A Proven Technique to Build Empathy

Building lasting relationships is core to our work as PR professionals. Empathy can go a long way toward improving your relationships with others and your mental well-being.

According to the Ernst & Young LLP (EY US) Empathy in Business Survey, “mutual empathy between company leaders and employees leads to increased efficiency, creativity, job satisfaction, idea sharing, innovation and even company revenue.”

So, how do you possess and build empathy? I have a proven 15-30-minute exercise — creating an empathy map — that’s helped people build deeper relationships within their teams, executives, customers and other key publics.

Your map quest

As you go through this process, it’s important to think about somebody you’re trying to build a relationship with at work. It could be your manager, an executive, a client, someone you manage or a peer.

Take a piece of paper and answer as many of these questions as possible about this person:

1. Who are they, and what is their role? Do you have a solid understanding of their responsibilities? What do they spend their time doing at work? In our profession, we can wear a lot of hats. In some instances, their role might be confusing, even to them. It’s important to understand if they can’t articulate their role.
2. What are their goals? What problem(s) are they solving? What are their success factors? This is the most important aspect of this exercise. What do they think about when they start working every day? We must understand this because this impacts their experience at the company and, ultimately, things like performance reviews, promotions, salary increases and bonuses. 
3. What do we know about their behavior? How are they speaking with their teams? Do they appear to be accessible? Are they listening more than they are talking? When you speak with them, are they intentionally listening to you, or are they distracted? Do they follow through on what’s promised?
4. How are they influenced? Remember when we asked about their goals and what problems they are there to solve? Someone else will measure whether they were successful. These are likely their managers, members of the board of directors, customers and other people whose opinions matter. This also relates to media consumption. What are they spending their time watching, reading or listening to? 
5. What are their fears, frustrations and anxieties? This is the most vulnerable of the questions, as these are deeply personal and may be difficult to determine. Keep in mind that some of these answers might focus less on their professional life and more on understanding any personal challenges — friends, family, personal health, etc. — they might be living with daily. 
6. What are their hopes and dreams? These can also be hard to pin down. However, understanding their personal and career ambitions are critical when understanding decisions they make. 

Even if you don’t have all the answers to these questions immediately, being aware of these will go a long way to building lasting relationships. 

This is also an important exercise to do for yourself. How would you answer these questions? To what degree do those around you know enough about you to build strong relationships with others?

I look forward to hearing from you about what you learned during this exercise. What did you learn about yourself and those around you? Please send me a message and let me know!