Over our last few episodes, we’ve discussed navigating through conflict, managing anxiety, building resiliency and self-awareness. In essence: we’ve learned about showing more kindness to others and ourselves. Another way we can take this a step further is to place ourselves in the shoes of others. We never know the battles someone else is facing, but with a little empathy, we can be better fellow human beings. I’m excited to be joined on a new episode today by Rob Volpe to share “Five Steps to Empathy”.
Dive in:
02:00 Hear Rob’s story and how he used empathy as a defense method / survival tool as a child.
07:20 Where has the empathy gone? Brandon and Rob discuss the empathy stats plus: the impacts of technology, society, media / reality TV, and social media. Rob highlights the importance of role-playing for building empathy.
18:00 How can we strengthen the empathy muscle? Self-awareness, courage, practice, ask good questions, active listening integrated into understanding, grace.
22:50 The courage to display empathy.
26:00 Importance of empathy with employees and customers (psychological safety and loyalty).
29:00 Rob’s Life Hack: Don’t ask “why?” – use other words to reframe the question to get to the why. (“Why?” puts us on the defense.)
Show Resources:
- Check out Rob’s book, “Tell Me More About That: Solving the Empathy Crisis One Conversation at a Time.”
- To download this show and catch up on others, find us on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, Spotify and YouTube.
- Connect with Brandon on LinkedIn.
Therapist, professor, consultant and radio host, Brandon Smith brings an upbeat, witty approach to the challenges of workplace health and dysfunction. 
