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Social awareness and empathy - life coaching
During this guide we will address two concepts of special importance for teamwork: social awareness and empathy. Both are pillars of interpersonal development, communication and productivity within work groups. Thanks to empathy we can perceive the emotions of our colleagues, know how they feel and focus our treatment in such a way that we do not generate contradictions in them. Social awareness, on the other hand, is a tool that allows us to be better people and transmit a more effective message to the group that listens to us.
Next, we will explore each of these concepts.
Empathy is defined as the ability to put ourselves in the other person's shoes. It is an essential personality trait, people who lack empathy approach sociopathic traits, making it difficult for them to generate affection and positive relationships with those around them. Any leader who aspires to be respected and loved must be empathetic, capable of reading the emotional state of those with whom he interacts.
Thanks to empathy we can lead conversations towards a point of understanding. To develop this skill, we must ask ourselves how the person speaking to us is feeling and how our words or actions might affect them. If we really want our message to have the desired impact, it is essential to think like our interlocutor, to step outside of our perspective to observe things from their point of view. This is the only way we can measure the impact our message will have on them.
Empathy is widely used in areas such as marketing, politics, negotiations and almost any context that involves relating to other people.
Social awareness is the ability to recognize and appreciate the problems and vicissitudes that a social group or collective is going through. Developing social awareness sensitizes us to issues that do not affect us personally, such as the situation of the most discriminated minorities. Even if we do not live these experiences, we can identify with them and support their causes.
In the workplace, social awareness has a similar impact. The work collective is like a small society, with its problems, aspirations and desires. From our position, we may not experience the difficulties faced by our colleagues or employees, but by using social awareness we can understand why they feel a certain way and seek appropriate solutions to their problems.
Social awareness is a must for any leader who wants to keep their workers happy and satisfied in their work environment. It is often confused with empathy, as they share many similar traits.
The fundamental difference between social awareness and empathy is that the former is focused on collectives. It induces us to feel as does a group that shares our own experiences and those outside our reality. Empathy, on the other hand, is more focused on the individual, allowing us to understand their feelings, state of mind and how our message affects them.
Both concepts are crucial and should be worked on daily as part of our personal and professional development.
