You may not know this, but you possess a superpower. One that helps you connect and engage with almost anyone and become a stronger leader, create a thriving culture and build business value.
And the great news is, this superpower is innate to us as humans. But sometimes, for some of us, well, the power atrophies – but it can intentionally be strengthened if you know how.
It’s called empathy. Today Maria shares how she discovered this superpower not only to make our world better, but how it drives organizational success – and why we are called to embrace empathetic leadership right NOW in order to move forward and solve our world’s complex problems together.
To access this episode transcript, please scroll down below.
Key Takeaways:
- Binary thinking in leadership is hindering our success – it is BOTH/AND with empathy and ambition.
- Empathy has been named the most crucial leadership success skill for the 21st century to solve our complex problems together. And those who don’t get it, will be left behind.
- Empathy is not just a soft skill, it is the key to greater impact (both in the world and to your bottom line) and requires great strength to practice.
- We have to be able to collaborate, to understand, to hear diverse opinions and points of view – without fear or anger. We have to let everyone have a seat at the table because we cannot solve these problems with our old ways of thinking.
- We all need to work on our empathy muscles – where better than at work, where we spend the bulk of our time?
“We cannot park our humanity at the office door. We are complex, emotional beings – and when we’re seen, heard, and valued for who we are, we thrive. And so do our organizations.”
— Maria Ross
Episode References:
Check out my course! Brand Story Breakthrough Thought Leader
Join the tribe, download your free guide! Discover what empathy can do for you: http://red-slice.com/business-benefits-empathy
Connect with Maria:
Get the podcast and book: TheEmpathyEdge.com
Learn more about Maria and her work: Red-Slice.com
Hire Maria to speak at your next event: Red-Slice.com/Speaker-Maria-Ross
Take my LinkedIn Learning Course! Leading with Empathy
LinkedIn: Maria Ross
Instagram: @redslicemaria
X: @redslice
Facebook: Red Slice
Threads: @redslicemaria
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. Let’s get connected. If you’re loving this content, don’t forget to go to the empathy edge.com. And sign up for the email list to get free resources and more empathy infused success tips, and find out how you can book me as a speaker, I want to hear how empathy is helping you be more successful. So please sign up now at the empathy edge.com. Oh, and follow me on Instagram, where I’m always posting all the things for you at Red slice Maria. Welcome to the October heartache. This is Maria Ross, your host. And these heartaches are my opportunity to talk with you one on one about all facets of empathy, and really give you an update on what’s going on in my world as well. Many of you know I’m working on my next book, the empathy dilemma, how successful leaders balance performance, people and personal boundaries. And that’s going to be coming out in the fall of 2024, I could not be more excited to be partnering with page two, my beloved publisher who also published the empathy edge a few years ago. The great news is that in the last two weeks, I turned in my first draft manuscript to the editors at page two, and I can’t wait to see what they come back with. I actually love the feedback from the editing process. It really helps me hone my style, hone my writing, hone the content, so that I can provide something that is really valuable and useful to you. So if you’re not already signed up for my email list, please sign up, because there’s going to be a treasure trove of launch goodies coming in the months leading up to the launch. And I want to make sure that you’re invited and you have an opportunity to partake of all the goodness that will be part of the launch. Secondly, today I wanted to share with you something big that I did. And that was that I presented a pitch at something called Pitch day through an organization called thought leader, thought leader are the people that helped me land my TEDx talk a few years ago, and they were offering a program to really work on pitching your topic to speakers, planners, media, all the places, all the people. And I was able to create a pitch of three minutes on the essence of the work that I do, and what I can offer. And it was a really humble exercise in cutting the fat from everything that I talk about, and getting down to really what is it that I want to share with people. So I thought there was no better thing to share with you all today, then that pitch, and help you understand a little bit more about what motivates me and drives me to do this work. You may not know this, but you possess a superpower. One that helps you connect and engage with almost anyone and become a stronger leader create a thriving culture and build business value. And the great news is this superpower is innate to us as humans. But sometimes for some of us well, the power atrophies, but it can intentionally be strengthened if you know how. It’s called empathy. And