Empathy Training for Managers and Professionals

What you'll take away from this empathy training course for managers

This empathy training won't just make you more understanding of people. You'll actually make them feel more understood, and that's what makes the difference, because that's when they can relax with you and trust you more.

Empathy is one of the two crucial skills you need for connecting successfully with others whatever situation you're in. It's companion skill is assertiveness.  That's the skill of making sure they understand you.  This empathy training will teach you to use both skills together. Your empathy will be a more effective tool if you know how to combine it with assertiveness.  It's a powerful combination - a key to getting on successfully with others - a vital ingredient in leadership development.

Steps you can take right how to see if this empathy training is right for you

• First watch our short introductory video "An introduction to our empathy training course" (see above).
• Then contact us for a chat and we’ll be glad to discuss what challenges you may be experiencing, and if and how we can help you develop the empathy you need.
• Every participant begins this course with a personal free exploratory one-to-one coaching session by phone or Skype.  You make no commitment to proceed beyond this until you are sure this course can help your personal development and learn the empathy you need.

You'll find under FAQs (in the main menu above) answers to many of your questions about the content and method of this course.

How the skills you'll practise on this course will make you much more successful at showing empathy at work

How is listening with empathy different from the way we usually listen to people?

To understand the difference let's indulge in a spot of introspection. What goes on in your mind when another person is telling you something about what's going on in their world, or asking you a question?

For most of us our minds instantly get busy with our own thoughts and feelings ... thoughts about how similar or different their experience is from our own ...  memories of our own ... advice we would like to give them ... or, perhaps, thoughts that have nothing to do with them at all.  Our attention is mainly absorbed with what's going on in our own mind.  We've very little to spare for what might be going on in theirs.

And that's the difference. To listen with empathy you simply turn your attention from your own thoughts and feelings to the other person's.  It's like flicking a switch.  It's a deliberate decision to switch attention for a moment from your own thoughts to theirs.  To many people the possibility you can do this is a surprise.  But you can, and learning this empathy training for managers will enable you to master it.

When you're listening with empathy what actual words can you use?

In a nutshell, here are the tools and the method this empathy training for managers will help you to practise:-

• After hearing what the other person says, respond by saying in your own words as accurately as you can what you think is going on in their mind. For example, "I get the impression that what's really bothering you is .... and that the reason why you're so bothered about it is ... ".
• Then pause to give them a chance to say more. For example, they might say, "Exactly", or "Not exactly, what's really bothering me is ...."

What are the benefits of this empathy training?

• It trains you to keep your attention focussed on the other person's thoughts and feelings instead of being distracted by your own. The more you practise it the better at it you become.
• It encourages and allows the other person to let off steam, which helps them calm down get themselves into a rational state of mind.
• It allows them to judge for themselves how well you understand them, and it gives them a chance to correct you if you've misunderstood.
• It wins their trust, because you can't trust someone who fails to understand you.
• It makes you a more powerful persuader.