5 Ways to Bring Empathy to Your Remote Team
By: Jessica Thiefels
Empathy in leadership is not only being understanding of your employees—particularly their perspective and feelings—but also trying to put yourself in their shoes to further understand. According to Businesssolver’s 2019 State of Workplace Empathy report, this attribute is essential for leadership as well as overall workplace cohesion. Take a look at their survey findings:
93 percent of employees report they’re likely to stay with an empathetic employer.
82 percent would consider leaving their job for a more empathetic organization.
92 percent of CEOs say their organization is empathetic, while 72 percent of employees say they work for an empathetic company or leader.
The last stat, in particular, suggests a disconnect between how empathetic leaders believe they are, and how that truly comes across to employees. If this disconnect has been on the backburner in your organization, now is the time to focus on empathy, which is more critical than ever right now as millions of workers are managing the stress of a global pandemic while transitioning to working from home.
Whether you’re still dealing with stay-at-home orders or making the transition to a partially distributed team, these five strategies can help you bring more empathy to your remote leadership.
Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff
While your remote team may have had a few weeks of practice already, mistakes will still happen. Just look at the recent Supreme Court remote gaff where one of the Justices forgot to mute themselves while flushing a toilet during a legal argument. Blunders happen to everyone.
Elena Carstoiu, COO of Hubgets, explains how leaders should handle this: "Be understanding of your team’s new normal and the fact that it’s not very normal compared to what they are used to. Set the precedent of accepting that small mistakes will happen. Reinforce that these changes are okay and help everyone learn to navigate their new environment."
Whether a pet walks across the keyboard during a presentation or a staff member is late to a Zoom meeting, don’t sweat it—and remind your employees to do the same.
Role Model Mindfulness
The quarantine and pandemic have turned everyone’s worlds upside down and everyone’s experience has been different. Perhaps one of your team members is stuck in a small apartment trying to juggle their children’s virtual schooling, while you are in a vacation home enjoying space and solitude. Alternatively, certain team members might be lonely and jealous of those who have a house full of family.
Everyone’s circumstances are different, but especially now, workers are dealing with unique (and often difficult) new challenges. Change in itself is hard—the new remote routine might not be what your employees signed up for when applying to their position.
As a leader, this is an important time to be mindful of the feelings and emotions. One way to do this is to role model mindfulness during this time. As Tay&Val of M Meditation explain in The Power of Mindful Leadership:
“Mindfulness is more than just a buzzword—it’s also a powerful asset for leaders. Employees will take on the traits you present, so if you lead with empathy, intention, curiosity, and presence, they will too.”
Give your employees permission to be curious about their emotions and feelings and mindful of the feelings and emotions of others by showing them that you’re doing the same.
Help Employees Help Each Other
Ginger, an on-demand mental health service, found that 69 percent of workers say that this is the most stressful time of their entire professional career—even more so than the 2008 Great Recession or 9/11. Of those working from home, 91 percent report experiencing moderate to extreme stress.
What’s more, the same report found that 63 percent of workers feel their company could do more to support their emotional and mental wellbeing—but simply being available to talk may not be enough. A Mindshare report found that while 86 percent of people say its important that their workplace supports mental health, they were least comfortable talking to HR and senior leaders about it.
However, the report found that they are open to helping others. In fact, employees are two times more likely to give support to a colleague than ask for it.
To create a more empathetic environment, stop the stigma of asking for help in its tracks. Encourage employees to connect with each other and provide support. Ask them to actively listen to one another’s challenges and frustrations. You could even pair coworkers for a weekly chat or check-in. This type of communication will not only decrease loneliness in remote workers but bolster overall mental health.
Humanize Your Own Experiences as a Leader
Too often, leaders take the mantra of “leading by example” literally and feel they must be a perfect representation of an employee and person. However, when you want to bring empathy to your remote team, it’s far more effective if you’re real‚ which also makes you relatable.
If you’re vulnerable about your own challenges, roadblocks, and lessons learned, you’ll humanize yourself. This makes it easier for your staff to connect with you, especially when you’re missing out on all the typical human moments of a physical office space (think: water cooler chats, eating lunch together, family pictures on your desk).
Use this as an opportunity to connect with your team on a new level that also shows them it’s okay to stumble as they figure out the new normal as well.
Lead Your Remote Team With Empathy
While these times are unprecedented, the global workforce is going through monumental shifts because of it. Bring empathy to your leadership during these challenging times and encourage your employees to do the same by role modeling and being open and honest. When employees see you doing this, they’ll feel they can do the same, making your organization stronger and more connected.