let me share how I discovered the magic of this superpower for business. Several years ago, my son was two and a half at the time and I was reading him books about empathy and compassion and sharing. And yet when I looked up at the headlines, I saw horrible examples of leadership. I’m sure you did too. So what good were all these lessons I was teaching my little boy, if these were his role models, if this was The world he was getting himself into. It not only broke my heart, it pissed me off, and I couldn’t let it stand. There had to be leaders out there who understood that empathy is a strategic advantage. Being a brand strategist for decades, I examined my own successful clients and then spent three years digging into the research. And I was delighted to find countless examples, proving that empathy boosts Innovation, performance, engagement, retention, collaboration, customer loyalty, and revenue. So as many of you know, I wrote a book to convince skeptics of the business case for empathy. And to show them that empathy is not merely being nice, it’s not caving into crazy demands. It’s not even agreeing with someone. It’s a method of information gathering, of seeing things from their perspective, even if you have to make a tough decision. And the book took off. So now I have devoted my work, my keynotes, my leadership trainings, my books that this podcast, even my TEDx talk, to help the C suite, team leaders, HR, and folks at all levels really embrace empathy as their strategic advantage. If the past few years have taught us anything, it’s that we cannot park our humanity at the Office Store. We’re complex emotional beings. And when we’re seen heard and valued for who we are, we thrive, and so to our organizations. Now, you may be thinking empathy is just a soft skill, or it makes you look weak. And as you know, faithful listeners, I love to bust these myths and show how empathy impacts the bottom line, and actually requires great strength. We can balance ambition and compassion. It’s both and not either, or, and I love showing people how we’ve got to stop this binary thinking it’s BS, and it’s holding us back from our full potential. Look, I am not always the most empathetic person, just ask my husband, we all need to intentionally work this innate muscle. And if we can practice in the place where we spend the bulk of our time at work, it spills over into our personal relationships with our partners, our kids, our community. And that helps us be more effective at work. It’s actually a beautiful cycle. This is the new model of leadership. Empathy has been named the most crucial leadership success skill for the 21st century to solve our complex problems together. And those of us who don’t get it will be left behind. And that my friends, was the hopefully impactful pitch that I shared at pitch day, to a wide variety of meeting planners, leadership, training organizers, conference, planners, media, all the things. And I hope it’s given you a little bit more insight into why I do the work that I do. Not all of you have been with me on this podcast from the very beginning, and sort of heard the story about the evolution of how this work came to be. And in the past year, why I’ve pivoted my business and my work to focus on helping people embrace empathy as their superpower, we truly have a lot of problems to solve in the world. And we have to be able to do it together, we have to be able to collaborate, to understand to be able to hear diverse opinions and points of view. Without fear or without anger, we have to be able to let everyone have a seat at the table because we cannot solve these problems with our old ways of thinking. And if you or your organization wants to do a training, want to do a workshop, if your conference wants to bring me in, I would love to share the data to share the habits and practices that I’ve learned over the last few years dedicating my work to this topic. As I said in my pitch, I am not perfect. I am constantly learning. And sometimes we write and research about the things we need to learn more in our own lives. And I can tell you being a parent, that that is one of the biggest teachable experiences I’ve had to work on my empathy and to be where someone else is and sometimes not have the right answer, but just be able to sit with them in their discomfort or their pain. And that is what we need to do at work. We need to help our people thrive. We need to create an environment where everyone wants to collaborate and wants to bring their true self to the table. Because as I said in this pitch, when we’re seen heard and valued for who we are, we thrive Live, and so do our organizations. So that’s this month’s hot take. I would love to know what you think as always, please contact me on Instagram red slice Maria. I’m now on threads as well and I can get messages there. And please make sure you’re signed up for the newsletter. Until next time, remember that cashflow? Creativity and compassion are not mutually exclusive. Take care, and be kind. For more on how to achieve radical success through empathy, visit the empathy edge.com. There you can listen to past episodes, access shownotes 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.
