial reporting structures. Don’t treat people like ‘things’ on your to-do checklist.
You’re there in-service to them and not the other way around. It comes across loudly if you’re not interested in learning with and learning from them. Believe me, it really really does.
RULE #2: BE PRESENT
Listen deeply and show people you’re engaged with what they’re saying. Try to make everyone feel like they are important, even if they don’t respond in kind.
There are multiple stories being told around you all the time. Figure out how to tap into these stories and allow them validate and inform the structure of your work and relationships.
A story can unite and inspire people like nothing else. Not presentations, not statistics, not tips and tricks. Definitely not a stakeholder registry or a project plan or an email update. All it takes is one nugget of an idea or a comment or even an image to create and communicate a powerful, memorable story. And when you can represent someone else’s story back to them–clearly and with understanding–well, you’ve achieved the gold standard in being present.
RULE #3: BE CHALLENGED
Take on projects that scare you. Argue the side of an issue which doesn’t align with your own opinions. Get uncomfortable if it helps others feel more comfortable.
No matter the work you’re doing something is changing for someone. This is why change is ALWAYS emotional. If you’re unwilling to engage with the emotional side of change, to get out of your own comfort zone, you can have zero expectation others will join you actively or enthusiastically. This is the crux of supporting hot or cold change (something for a separate post).
empathy valued
Showing empathy and being empathetic in your work and in how you work is not weak or inappropriate or useless. It strengthens your connections with the people you’re working with. It intensifies your commitment to the work in front of you. It invigorates your creativity to take risks.
How much do you value it in your work?