Empathic leadership starts off as a dark art and becomes the most enlightening factor in helping a culture to stay engaged. The dark part comes from the fear of self-analysis, delving into the unknown where cracks in the system have lain leaking undetected for a lifetime, seeping into the fabric of life and stagnating in habits we neither know of nor understand. The lightness arises from fostering transparency, validation and appreciation in dealing with the sensitivities and dreams of other people. These two facets are connected, for until we are prepared to advance our self-management, the equipment for proactive promotion stays on the top shelf, out of reach.
Amid the sea of uncertainty lies an island community of thinking, feeling people desperate to find meaning in their lives. Traditional groundhog-day motions move them from one sunrise to the next, feeding a sense of hopelessness into the otherwise bountiful package of Presents waiting to be harvested. Carpe Diem has nothing to do with seizing - the word carpe means to harvest, which lends a different context altogether. To harvest, we have first to till the ground - in order to reap, we have to sow.
In this video you'll trace new steps and find yourself somewhere that makes sense to you. As a leader, the road less travelled is the one you're on - a unique perspective is yours to explore, to promote inclusion and engagement from understanding how to develop empathy in best-practice management. Along for the ride are the people who look up to you, or look to you for guidance - by accommodating the need for change into a manageable plan of action, you can elevate your teams to heights of excellence from which they will never look back, because change is inherent in continuous improvement and Time waits for no-one looking over their shoulder.
Feel the fear and do it anyway - that's how mountains are climbed and ground is broken. Your company needs you - we all need you, to be the best you can possibly be as a leader of people on a journey that realistically has no end.