Empathy is a key factor in my life. The ability to understand and share the feelings of other people enables me to have deeply connected relationships both with family members and friends. Empathy allows me to enjoy art, books and music. It prods me to be charitable both with time and money. My worldview is widened in part by empathy. All of these effects or results of empathy allow me to be a better human being.
I hope that empathy will allow me to practice principles of empathic design as a software developer. I hope to look at the project I am working on through multiple lenses. I also hope that empathy will allow me to revisit and revise projects that I thought were finished, especially if I receive feedback on how they can be more useful to a given population. I would hope, in that circumstance, to elevate empathy over ego.
I think empathy is important for working on a team for a number of reasons. First, empathic design can help a team create a better product than they would otherwise. Practicing empathy team wide via empathic design builds likelihood that the product will be useful to more people. Second, empathy allows us to support one another which is essential for working on a team. When you work to support and elevate one person on the team who may be struggling, you elevate the entire team. Finally, practicing empathy makes it easier to resolve conflict. Approaching conflict through an empathetic lens, or assuming good intent, can bring down the drama and allow team members to resolve conflict in a healthy way.
I am currently a stay at home mom with 8 years of teaching before that. To answer this question, I'm going to categorize a student's parents as "teammates." Back when I was a teacher in Phoenix, I had a student, Joanna, who was a finalist in a poster contest that was sponsored by the Phoenix Police Department. She, her parents and I were all invited to a ceremony where all the finalists would be honored and the winner would be announced. The only problem was that Joanna's parents were undocumented. I was concerned about them feeling comfortable going to downtown Phoenix and sitting in the atrium of the police headquarters for this ceremony. This was also a time in Arizona where a "show me your papers" law had been passed, so it was a very stressful time for many people of the Latinx community. However, I knew they took great pride in Joanna's accomplishments and wanted to be there to celebrate her. I asked if they would like to drive with me to the ceremony and sit together. My hope was that would help them feel safer in attending the ceremony. They graciously accepted and all four of us attended the ceremony without incident. Maybe it would have been uneventful in any case, but the important part for me was that Joanna's parents felt comfortable attending and didn't skip it out of fear.
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 probably find it most difficult when I feel like someone is mistreating others. I empathize so strongly with the person I perceive as the victim, that I can lose sight of the reason the other person is acting so poorly. I can also get so focused on my own work that I fail to recognize that other people have a similarly challenging workload. To improve in these areas, I need to focus on assuming good intent and listening with compassion.