What if imposter syndrome is one of the biggest roadblocks to empathy?   I was working with a CEO recently who is a self-made success story.  She’d risen through the ranks over the years, starting in housekeeping and gradually moving up through a small organization to the top level position.  Grit,

We talk about empathy in our culture a lot – what it is, what it isn’t, what it should be.  But what does it really look like?  What happens when people take the time to put themselves in someone else’s shoes (perspective taking)? Many times the ‘people’ part gets forgotten

I’ve been talking about how empathy is something we do for a while now.  It’s not enough to have empathy: you have to use empathy.  If you want it to really work to create understanding and connection, anyway. I think playing with words is fun though, and it suddenly occurred

I was working with a leader the other day and he actually said “this company should work like a machine”.  I groaned inwardly.  This is such antiquated thinking, but it’s still out there, and a reason why we’re still stuck in ‘command-and-control’ style leadership. This idea that an organization is

I just got back from speaking and I did a full talk on the 4 steps to self-empathy.  A part of that is understanding what ‘critical, not caring’ is, and I had someone ask a really good question.  “Don’t we need to be able to critique ourselves?  You say judgement

I just got home from doing some speaking, and that interaction with people who really want to know more about empathy is one of my favorite things.  I get to meet people, go places I’ve never been, and be a part of the world.  I never know what connections we’ll

So is empathy something you’re born with, or something you build?  Yes. We’re all born with a certain amount of empathy.  We’re biologically hardwired for it as humans, at least, most of us are.  But can you learn it? The good news is that since most people have some empathy,

I was walking home past a playground yesterday when I heard a father talking to his little girl, “now Jennifer, you have to play nice”. I have no idea what had happened, but it made me stop and think.  Do we really need to be ‘nice’, or should we work

Last week I was working with a client who was a very nice older gentleman, if maybe a bit set in his ways.  I was explaining how empathy can work in a corporate setting, and talking through some examples of his behavior in the past week that maybe could’ve been

For anyone who follows the Society for Human Resource Management, you’ve probably seen the articles that workplace incivility is on the rise.  The news is saying that, after Luigi Mangione’s killing of United Healthcare Exec Brian Thompson, that others have picked up his cue and are going straight to violence,