Empathy plays the biggest role with every relationship that I have today. A huge part of developing a relationship with someone(parents, friends, significant others, co-workers) is the ability to understand. A part of human nature is to face problems on a daily basis and if you lack empathy, people will probably not come to you with their problems. When they come to you and you show compassion and understanding, you develop a much deeper connection.
As I mentioned in my previous statement, empathy helps you truly understand peoples' problems. Our job is to solve problems and we cannot do that efficiently without understanding what the real issue is. Once we can step into someone else's shoes, we can put ourselves in the situation to really make our solution real and helpful. Without empathy, there is a massive gap between being told the problem and understanding what the solution is.
Whether they are on your team or whether they are people eating at a restaurant that you manage, empathy is just always important when communicating with others. Without empathy of someone else on your team, something as simple as the employee expectations can be blown into something out of control. Small misunderstandings can grow so fast out of proportion and into something that it didn't need to be just due to lack of physical and emotional communication and understanding.
I currently oversee multiple departments in a large hotel here in downtown. Every day, all levels of employees come up to me to tell me of their frustrations. Being able to empathize while they vent is SO important because sometimes, the job is not perfect, and you can't always make everyone happy, but to be there to listen and have empathy from a higher level(organizationally) will have a lasting impression on someone's opinions of their job.
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 easiest when empathizing with work and technical frustrations which is the complete opposite of someone's personal issues. If someone is dealing with sickness or hard times, only thing I know how to do is listen with open ears and even then, sometimes it is hard to listen because the situation is so difficult. I think that to improve on those interactions, the best thing I can work on is making other things easier for them that don't relate to their current issue at hand. Just bringing them a cup of coffee or small gestures go a long way in helping people.