The book is coming! September 10 is the day that The Empathy Dilemma: How Successful Leaders Balance Performance, People, and Personal Boundaries hits shelves to help leaders dedicated to people-centered practices to get the best performance possible and balance the demands of the business with the needs of their people.
I am so excited to share this with you! For the next 5 months, I’ll be devoting a Hot Take episode to one of the 5 core pillars of EFFECTIVE empathetic leaders, outlined in the book. Because the reality is that we want a more human-centered workplace culture. But we have to get actual work DONE! You can do both, but only when you are able to show up fully and have the capacity to take in other perspectives without fear, stress, or defensiveness. So today we’re diving into Pillar Three of the 5 Pillars – clarity.
Clarity is the key to being an empathetic leader while also still holding people accountable. Learn more about why this is such an important pillar to creating an empathetic – and high-performing – culture.
Today, I share are five strategies to try to be more clear. More details, examples, and tactics to try can be found in The Empathy Dilemma, so don’t forget to snag your presale copy now!
To access this episode transcript, please scroll down below.
Key Takeaways:
- Five strategies (though not a comprehensive list) include:
- Revisit Purpose and Values
- Clarify Roles and Expectations
- Link Clarity to Accountability
- Tell People Why
- Ask Better Questions
- Lacking a reason why can create an empathy gap between leaders and the rest of the team. Even if they don’t like the reason, people want to know why they are being given tasks or goals.
- Without clarity, there is no accountability. People cannot be appropriately held to standards that they know nothing about.
“Resentments build where misunderstandings thrive…Clarity helps people feel seen, heard, and valued, reduces the likelihood of conflict, and enables everyone to work together more effectively.”
— Maria Ross
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FULL TRANSCRIPT BELOW:
Welcome to the empathy edge podcast, the show that proves why cash flow, creativity and compassion are not mutually exclusive. I’m your host, Maria Ross, I’m a speaker, author, mom, facilitator and empathy advocate. And here you’ll meet trailblazing leaders and executives, authors and experts who embrace empathy to achieve radical success. We discuss all facets of empathy, from trends and research to the future of work to how to heal societal divisions and collaborate more effectively. Our goal is to redefine success and prove that empathy isn’t just good for society. It’s great for business. Hello everyone. Welcome to the June hot take. How clarity makes you an empathetic leader. I’m so excited to share the second pillar of my five pillars for effective empathetic leadership from the new book, and the book is coming. Don’t forget, September 10 is the day that the empathy dilemma, how successful leaders balance performance people and personal boundaries, hits shelves to help leaders like you, dedicated to people, centered practices, get the best performance possible and balance the demands of the business with the needs of your people. So I’m excited to share with you, as I mentioned, these months that we’re in, I’ll be devoting a hot take episode to one of the five core pillars of effective, empathetic leaders that are outlined in the book, and because the reality is that we all want a more human centered workplace culture. I have not spoken to a leader that would disagree with that statement. However, people struggle because we have to get actual work done, and you can do both, but only when you’re able to show up fully and have capacity to take in other perspectives, without fear, stress or defensiveness. So today we’re diving into pillar three of the five pillars, clarity. Now this is the hurdle that gets in many a leader’s way. They think they have to choose between empathy and high performance or compassion and ambition. They don’t think in terms of both and because it is both, and it’s not either or, and many leaders never realize that empathy is the catalyst when it’s actually being shown that leads to performance, engagement, innovation, results, loyalty, revenue, all the things right now, speaking of the new book, there’s a Special pre sale offer, you can purchase one to 99 copies of the book at porchlight, my amazing bulk distributor, and get 30% off until August 27 so stay through to the end, and I’ll tell you how to get discounted copies for your team. Get some swag, get invited to a special VIP launch event, and potentially have me crash your next meeting for an empathy discussion. As I’ve said before, what I loved about writing the book was interviewing so many leaders who are actually doing it, being authentic, empathetic, tuning into their people, while never losing focus on why they’re there and what they’re being tasked to do. As one of my interviewees shared in the book, their number one goal is to make the business successful that but that doesn’t mean that it has to be at the expense of showing empathy and humanity for their team. In fact, because they do show those things, their teams are loyal to a fault and would go through fire for them. But how? How can leaders balance performance, people and personal boundaries? You might ask, that’s where the five pillars of effective, empathetic leadership come in. These are common traits and behaviors that I see over and over again in the leaders I’ve interviewed, I’ve spoken to, I’ve advised in the research that I’ve done, and even among those who are truly empathetic leaders by everyone else’s estimation, but they don’t label themselves as such. So the