How to Show Empathy at Work

Dealing with other peoples' feelings and emotions at work can be challenging for many employees. However, empathizing with how someone feels has practical benefits. You can either encourage someone by recognizing positive feelings or defuse a negative situation by acknowledging strongly expressed emotions. You can be more empathetic by implementing the following tips: Take the time to listen for the feelings behind the words you hear. Ask questions to clarify your understanding of the other person's point of view. Suspend your ideas, opinions, emotions and judgements until you know the whole story. Validate both the positive and negative feelings of others by stating the emotion you see. Work on showing empathy to others this week!