Good morning, everybody. It is 2 a .m. How's
everybody doing this morning? We're going to
pick up where we left off on essential skills,
talking about empathy, where we left off at number
three. Having a service orientation. This is
primarily aimed at work situations. Having a
service orientation means putting the needs of
customers first and looking for ways to improve
their satisfaction and loyalty. People who have
this approach will go the extra mile for customers.
They will generally understand customer needs
and go out of their way to help meet them. In
this way, they can make a... They can become
a trusted advisor to customers, developing a
long -term relationship between the customer
and the organization. This can happen in any
industry or in any situation. It's just more
commonly noted in the food industry. Let me give
you an example. Mercedes -Benz doesn't... How
do I put it? The car manufacturer is no longer
interested in achieving customer satisfaction.
It's not that it's not important to them. It's
actually quite the opposite. It means that the
customer experience is so important that the
satisfaction is just not enough. Instead, the
company wants its customers to feel delighted
by their experience with Mercedes. The company's
president and CEO believe that engaging Mercedes
employees is the key to achieving that, if they
can make their employees more engaged. For example,
a recent company poll found that 70 % of the
employees had never even driven a Mercedes to
start with. So they're now being given the opportunity
to do so so that they can better empathize with
customers and therefore engage with them more
effectively. Can't really engage with a customer
about a topic or buy a product that you don't
even know anything about and have not driven
yourself. There are many non -work situations
which require us to help others in some way,
where putting their needs center stage may enable
us to see the situation differently and perhaps
offer more useful support and assistance. And
with that, that brings us to number four, leveraging
diversity. Leveraging diversity means being able
to create and develop opportunities through different
kinds of people, recognizing and celebrating
that we all bring something different to the
table. In the exact same way. But you tailor.
The way you would. The way you interact with
others. To fit with their needs and feelings.
People with this skill. Respect and relate well
to everyone. Regardless of their background.
So as a general rule. They see diversity as an
opportunity. Understanding that diverse teams.
Work much better than teams. That are more homogeneous.
As such. People who are good at leveraging diversity.
Also challenge. uh intolerance bias and stereotyping
when they see it and create an atmosphere that
is respectful towards everybody with that being
said after a short break here i'm going to cover
the dangers of stereotyping real quick within
this topic So, stereotyping. There are a lot
of dangers with this. Claude Steele, a psychologist
at Stanford University, did a series of tests
about stereotypes. He asked two groups of men
and women to take math tests. The first group
was told that men usually do better in such tests
than women. The second group was told nothing.
In the first group, where people had been reminded
about the stereotype, the men performed significantly
better than the women. There was no difference
in the second group. Steele suggested that being
reminded of the stereotype activated emotional
centers in the brain, resulting in anxiety amongst
the women, which affected their performance.
This shows how dangerous stereotyping can be,
and how they can have a very real effect on performance.
major emotional drawbacks in a lot of people
but it can cause a lot of hatred and resentment
towards people which makes it nearly impossible
to even show any form of empathy or any kind
of sympathy whatsoever usually can end up leading
to even worse situations than before creating
a very negative atmosphere and this is not very
positive for a lot of environments and it's not
great for workflow or for the environment of
that you work in or live in So with that, let's
move on to number five, political awareness.
Many people view political skills as manipulative,
okay? But in its best sense, political means
sensing and responding to a group's emotional
undercurrents and power relations. Political
awareness can help individuals to navigate organizational
relationships effectively, allowing them to achieve
where others may previously have failed, okay?
um keep in mind that political awareness in itself
is its own topic i just wanted to make sure i
cover that real quick before moving on empathy
sympathy and compassion there's a important distinction
between the three of them okay both compassion
and sympathy are about feeling for someone um
seeing their distress and realizing that they
are suffering compassion in its own right, has
taken an element of action that is lacking in
sympathy, but the root of the word is basically
the same. Empathy, however, in contrast, is about
experiencing those feelings for yourself, as
if you were the person through the power of imagination.
This is the whole point of empathy in the first
place. Let me cover three types of empathy real
quick. Psychiatrists have identified three types
of empathy. Cognitive empathy, emotional empathy,
and compassionate empathy. Cognitive empathy
is understanding someone's thoughts and emotions
in a very rational rather than emotional sense.
Whereas emotional empathy, as is known by its
title, is an emotional contingent. It is catching
someone else's feelings so that you literally
feel them too. Now, while I don't really condone
this version of empathy as it does make you feel
the exact same pain they do as if you were them
completely, it does help you better understand
the other person and realize that the grass isn't
always greener on the other side. And then the
last one is compassionate empathy is basically
understanding someone's feelings and taking the
appropriate actions to help them without the
other underlining effects. So, towards empathy
in its right, it may not always be easy or even
possible to empathize with others, but through
good people, skills, and some imagination, we
can work towards more empathetic feelings. Research
has suggested that individuals who can empathize
enjoy better relationships with others and greater
well -being through life. As Barack Obama put
it back in 2006, before everything went to hell,
I think we shall... And I'm going to quote him
here. I think we should talk about our empathy
deficit. The ability to put ourselves in someone
else's shoes to see the world through the eyes
of those who are different from us. The child
who's hungry, the steel worker who's been laid
off, the family who's lost the entire life. They
built together when the storm came to town. When
you think like this, when you choose to broaden
your admit. of concern and empathize with the
plight of others, whether they are close friends
or distant strangers, it becomes harder not to
act and harder not to help. And despite everything
that happened during his presidency, he brings
up a very valid point. Just wanted to make sure
I covered that. Now, that's it for the rest of
this podcast for this episode. However, I brought
up the three types of empathy. So before we close
the door on this particular topic, in our next
episode, we'll cover those three types of empathy
in a little more detail, and then we'll move
on to our next topic. Thank you for listening,
and enjoy the rest of your day.