five pillars are really a result of all that research, all those interviews, and I found them to be the common threads across all those who are empathetic and high performing. And that’s why I wrote the book. Is to help you as a leader and, quite frankly, even as a colleague, be able to firm up your foundation so that you can show empathy for other people, and you can be empathetic in those moments where it matters most. So clarity is the third of the five pillars in the book The Empathy dilemma, and let’s dig into it. Clarity is the key to being an empathetic leader while also still holding people accountable. And this important pillar is needs some definition, right? What do we mean by clarity? Clarity is ensuring everyone is on the exact same page through clear communication, expectations, feedback and other. Understanding of job roles, all of which roll up to an actionable mission statement and meaningful company values. So why is it important? Why is clarity important? Resentments build, where misunderstandings thrive. One of the biggest reasons leaders and workers butt heads is a lack of communication on mission roles and responsibilities, and I would also add unsaid rules and cultural norms right when people know what’s expected of them, including in emergencies and on an as needed basis, they’re less likely to become disgruntled or even feel entitled. Clarity helps people feel seen, heard and valued. It reduces the likelihood of conflict and it enables everyone to work together more effectively. Clarity is so underrated and woefully underused, sure, plenty of leaders talk a good game about its importance, but plenty more shy away from actually creating clarity when things get diplomatically dicey. So here are five strategies to try to be more clear. Now, of course, this is just the tip of the iceberg. There are more details, examples and tactics to try in the empathy dilemma. So don’t forget to snag your presale copy now. So the first strategy is to revisit your purpose and values. Clarity on minutia won’t mean anything if your teams don’t have foundational clarity on the company’s purpose and values, and neither leaders nor employees will be able to act compassionately if the shared purpose and values are confusing or vague. Strategy number two, clarify roles and expectations. How many people review their job descriptions after they’ve been hired, the number probably approaches zero, except during annual review periods. Right? Given that, consider what you can do to ensure your team members understand and agree to their roles and responsibilities on a continuous basis, think beyond the job description to how you can clearly articulate the team’s rules of engagement. Have these discussions, document them and revisit them often, three link clarity to accountability. You can’t hold people accountable if they’re not clear on their expectations and goals. Otherwise, what are they being held accountable to? Everyone on your team should be able to say this sentence, I clearly understand my contribution. I clearly understand that I’m accountable for this piece of the puzzle, and I’m accountable for how I show up every day. Number four, tell people why leaders are busy and overwhelmed, which means they often convey what needs to be done, and then they omit the reason why, lacking a reason why people feel disrespected or kept in the dark, this amounts to an empathy gap and one that can be closed quickly and easily with clear explanations. They may not like the answer, but at least they understand why the ask is being made and why it’s important. And finally, ask better questions. So little known fact, clarity doesn’t come from having the right answer, it comes from asking the right questions. This can include knowing the right prompts when someone approaches you with a concern or a problem. So again, tip of the iceberg, right to better understand these deceptively simple strategies in detail and find tactics you can employ. Hear stories of people putting clarity into action. Please check out the empathy dilemma for stories from leaders and all those crucial tactics so you can put these things into place. These five pillars will transform how your team engages, performs, innovates and delivers for you and your customers. So again, you can enjoy special pre sale and launch bonuses. Just go to the empathy dilemma.com that’s the best place, because it links to everything. It links to the pre sale offers. It links to where you need to go to submit your receipt when you purchase pre sale, so you can get in on all the goodies. Because when you pre order, you will be able to be invited to a VIP virtual launch event. You will get some swag, TBD, and if you order 25 or more books during the pre sale or at launch, you can get a free 30 minute virtual author, Q A with me on your call for your team or your organization. So I can crash your event if you want more than 99 copies. There are bulk volume discounts available too. So again, you can go to the empathy dilemma.com and that will link you to all the places. So I hope you enjoyed today’s hot take. Next month, we’ll be digging into pillar number four, which is decisiveness, very important one. And until next time, please remember that cash flow, creativity and compassion are not mutually exclusive. Take care and be kind. Mind For more on how to achieve radical success through empathy. Visit the empathyedge.com there you can listen to past episodes, access show notes and free resources. Book me for a Keynote or workshop and sign up for our email list to get new episodes, insights, news and events. Please follow me on Instagram at Red slice. Maria, never forget, empathy is your superpower. Use it to make your work and the world a better place.
