Leading with empathy and kindness

Sometimes it takes a pandemic to grab you and shake you into realizing what it means to be human. As a leader, you must do what you must do for the success of the organization you lead. In a crisis like the coronavirus, you are faced with decisions that test your judgment, call upon your past and all that it taught you, and hold you up as either a strong or weak leader in the eyes of others.

Not everyone has the ability to put oneself in someone else’s shoes or show true compassion. “Compassion is the finest and noblest result of empathy,” writes Piero Ferrucci in The Power of Kindness. “Empathy,” he explains, “is an ingredient of the emotional intelligence necessary for acting competently and efficiently in today’s world.”

In times of crisis, especially during times of crisis, we need empathy. According to Piero, “It is exactly when things are going badly that empathy is beneficial…The best way to face pain is directly...To enter into it, as into a tunnel, then to come out the other side.”