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Published

22 July 2025

Is it cool to be kind? Exploring the value of empathy in effective leadership

Empathy allows leaders to factor in different perspectives and to understand what drives and motivates other individuals within a team. How empathetic is your leadership style?

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At a glance:

  • In leadership, empathy is about and seeking to understand different perspectives and what drives and motivates others.
  • Empathy helps to foster collaboration, build relationships based on trust and promote healthy, productive workplaces.
  • With patience and commitment, many of the skills that you need to lead with empathy can be refined or developed.

Many different skills and attributes go into performing leadership roles effectively. Ivan Zuvela, Partner of Gerard Daniels, considers the value that empathy brings, and what it takes to lead empathetically.

What role does empathy play in leadership?

Empathy describes the ability to understand the emotions and feelings of others. Empathetic leadership is therefore largely focused on accommodating the needs and perspective of other individuals within a team or organisation.

“Empathetic leaders are people-focused,” says Ivan. “They see relationships as the foundation for performance, connecting with others on a human level to build mutual understanding and trust. Context is also important for this type of leader in trying to understand the circumstances that shape people’s experience and performance at work.”

According to Ivan, it’s important to note that sympathy and empathy are not the same thing. “In the context of leadership, sympathy draws on shared feelings and experiences and typically evokes an emotional leadership response. While leading with empathy is about taking different perspectives on board and actively seeking to understand what drives and motivates others,” he says. “This is an important distinction to make, as you don’t need to share the same views or have the same experiences to lead effectively – emotional reactions can also affect decision making and undermine leadership credibility.”

How does empathy impact the culture and performance of an organisation?

Empathy is a powerful leadership tool for:

  • Understanding what motivates people and what they really need
  • Making it clear that the human impact has been considered when decisions are made
  • Fostering collaboration and cohesion
  • Promoting healthy and productive workplaces
  • Building relationships based on trust
  • Improving communication, employee engagement and morale

“Empathy helps leaders to build credibility and trust and to create work environments where people feel seen and heard as individuals,” says Ivan. “It’s widely recognised that happy people perform better, and leading with empathy creates a culture that drives performance through wellbeing.”

Skills and traits should you look for in empathetic leaders

Empathy is an important quality for achieving cultural alignment in the search for senior leaders.

“We help clients to extract meaningful insights on a candidate’s skills, experience and natural leadership style,” says Ivan. “To appoint empathetic leaders, we look for individuals that give people the benefit of the doubt, seeking clarity and understanding instead of passing quick judgement. We also favour individuals that demonstrate active listening and show a genuine understanding and care for the needs, perspective, input and experience of others.”

Other skills and attributes often found in empathetic leaders, include:

Emotional intelligence: By recognising and effectively managing their own emotions, empathetic leaders are better equipped to understand what drives and motivates others.

Active listening: Strong active listening skills help empathetic leaders to build understanding, trust and credibility in their ability to lead. To listen effectively, leaders must be accessible and expose themselves to a diversity of people at all levels of an organisation.

Compassion: Empathetic leaders care about the personal circumstances of others, showing genuine concern for well-being and providing appropriate support.

Openness: Leaders with the confidence to share their own challenges create a work environment where others feel safe to do so too. Openness is also important for building a culture of continual learning and improvement. 

Inclusivity: When team members are encouraged to share diverse perspectives and experiences, it builds inclusivity and creates an environment where people want to contribute and share their thoughts and ideas.

Can you learn to lead with empathy?

While some individuals are inherently empathetic, many of the skills that you need to lead with empathy can be refined or developed – but it will take commitment and patience. “You can get better at it if you’re committed to putting in the work and developing the right skills,” says Ivan.

Self-awareness: Growing your sense of self is key to leading with greater empathy. “Seeking feedback is one of the most effective ways to achieve this,” says Ivan. “In doing so, it’s important to engage with people at all levels and be open to discussing your own performance and leadership style.”

Accountability: To lead with empathy, it’s important to develop and display a strong sense of accountability and responsibility. “Instead of deflecting issues onto others, leading with empathy means leading by example and holding yourself to account,” says Ivan. “Approaching leadership this way not only positively impacts your own performance, but it sets the tone for the rest of the organisation, demonstrating the value of empathy and how it can shape the culture of the organisation.”

Cultural alignment: If senior leaders lack empathy, it creates cultural misalignment. “Being true to the company values is an important part of leading with empathy, because it helps to keep everyone on the same page,” says Ivan. “When you lead with empathy you also get a better read on people, which allows you to attract and develop talent with a shared understanding and sense of purpose.”

Work-life balance: Achieving work-life balance can be particularly challenging for empathetic leaders. “Highly empathetic leaders can sometimes find themselves very involved in the lives of staff, through design or circumstance – which means their time is stretched thin and makes role modelling the right behaviours quite difficult,” says Ivan. “As a leader it’s important to prioritise your own wellbeing, as only by doing so will you have the capacity you need to lead both effectively and with empathy.”

To appoint strong senior leaders or develop the leadership style and performance of your leadership team, connect with Ivan or reach out to your local Gerard Daniels team.

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