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Empathy

Empathy is the ability to putting yourself in someone else's shoesIt enables them to perceive and understand their emotions, needs and concerns, without necessarily sharing them. It enables us to adopt a posture ofattentive listening and decode verbal and non-verbal emotional signals.

Empathy is not sympathy: it's not about feeling for the other person, but about recognising what they are going through accurately.

Why is this a key skill?

Empathy is essential for :

Create healthy and respectful working relationships
Defusing tensions and preventing conflict
Encouraging cooperation and team spiritteam
Better understand customer or employee needs

It is also one of the pillars of theemotional intelligenceessential to leadership.

Examples

Recognising and validating the emotions of a colleague in difficulty.
Adapting your behaviour to the team's feelings.

Empathy means seeing with your eyes, listening with your ears and feeling with your heart.

Alfred Adler

How can we develop it?

Observe the emotional reactions of the people you are talking to.
Ask open-ended questions to better understand your feelings.
Work on self-awareness to avoid projections.
Practising communication Non-Violence (NVC).

🔁 Associated skills

Active listening
Non-violent communication
Conflict management
Emotional intelligence

Self-assessment

✅ I take into account the emotions of the people I'm talking to.

✅ I recognise distress without minimising it.

✅ I keep a listening posture even when I disagree.

✅ I avoid judging or lecturing.

✅ I know how to adapt my behaviour to the other person's feelings.

Less than 4 positive responses? You can work on your emotional intelligence.

Training

Developing empathy with Non-Violent Communication

To remember

Empathy is an essential human skill for building working relationships based on trust, recognition and mutual understanding. It fosters cooperation and contributes to a calm and stimulating working environment.

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