What role does empathy play in your life and how has it helped you?
I read the Surprising non-technical skills article and the three skills they highlihgted have played a very important part in my life, both professionally and in my personal life. I used to struggle with giving feedback, as a I think a lot of people do. I've been faced with some tough situations and personalities professionally where by practiced skill of giving feedback has been an asset. I sought the advice of mentors and took a course on giving feedback and and I've seen the changes in my abilities over the years. I consider myself to be very self aware and it's been both an asset and a hinderance in my work life. I'm great at underestanding my own motivations, strengths, shortcomings, and feelings. Where it's been an issue is being patient and forgiving with myself. While I may undertsand my shortcomings and feelings I'm still working on accepting them and working with them.
How does empathy help you build better software?
Empathy is an important skill to have in any group setting/ team environment but it's particularly important for a few reasons. To build great software you have to work closely and effectivly with a team and you can't do that without empathy. Not being able to understand how people are feeling and what their experiences might be like is a hinderance to productivity and goes agsint a happy, effective team. Looking outwards, empathy is important to software when thinking about who might be using the product. Being able to put yourself in someone elses shoes so to speak can give you a better undertsanding of why you ae building what you're building and how it might be used.
Why is empathy important for working on a team?
Empathy is important in any group setting but on a team specifically, the right levels of empathy and understanding can have a huge affect on happines and productivity. If everyone in the group feels heard and understood it can stop issues from happening, people feeling resentful and disconnected and ultimately leads to higher productivity and a better product. In software particularly, you are working in a fairly high stress environment where mistakes are supposed to happen and people are supposed to struggle. In an environment like that if you don't have the right support and empathetic team it can be difficult for people to ask questions, admit mistakes and push to learn new skills.
Describe a situation in which your ability to empathize with a colleague or teammate was helpful.
This past year has been a challenging experience with a co-worker who I had to work very closely with in a partnership. We had a lot of difficultly with communication and emotional responses to issues. This led to an uncomfortable working relationship that affected our ability to do our job. In order to finally have a conversation about what was happening, I sought the advice of a few trusted mentors who encouraged me to approach the situation with an open mind and with compassion. When we finally did have a conversation, my empathetic approach really allowed us to have a very open conversation about some of the things that were going on outside of work for her that were affecting our working relationship. Having the conversation and getting things out in the open changed things immediately. I have a much different perspective on the issues we were having and it allowed us to have more open conversation about the things that were happening in our lives. Insteas of letting it negatively affect our work we were then able to offer support and help to each other when needed.
When do you find it most difficult to be empathetic in professional settings? How can you improve your skills when faced with these scenarios?
I find it difficult to be empathetic when I feel like there isn't an effort to show the same empathy towards me or other coworkers. It is more difficult for me to let my gaurd down and try to have an empathetic approach with people who aren't as introspecitve or who aren't making an effort with other people. I feel like these situations are just as important to work on being empathetic. I need to recognize that everyone is in a different place when it comes to self-awareness and empathy and giving myself that reminder has helped a lot.