Empathy: the Winning Skill for Project Managers

Published by Michelle Cabiya on

As a project manager, you need to work on developing some competencies that will help you achieve your goals and become a great project manager. Today we’ll talk about empathy. Learn more about its importance and what to do to become better at it.

Empathy can be described as a person’s ability to be attuned to the feelings and emotions of other people. There are three basic ways of appreciating empathy:

  • Effective empathy: This is the main ability of feeling what people feel, and being in their shoes real time. Studies have shown that people who are empathetic effectively are the ones who react profoundly when they see a gory sight in a movie or any other location.
  • Cognitive empathy: The person who possesses cognitive empathy understands the emotions of others; why they act the way they act or even react the way they do. Cognitively empathetic people may not share in the strong reactions of others.
  • Cognitive regulation: These sets of people have a lid on their emotions. An example is a doctor who is needed to keep calm and concentrate on his job, even in the face of distracting sights and sounds.

It is important for humans to be empathetic because it immediately drives the person to respond to other person’s needs.

For a project manager, empathy is very important. It puts you in a position to understand the level of creativity or competence in handling a particular task, and that helps you to adjust in terms of delegating duties.

When you are empathetic, you get to know and understand how your teammates like to work. This will bring out the best in them. Sometimes, a request from a coworker or team member can come up that may otherwise sound ludicrous, but if you are empathetic, it becomes easier to understand why this is happening, and that helps you to decide its worthiness or otherwise.

Empathy also helps you to build communication and trust between team members. You are able to know what to say and how to say it effectively.

As a project manager, you need to work on developing some competencies that will help you achieve your goals and become a great project manager. Today we’ll talk about empathy. Learn more about its importance and what to do to become better at it.

Empathy can be described as a person’s ability to be attuned to the feelings and emotions of other people. There are three basic ways of appreciating empathy:

  • Effective empathy: This is the main ability of feeling what people feel, and being in their shoes real time. Studies have shown that people who are empathetic effectively are the ones who react profoundly when they see a gory sight in a movie or any other location.
  • Cognitive empathy: The person who possesses cognitive empathy understands the emotions of others; why they act the way they act or even react the way they do. Cognitively empathetic people may not share in the strong reactions of others.
  • Cognitive regulation: These sets of people have a lid on their emotions. An example is a doctor who is needed to keep calm and concentrate on his job, even in the face of distracting sights and sounds.

It is important for humans to be empathetic because it immediately drives the person to respond to other person’s needs.

For a project manager, empathy is very important. It puts you in a position to understand the level of creativity or competence in handling a particular task, and that helps you to adjust in terms of delegating duties.

When you are empathetic, you get to know and understand how your teammates like to work. This will bring out the best in them. Sometimes, a request from a coworker or team member can come up that may otherwise sound ludicrous, but if you are empathetic, it becomes easier to understand why this is happening, and that helps you to decide its worthiness or otherwise.

Empathy also helps you to build communication and trust between team members. You are able to know what to say and how to say it effectively.

Categories: Project management

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