Empathetic Management With Scale - How To Supervise And Ensure Positive Working Environment While Dealing With Diverse And Large Numbers Of Employees
He has 15 years of experience across top companies like Tata Teleservices, Aegon Life and PSIPL. With exposure to working in the Telecom, Life Insurance and hospitality sectors, he is skilled in Talent Acquisition, Talent Management, Business partnering, Employee Retention & HR Operations. He has a Post Graduate degree in Human Resources from XISS.
In traditional times, the view of management was to drive business at any cost. Be hard on employees and they will perform was the motto. Today, with the evolving scenario, the workplace environment calls for an unfolded approach to management and leadership.
One of the top priorities for many organizations is to look beyond traditional strategies for management development and recruitment to create a cadre of leaders capable of moving the company forward. With such high stakes, talent management and human resource professionals as well as senior executives are pursuing multiple strategies for developing more effective managers and leaders. Managers, too, maybe surprised that so many of their peers are underperforming. It's a smart move for individuals, then, to figure out how they rank and what skills are needed to improve their chances of success. One of those skills, perhaps unexpectedly, is empathy. Today's managers need to tap other motivators to get results and inspire the best performance at the workplace and this is linked to a large ex-tent to empathy.
Empathy is, being able to put yourself in another person's shoes to understand how they feel. It is more than just listening; it is, responding with insight and awareness. Empathy is an emotional skill you need to understand and practice if you are going to be a great leader. It should not be based on short or long term agendas, but a singular goal of making the work-place a happy space for employees. The by-product of this will be a more dedicated and self-driven workforce who will then become long-term employees and will remain advocates of the company even after they have moved out.
Most practices flow from top to bottom. If the leadership and management adopt an empathetic approach it is likely to trickle down and become a part of the company's ethos and culture. It becomes nearly impossible for managers to adopt an empathetic approach if the same is not meted out to them.
Empathy is an important factor in professional relation-ships. The nature of leadership is shifting with changes in the workplace, placing a greater emphasis on building and maintaining relationships. Leaders today need to be able to work with those not just in the next cubicle, but also with those in other buildings, or other countries. It is a manager's utmost responsibility to create a work environment that helps employees believe that they are wanted and they belong to the group. Along with this, constant communication and transparency within the team are indispensable to lead people, collaborate with others, and be able to cross-organizational and cultural boundaries. Managers need to create shared direction, alignment, and commitment between social groups with very different histories, perspectives, values, and cultures.
An understanding of diverse backgrounds and geographical cultures is critical towards ensuring empathetic management. Although we have always lived in an ethnically diverse society, we are all operating in an increasingly culturally diverse environment where we need to be able to interact, communicate, build relationships, and work effectively with people from diverse cultural and ethnic backgrounds. To supervise and ensure a positive working environment while dealing with diverse and large numbers of employees, organizations must be willing to review their existing workplace policies based on diversity parameters and, develop & implement diversity-friendly and inclusive workplace policies that offer flexible schedules, leave options, meal choices, recreational activities, etc.
Another important aspect of engaging with a large scale workforce through empathetic management is communication. Frank and open communication is the key to understanding. This can apply to almost anything but it's especially apt here! A two-way dialogue for building a feedback culture is necessary and it applies to driving change, too; employees should feel comfortable speaking to leaders about their concerns and opinions. One way that managers can become better at being empathetic with their team is by putting in the work to form a personal bond with each team member. This will help them to understand that you care about them as individuals and not just about what they can do for the bottom line. Forming these bonds aligns you as an ally with your team members, facilitating a culture of more open communication that can help lead to truly innovative discussions and solutions to problems. Keeping the lines of communication open can help in other ways too. This can help managers get an insight into the needs and aspirations of their team while designing initiatives and pro-grams for Rewards & Recognitions and Learning. Managers must insist on making the team employable through specific learning programs and empowering them through initiatives like Workplace coach (WPC). This can be done by establishing one-on-one diverse mentorships, making each person in the pair serve as a mentor to the other person for an equal amount of time.
Transparency in keeping people up-to-date with the goings-on of the company and news with them helps employees feel involved and valued, which helps drive interest.
Lastly, one must not forget that money concerns are one of the biggest causes of stress. Studies show that 53% of employees are stressed about their finances. Therefore, looking at the financial needs through financial assistance programs is essential for a positive working environment. There are two things to consider, though, before we look at how companies can support employees financially. Firstly, it's not about the perks but showing your workforce you care and value them. Secondly, if you want to consider ways to support employees' financial wellbeing, the first thing to do is ask them and provide them with financial guidance.
