EMPATHY

TRAINING
EMPATHY VS SYMPATHY?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Evwgu369Jw
EMPATHY

■ Understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously

experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another of either
the past or present without having the feelings, thoughts, and experience
fully communicated in an objectively explicit manner.
QUIZ

■ Sarah's friend just lost a family member and is having a difficult time.
She says to her friend, 'I'm sorry for you.' Sarah is expressing _____ in
this scenario.
■ John failed an exam and ended up calling and crying in front of Sophia
who is his best friend. Sophia responds by saying “Oh no! You poor
thing”. Sophia is expressing _______ in this scenario.
1. “What I am hearing you say is….Is that how you are feeling?”
2. “How did you get yourself into this mess?”
3. “You know, it’s not that bad”
4. “Been there, done that”
5. “You are not alone”
6. “I can’t imagine how bad this is for you”
COMPONENTS OF EMPATHY

■ EMOTIONAL EMPATHY
When you feel physically along with the other person, as though their emotions were
contagious
■ COGNITIVE EMPATHY
Simply knowing how the other person feels and what they might be thinking.
Sometimes called perspective-taking
■ COMPASSIONATE EMPATHY
With this kind of empathy we not only understand a person’s predicament and feel
with them, but are spontaneously moved to help, if needed.
WAYS TO DEVELOP EMPATHY

1. Working on greater curiosity

2. Practice active listening
3. Perspective taking
■ Imagine that you work in a team where one of your colleagues, Hassan, has been
consistently arriving late to work for the past week. As a result, it has been affecting
team productivity and causing frustration among other team members. During a team
meeting, the issue is raised, and the general consensus is that Hassan is not being
considerate or taking his responsibilities seriously.

HOW WOULD YOU APPROACH THIS SITUATION?

1. Developing Greater Curiosity

■ The truth is, we don’t know what’s going on for the other person
■ Develop an understanding before demonstrating it
■ Curiosity is the desire to learn, to understand new things and to know how they work
How you should inquire

1. ”Hassan, I noticed that you've been arriving late to work recently. Is everything alright?
Is there anything going on that we should know about?"
2. "Can you share with us if there's anything specific that has been causing challenges for
you in terms of punctuality lately?"
3. "We value your contributions to the team, and we're concerned about your recent
lateness. Is there something we can do to support you or alleviate any difficulties you
might be facing?"
4. "Is there anything we as a team can do to help ensure you have a smoother morning
routine or address any obstacles you're facing?"
“I'm sorry for being late. It's just that my mother has been unwell, and I have to help her
with her morning routine before I can leave for work. It's been quite challenging managing
everything. On top of that, I've been dealing with some other personal issues as well that
have been causing a lot of stress and anxiety. It's been affecting my sleep, and I find it hard
to wake up on time."
2. Practice Active Listening

■ Paying attention
■ Listen for total meaning
-Each message comprises two components: the objective content (what is said) and
the subjective feeling underlying the content (what is not said).
■ Take all informational cues, both verbal and non verbal ( The role of body
language, facial expressions, and gestures)
■ Paraphrasing
■ Reflecting emotions
■ Clarifying
■ Summarizing
E M PAT H Y

■ E stands for eye contact

■ Muscles of facial expression
■ P stands for posture
■ A stands for affect
■ T stands for tone of voice
■ H stands for hearing the whole person
■ Y stands for your response
Example

■ Speaker: "I've been feeling overwhelmed with my workload lately. It seems like there's
always more and more to do, and I'm struggling to keep up. It's affecting my motivation
and work-life balance."
■ Active Listener: "I can see that you're experiencing a high level of stress due to your
workload. It sounds like you're feeling overwhelmed and finding it challenging to
maintain a healthy work-life balance. Can you give me an example of a specific task or
situation that has been particularly burdensome for you?"
What to avoid while practicing active
listening?
■ Don’t try to change the other person’s way of seeing things
■ Don’t listen to respond, listen to understand
■ Don’t respond quickly to demands for decisions, judgments and evaluations
■ Don’t pass judgment, critical or favorable
■ Don’t give advice
■ Avoid superficial statements of encouragement
3. Perspective Taking

■ Perspective-taking is the act of perceiving a situation or understanding a concept from

an alternative point of view, such as that of another individual
Considering Multiple Perspectives

■ Tariq sleeps through his alarm and wakes up five minutes before he has to leave. He needs to get
ready, but his sister is using the bathroom and won’t get out. Tariq ends up being late to first
period and gets a detention from his teacher.
■ How would each person feel or think about the situation?
Considering Multiple Perspectives

■ Fifteen students in Mr. Fawad class don’t do their homework. Mr. Fawad gets angry and decides
to make the entire class stay in at lunch to get caught up.
■ How would each person feel or think about the situation?
Seek Understanding

■ When we are communicating with others, our natural state is to consider our personal
goals. In this first step of perspective taking, we mindfully decide to set aside our own
goals. Instead, we purposefully center the perspective of the other person.
■ We let go of our egos. We decide, instead, to engage with their lived experience and the
way they are perceiving the world.
Ideate

■ How are they perceiving the world? In this step, we imagine several possibilities. Then,
we navigate around them to see the other person clearly and imagine how they might be
thinking about a situation. These are assumptions – they may not be the truth, but
they’re as close as we can get.
■ We do this until we’re ready to build a hypothesis.
Hypothesize

■ Now that we have some ideas, we narrow our thoughts down to our best guess or
guesses. These should be solid hypotheses we can test and use to connect in our
interaction with the other person. If our hypothesis is correct, what outcomes
would we expect? If we are wrong, how might we know?
Observe and Adjust

■ We hold our hypothesis lightly and are ready for new information about the other
person. Now, we are ready to engage with them, observe, and adjust our
assumptions. We have an open discussion. We are curious and ready for insights.
The Message Box
Nobody cares how much
you know, until they
know how much you
care.