Do You Know What Empathy Is?

Empathy

One of the most common vocabulary mistakes that individuals make is confusing sympathy with empathy. The two terms, while related, are absolutely distinct. The key difference is between understanding another’s feelings and perspective versus the capability to actually experience (or at least approximate) that other person’s feelings and perspective. This means that empathy allows for a much greater degree of interconnectivity between people.

Consider, for example, that you are walking down the street and you see a homeless person asking for change. A sympathetic response would be pity—you see this person’s distress and acknowledge that it is unfortunate, and you wish the person was better off. An empathetic response, on the other hand, would entail actually imagining what this individual is going through and, to a certain extent, feeling it yourself. You picture yourself out on the street, homeless and penniless. As you can see, the empathetic sensation is much more powerful and much more likely to result in action on your part.

Having this ability to empathize is, most would argue, beneficial toward living a satisfying, responsible life. Empathy is what motivates us to help others, to give to our friends, families, and communities even when we do not have to. In many ways, it is the primary factor in ensuring that we are good people.

But the benefits of empathy extend beyond the personal and spiritual. In fact, empathy is an incredibly useful tool for improving your professional life, as well. For in many ways, the ability to empathize will yield immediate benefits to the conscientious businessman.

One of the most obvious areas in which this applies is marketing. The key to marketing is getting into the head of your audience—understanding what appeals to them and then fashioning your marketing campaign to appeal to their desires. If you cannot relate to your audience, if you cannot imagine what is going through their minds, then you won’t be able to craft a winning marketing campaign and your business will suffer as a result.

On a related note, customer service is another area where empathy is extremely beneficial to a business. Again, the key to great customer service is to understand what your customers want; otherwise, you won’t be able to provide it. And while sympathy may allow you to realize why a customer wants, say, a discount for purchasing and can potentially lead to similar conclusions, it will not reveal the extent of a client’s desires. It’s the difference between understanding why a customer would like a discount for a bulk purchase and realizing that only by granting a discount will this customer patronize your business, and therefore granting the discount is worthwhile.

Finally, empathy can lead to a much smoother office environment, as it allows employees—and people in general—to get along better with one another. Large office environments are invariably filled with competition, intrigue, and incompatible personalities, and therefore conflict is an unfortunate inevitability. However, by encouraging empathy amongst all of your workers, you can greatly reduce the problems which would otherwise arise. When a person empathizes with others, he is able to see himself as those others do and is therefore more open to the possibility that he may be wrong. Such understanding is a natural byproduct of empathy, and a great means of alleviating office tension and division.