To sum up, being empathetic is not always easy. You may need to work hard to understand someone fundamentally different from you, confront negative feelings you have about that person, or address your fear that your empathy will send false signals. The secret is to understand what is influencing your reactions. Work hard to put yourself in the other's shoes and interact with them as a whole person. It's amazing how good you might feel!
In traditional times, the view of management was to drive business at any cost. Be hard on employees and they will perform was the motto. Today, with the evolving scenario, the workplace environment calls for an unfolded approach to management and leadership.
One of the top priorities for many organizations is to look beyond traditional strategies for management development and recruitment to create a cadre of leaders capable of moving the company forward. With such high stakes, talent management and human resource professionals as well as senior executives are pursuing multiple strategies for developing more effective managers and leaders. Managers, too, maybe surprised that so many of their peers are underperforming. It's a smart move for individuals, then, to figure out how they rank and what skills are needed to improve their chances of success. One of those skills, perhaps unexpectedly, is empathy. Today's managers need to tap other motivators to get results and inspire the best performance at the workplace and this is linked to a large ex-tent to empathy.
Empathy is, being able to put yourself in another person's shoes to understand how they feel. It is more than just listening; it is, responding with insight and awareness. Empathy is an emotional skill you need to understand and practice if you are going to be a great leader. It should not be based on short or long term agendas, but a singular goal of making the work-place a happy space for employees. The by-product of this will be a more dedicated and self-driven workforce who will then become long-term employees and will remain advocates of the company even after they have moved out.
Most practices flow from top to bottom. If the leadership and management adopt an empathetic approach it is likely to trickle down and become a part of the company's ethos and culture. It becomes nearly impossible for managers to adopt an empathetic approach if the same is not meted out to them.
Empathy is an important factor in professional relation-ships. The nature of leadership is shifting with changes in the workplace, placing a greater emphasis on building and maintaining relationships. Leaders today need to be able to work with those not just in the next cubicle, but also with those in other buildings, or other countries. It is a manager's utmost responsibility to create a work environment that helps employees believe that they are wanted and they belong to the group. Along with this, constant communication and transparency within the team are indispensable to lead people, collaborate with others, and be able to cross-organizational and cultural boundaries. Managers need to create shared direction, alignment, and commitment between social groups with very different histories, perspectives, values, and cultures.
An understanding of diverse backgrounds and geographical cultures is critical towards ensuring empathetic management. Although we have always lived in an ethnically diverse society, we are all operating in an increasingly culturally diverse environment where we need to be able to interact, communicate, build relationships, and work effectively with people from diverse cultural and ethnic backgrounds. To supervise and ensure a positive working environment while dealing with diverse and large numbers of employees, organizations must be willing to review their existing workplace policies based on diversity parameters and, develop & implement diversity-friendly and inclusive workplace policies that offer flexible schedules, leave options, meal choices, recreational activities, etc.
An understanding of diverse backgrounds and geographical cultures is critical towards ensuring empathetic management
Another important aspect of engaging with a large scale workforce through empathetic management is communication. Frank and open communication is the key to understanding. This can apply to almost anything but it's especially apt here! A two-way dialogue for building a feedback culture is necessary and it applies to driving change, too; employees should feel comfortable speaking to leaders about their concerns and opinions. One way that managers can become better at being empathetic with their team is by putting in the work to form a personal bond with each team member. This will help them to understand that you care about them as individuals and not just about what they can do for the bottom line. Forming these bonds aligns you as an ally with your team members, facilitating a culture of more open communication that can help lead to truly innovative discussions and solutions to problems. Keeping the lines of communication open can help in other ways too. This can help managers get an insight into the needs and aspirations of their team while designing initiatives and pro-grams for Rewards & Recognitions and Learning. Managers must insist on making the team employable through specific learning programs and empowering them through initiatives like Workplace coach (WPC). This can be done by establishing one-on-one diverse mentorships, making each person in the pair serve as a mentor to the other person for an equal amount of time.
Transparency in keeping people up-to-date with the goings-on of the company and news with them helps employees feel involved and valued, which helps drive interest.
Lastly, one must not forget that money concerns are one of the biggest causes of stress. Studies show that 53% of employees are stressed about their finances. Therefore, looking at the financial needs through financial assistance programs is essential for a positive working environment. There are two things to consider, though, before we look at how companies can support employees financially. Firstly, it's not about the perks but showing your workforce you care and value them. Secondly, if you want to consider ways to support employees' financial wellbeing, the first thing to do is ask them and provide them with financial guidance.
To sum up, being empathetic is not always easy. You may need to work hard to understand someone fundamentally different from you, confront negative feelings you have about that person, or address your fear that your empathy will send false signals. The secret is to understand what is influencing your reactions. Work hard to put yourself in the other's shoes and interact with them as a whole person. It's amazing how good you might feel!
