Empathetic business

At first it may seems strange to talk about empathy in business. But one should consider that human interactions are at the core of business relations and that empathy helps us improve our understanding of human nature(s).

The nature of business transactional relationships may be deeply and positively transformed by the introduction of empathy into the equation.

Meeting your clients needs

Often psychology has been used in business to sell needs and ideas to clients, more than to try to understand their actual needs.

Through an empathic approach you will be able to truly understand the motives of your clients and know what products or services will be of interest for them. Showing respect for the person needs will open real channels of communication.

Building trust

Through empathic communication, stakeholders get to know each other, they understand others point of view better (or at least consider it). I feel understerstood and considered so I will be more enclined to trust my counterparts. Lasting business and relationship cannot be only based on comparative price and services advantage. Both internally and externally trust will ensure stability and longevity in your business

How do you like to communicate?

Communication is often a critical factor in project management, business administration or relationships with clients. Understanding how people react emotionally, what is their sensitivity to time, how they perceive hierarchy or their relation with money issues may considerably improve the success of a project. Many project fail because of poor communication, leading to lack of coordination, personal issues, or critical misunderstanding.

To improve your communication skills through empathy, I invite you to read the articles on “cross cultural communication” and read more about active listening in the article “the empathetic recipe”.

Fair and responsible business: bringing ethics into business

Bringing consideration for others interest can help you bring ethics into your business. Cooperation between colleagues will be facilitated, as well as understanding of various departments point of view, or respect of the resources of the company.

Ethics will not only be about rules and principles that your human resources personal tries to advertise, it will be more a culture of enterprise which will create a feeling of belonging to the company. Many companies have understood that, and try to develop a feeling of belonging through social services, group activities, shareholding in the company’s financial results,… Those methods work rather well, but they can have even greater results by adding a more “active” dimension, promoting true individual and social empathetic conscience.

And money in all this?

Surely capitalism is not fundamentally about respect of others needs and ethics, but bringing empathy into the culture of a company will have a highly positive structural influence on the business you are running. Better working teams, improved communication, promotion of trust and respect, real understanding of stakeholders needs will lead to a sane business management and will most likely improve the financial results of your organization. Take a second to think about the various issues you have in your organization… wouldn’t most of them be resolved if people could understand and respect each other better and truly consider the culture and strategy of the company?

Additional resources:

http://www.bplusd.org/2008/11/06/wired-to-care-a-strategic-empathy-book/

http://www.empathy.co.uk/whitepapers_26.html

http://www.empathy.co.uk/whitepapers_31.html

World of Empathy © 2009