I see empathy as the best tool in my toolkit, particularly when it comes to my personal relationships. If I'm having a disagreement with my partner, empathy is what allows me to take a step back and consider his side of things. I have also had several public-facing positions. I have worked at two very busy public libraries where I came accross a wide variety of customers. Empathy allowed me to give more compassionate help to our customers and to favor understanding over frustration in the more difficult interactions.
Empathy can help you build better software by inspiring you to think about features that might be helpful to others, even if they aren't necessarily helpful to you. For instance, the option to make text larger on a website isn't a feature that I need but it could vastly improve the experience for someone that is visually impaired. From what I've learned so far, I know that coders also follow language conventions partly as a way to make it easier for other coders to follow and understand their work. That habit stems from empathy. As a future front end developer, I think I will rely on empathy a lot to make whatever I'm building as user-friendly as possible.
Empathy is a vital part of working on a team because it helps team members value each other's opnions and ideas. Without empathy, there would be no compromise. Empathy allows you to recognize the value of other people's experiences and see things through different eyes. Other people might have brilliant ideas that stem from their own experiences to contribute to a project. Empathy allows for collaboration which ultimately leads to a better, more effective final product.
Most recently, I was a facilitator in one of the Denver Public Library's makerspaces. I ran the makerspace with one other person. As such, the two of us spent a LOT of time together. We came from extremely different backgrounds and were generally very different people. My co-worker came from a very religious background, I did not. He grew up in a different country and spoke English as a second language. He had a wife and children, I have a cat. After a year of working together, I considered him one of my best friends. I think a mutual sense of empathy and a willingness to put ourselves in each other's shoes helped us to build a very strong bond working together. We disagreed about a lot of things (how to interact with certain regulars, how to teach certain skills, etc.) but we were able to have conversations and discussions and ultimately compromise.
I find it hard to be empathetic when I'm convinced that my way of doing something is the best way. If I have a strong opinion, I find it difficult to look at things from a different perspective. I can definitely have a "my way or the highway" attitude at work which is the opposite of being empathetic. It can be difficult for me to accept that other people might have more relevant input or ideas than I do based on their experiences.
From what I've learned about empathy, it is a muscle that you can strengthen. I think going into these scenarios with the intention of hearing out others and remaining flexible would be really beneficial. My goals are to become a better listener and to be more considerate of other people's experiences. I think both of these skills would improve my sense of empathy in the workplace and ultimately lead to a more cooperative environment.