Dr Sangeetha Madhu - Leading from within

Empathy - Winning Hearts and Engaging Minds

'I call him religious one who can understand the suffering of others’ – Mahatma Gandhi.

A client, who observed our long working hours, asked whether our team had finished our lunch. We felt very grateful for he exhibited emotional reciprocity and genuine concern towards us. Empathy is intuitive but is also something you can work on intellectually –Tim Minchin.

Empathy is the ability to understand another person’s condition through their perspective leading to pro-social behavior. In fact, according to the theory of mind, Simon barren Cohen explains that it is the capacity to infer the full range of mental state of beliefs, desires, intention, imagination, emotions of ours as well as others that cause action.

Empathy helps us to understand someone better, to resolve interpersonal problems, and to manage difficult emotions. Paul Ekman in roots of empathy and compassion talks about emotional recognition and resonance, followed by familial and global compassion as noted by Dalai Lama. .Developing empathy leads to successful relationships and is beneficial in many ways – improves marital harmony, reduces prejudice/racism, stops bullying in schools, removes inequality, improves relationships at work. It can be enhanced through active listening, shared identity, focusing attention on others, not jumping to conclusions or making assumptions, practicing mindfulness. Ashoka foundation ‘s start empathy initiative and Play works are organizations dedicated to teaching and practicing empathy in the community.