Empathy-first leadership: Being a boss with a hear
Does business really have to be all . . . business? Being a leader isn’t just about profit and loss statements; it’s also about being human. Effective leaders know that their listening skills and ability to empathize with staff and customers can be just as essential as sharp instincts about what will or won’t sell.
In a recent webinar sponsored by Inc., Fast Company, and the Dell Women’s Entrepreneur Network (DWEN), moderator Amy Jo Martin, founder and CEO of Renegade Global, spoke with Verta Maloney, co-founder of the*gameHers, a community for women gamers to meet, connect, and play online and offline; and 45 Lemons, which offers a comprehensive anti-racism program and human resources solutions to organizations; and Mary Spio, CEEK VR, a leading virtual reality platform for music artists, athletes, and other digital content creators.
Here are key takeaways from that conversation:
1. Build a vision-aligned team.
Leading with empathy means building a team that gets what you want to bring to society, says Spio. “There’s just so much you can do with your life, so if you’ve decided to build a company or contribute value to the world, find those people who are vision- and mission-aligned.”
That includes funders, too. Maloney says, “Instead of fighting to be at the table of either this VC or that investor, or whatever, because of whatever name recognition they have, even though they might not believe in that mission—step away and say, ‘I’m actually going to say no to that until I can find the people who really want to rock with me.’”
2. Understand others’ pain points.
Being a leader means staying in touch on a personal level with what your customers and employees need. When you’re a good listener, you can build products that solve problems for your customers and foster a positive workplace environment.
“I talk about companies being these charters of love because you’re solving pain points for people, right? You’re sending these good things out there to the world that people need,” Spio says.
3. Leading with empathy doesn’t mean lacking anger.
Maloney gets a lot of attention for her personal tagline: “All love with appropriate doses of rage.” An activist since her teen years, she’s long stood up against things that enraged her, especially when people are suffering. She brings that energy to leading a business.
“Anger and rage are important. I think too often they ask us as women—they ask Black women very specifically—not to be angry. But I believe that if you’re not angry about some of the things happening in the world, then why do you have no boundaries? And then, too, what is the point? Because there are things that are enraging.”
4. Make sure everyone’s voice is heard.
The metaverse, the next iteration of the web, is not going to be built by the same people who have built everything else, Spio says.
“This is going to be something that’s going to be very community-driven, something that’s very intentional, something that people are looking to be part of . . . . We’re going to need to tap into the underrepresented perspectives that have not been at the table.”
She recalls a story about early space teams gathering around to figure out how to create a gravity-defying pen to bring into space, when a housecleaner overheard and said, “Have you thought about a pencil?” Spio says that’s what she thinks about when she’s building her business: “We’re going to need all those different perspectives, and that’s how we hire.”
5. Allow time for rest.
The longer she’s been running businesses, the more Maloney has realized the value of leaning into rest, both for herself and those who work with her. “I think that we’re catching up to [realize] everything does not have to be grind, grind, grind … that sometimes resting actually gets us to a better solution than we ever would have if we just kept grinding.”