Empathy: 15 Examples for Setting Performance Goals

Empathy is the understanding of another person's condition from their perspective by placing yourself in their shoes and feeling what they are feeling.

Empathy: Set Goals for your Employees. Here are some examples:

• Learn to use active listening skills and body language to show understanding of what the other person is saying
• Learn to open up about oneself a bit and show some vulnerability and human feeling when having conversations with colleagues to help relationships blossom
• Try and gain a deeper understanding of the other person's perspective without immediately saying that it is bad or good
• Open up ways for offering help and support to colleagues by telling them if they need anything they can ask
• Look for ways to create connections with colleagues, avoid keeping distance and show willingness to participate in their activities
• Learn to talk to new employees at or strangers outside of work in order to learn something new and understand a little about another person's world
• Volunteer in different community activities in order to understand the needs of people and offer help where appropriate
• Take time to imagine what might be going on in the other person's world and use that understanding to empathize with them
• Learn to treat people as being important and take them as they come and mostly be sensitive when handling their flaws and strengths
• Spend more time reading books and blogs that explain how to be more empathetic at work and in the community in order to make improvements

Empathy: Improve and master this core skill with these ideas

• Be an active listener - Active listening begets empathy that is required when dealing with diverse people. Most people only listen to give a response. Active listening is the ability to be focussed on what the other person is saying and not saying. Being an active listener draws people to you giving them a platform to open up and share their thoughts.
• Challenge prejudices and stereotypes - Working with people calls us to step out of our comfort zones. We ought to make an effort to understand that people are different from us and we can only relate better with them by treating them with respect no matter who they are.
• Develop a good curiosity about others - Almost everyone is curious, but most of it is the wrong interest. Developing a positive interest helps you know more about these people and in return support them. Be discreet with the information you know about others.
• Walk a mile in another person's shoes - talk to others about what it is like to walk in other people's shoes - how to take their issues and concerns as if they are your very own. Also, address the kind of support that should be granted to one another in the work place.
• Share yourself with others - Sharing your feelings openly with others creates trust and allows others to open up as well. In so doing, you are giving others allowance to share more of themselves and enjoy a deeper conversation. People around you will be able to see you as more human who they can share the joys, sorrows, and struggles that everyone shares.