Empathy To Aid Profitability

(for the bosses…)

Oftentimes we are taught that to be good in business, you need to take no prisoners. All necks must be stepped upon on your journey to glory. Those not with you are now against you, and trying to impede your progress. Why would you slow down to help them up? While that may be true for some highly competitive roles with no room for camaraderie, to be a successful business owner or operator requires a little help from time to time. Going at it alone can be daunting emotionally, but also fiscally detrimental. Without another opinion, you begin to operate within a fictional micro world where all your ideas are great. If all YOUR ideas are great, then any ideas coming from elsewhere will fall on deaf ears. As a leader in any arena, this is a place you do NOT want to be. Whether leading a team in sports, an army into battle, or your partners in business, the best leaders include the ability to adapt in their arsenal. Times change, sales trends change, supply chains change, technology changes.

Take a look at the recent and ongoing Covid pandemic. Putting any personal or political feelings about it aside, we can all agree it has severely changed the landscape of how we consume as purchasers, and how businesses have changed as providers. 50% capacity requires help, closing in time for a curfew requires help, operating with a limited staff while still meeting expectations to perform as well as you did before the change requires help.

Empathy is defined as the ability to understand and share the feelings of another. To me the most key and important words of this definition are ABILITY and SHARE. Empathy’s an ability, not a weakness. It’s something you have to master and hone, not something you are giving away. And sharing, well isn’t that why you got into business in the first place? Didn’t you have some awesome idea you needed to share with the masses? Wasn’t there a product you believed everyone should also own and share in the joy of its use? Was the best recipe you’ve ever tasted for Chicken Tikka Masala something you wanted to keep to yourself, or something you wanted to market and share with the people?

Other words that can be used to describe empathy are chemistry and togetherness, both desired traits in a profitable business. You want a team with the best chemistry, you want a community with the most togetherness.

The word to best describe the opposite of empathy, is distance. No good intending leader wants any distance from their team or community, as it just won’t end well.

Now, empathy is important, and remains our primary focus here, but let’s talk about (our secondary focus) another word: Profitability, which can be defined as “a business's ability to produce a return on an investment”. When the investment includes more than just supplies, goods, and services, but also a healthy dose of empathy to your community and clients, then your return can be equated with more than just dollars and cents, but also with patience, understanding, and loyalty.

There’s no one correct way to do it, nor is there concrete right or wrong answers on how. Volunteer at the events, speak to the things your community is driven by. Understand a single mothers need to change her schedule, share in your team's personal wins and losses.

Starting late is better than never, but showing empathy to your community will return profits. Showing empathy to your team, will return loyalty and hard work. So when the next pandemic, recession, or new form of the internet rears its ugly head, you’ll turn your worried head around to a team and community saying: “We got you”.

The Beatles said it best with “I Get By With a Little Help, From My Friends”.