Why Empathic Leadership Is Essential

Supporting the healing and re-engagement of our teams

The workforce is forever changed.

Let’s face it. We will not be returning to a “pre-Covid” normal. It will take us some time to establish a new normal in our workplaces. We are still grieving. We’re grieving the losses of loved ones, of jobs and businesses, of the peace of mind that comes of a general sense of safety and security, and of the state of physical and mental health we previously took for granted. We’ve sustained a kind of collective trauma, and we have, to greater and lesser degrees, been processing this grief in prolonged physical isolation from our communities of support. Research and experience tell us our teams won’t be functioning optimally for some time.

The good news is that we are all navigating this new space together. The bad news is that there is no roadmap for us as leaders in the workplace. Most of us didn’t get assigned to leadership roles because we’re amazing counselors. We may be skilled trend watchers, forecasters, and planners. We may be operational whizzes with a knack for efficiency. We may be great at sales and networking. Even those of us known for being good coaches and mentors to our teams are inadequately equipped to navigate the strange new waters of post-Covid leadership.  

Even if we invest hours researching and learning how to support and lead teams of people who have spent a year immersed in fear and grief, we must acknowledge that this is completely new territory for all of us. Each person on our team will be processing a very different set of experiences, emotions, and challenges, and the individual and collective impacts will be unpredictable. This means, as leaders, we will be muddling through post-Covid re-engagement, figuring things out as we go. Most business leaders do not like to muddle. We like to analyze the data, find the 80/20 solution, cut our losses, and move on down the road.

Why do we need to do it differently in this case? Firstly, this situation is profoundly different than any of our previous challenges as leaders. While some have been directly impacted more than others, we have all been hurt. And as human beings, we are wired to care about each other. Secondly, because the physical and psychological effects of prolonged illness, grief, and trauma will continue to disrupt business as usual until we have recovered our equilibrium and healed sufficiently to deliver our work at pre-Covid levels.

Now, more than ever, our employees need us to take an empathic approach to leadership.

We will need to make space for emotional connection and recovery. This means slowing down to listen more deeply and to more fully understand the needs of our people on a day-to-day basis. The one thing we can predict about grief is that it’s unpredictable. This means we will very likely accompany our people through occasional tears and waves of sadness, frustration, and fatigue over the coming weeks and months. Each time we encounter this emotional bumpiness, we as leaders have an opportunity to foster healthier connections and to deepen the level of trust among our teams. We can accomplish this by expressing care and compassion, by demonstrating patience and flexibility where possible, and by affirming these ebbs and flows as a normal part of the healing process.

During my 20+ year career, there has been an unwritten rule that feelings are not welcome in the workplace—emotional expression at work could damage your credibility and impede your chances of promotion. We will need to make it clear that we are available to listen and to help connect our people to the support they need to recover. For that to happen, we will need to show up differently as leaders, stepping out of our own comfort zones to communicate compassion with ourselves and others and to share check-ins and insights from our own healing journeys.

We will likely not be at our best for some time, and that is okay. Really, it has to be. We’re all just human beings who have been through an outrageously difficult and painful year. And we’re finding our way forward together.

As leaders, we like to make plans, we like to know the answers, and we like to remove roadblocks and help others succeed. Of course, we will be expected to make and execute plans this year, but we should do so with the compassionate awareness that our ability to deliver on these plans will be more uncertain than in pre-Covid times.

We should acknowledge that the physical, psychological, and emotional impacts of the pandemic on ourselves, our team members and our families are unknown and unpredictable. It’s possible these impacts may be substantial enough to cause us to miss our targets, and we could choose to be honest about that with ourselves, our peers and our leadership team. We could also discuss this openly with our teams and engage them in the creation of co-supportive solutions to anticipate and adjust responsibilities and workflows as needed.

For leaders who have prided themselves on consistent performance, speaking this kind of truth will feel vulnerable. It will also create opportunities for others to share similar concerns. This kind of sharing increased organizational support, trust, and connection, which are the conditions most needed for healing and business recovery.

The same principle also applies to interactions with our teams. As leaders, we will be presented with completely new situations and obstacles. In many cases, we will not have the answers or know the best ways to address the issues, and we could be honest about that. While we may feel uncomfortable and vulnerable in those conversations, they hold the potential for empowerment. We may find our team members have creative ideas we haven’t thought of, and the increased sense of trust and connection feel supportive even when we don’t immediately find the solutions we need.

Many leaders are laser-focused on the goal of “getting back to normal” and haven’t yet recognized the need to modify their approach with their teams. Even without looking at the trends in mental health disorders, stress-related illnesses, domestic abuse, and addiction, a couple of hallway or Zoom conversations are usually enough to make the point. We’re all trying hard, but we’re struggling. Some leaders will argue that looking out for the emotional needs of our teams shouldn’t be our responsibility, and that may be true. But, if we don’t learn new ways to get through these hard things together with empathy and compassion, we won’t just be missing our numbers. We’ll be missing our people.

It’s essential that we take it seriously that part of our role as leaders in a post-Covid workplace is to learn all we can about how to support the healing and re-engagement of our teams and to find the most effective ways to share our findings with others. We don’t have to do it alone. Many companies have internal health, wellness, and safety specialists on staff. We can engage our team to incorporate “mental health” moments into our meetings, consolidate and publicize support resources and services, sponsor classes on stress reduction practices, or invite a social worker to conduct group grief meetings. We can sponsor facilitated employee listening sessions, art projects, memorials, or family picnics and nature walks. The possibilities are endless, and they all communicate empathy and care.

At the heart of it, empathic leadership is about creating caring connection. We do that by showing up and meeting our people where they are, taking the time to listen deeply enough to understand what’s needed, being honest and vulnerable, and co-creating the solutions that will serve our collective healing and take us into a better, more compassionate future.