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you’ll be ready to go back to work, what the therapy is for that, when it’s going to heal, etc. What do you tell people when they have this very mysterious illness that strikes people differently? That’s harder.
: Looking ahead, what are your aspirations for empathy in your workforce and, beyond that, the world?
: I want our workforce to develop a very natural approach to empathy. I don’t want it to
be unnatural. I still like the idea of making empathy measurable. Can we measure it and
be able to say that we know great empathic responses when we see them? We’re willing
to help everybody be that good and I hope we can get to that level of perfection. I don’t know if we ever will, but like I said, as we automate more of the job, empathy is going to be more and more critical. Looking down the road, I want to be able to help people who are younger and new to the workforce develop empathy skills early on. I think they understand how important dealing with an emotional person is, and I want them to be able to do it better. We have to have those sandboxes in our high schools and in our colleges, because that’s going to be a very valuable skill. I don’t think they’re getting the practice with it that they need.
A lot of the data that’s now coming out about people from my generation says that many of us had a job when we were 16 or 17. We had a way to ease into and learn how use empathy and respond the right way. Today, those jobs are being occupied by twenty-somethings. As a sixteen-year-old, you’re not going to get a barista job, or many other jobs, so you aren’t getting those experiences that teach you how to respond when an emotion hits with another person. We definitely need to provide sandboxes and experiences so young people can practice that more often.
: Anything else you’d like to add about efforts around empathy at The Hartford or additional perspectives of your own on empathy?
: Just that, when you look at skills for the future, you would never expect to see at the top of the list “empathy and communication”. You’d never think you would see that, but lo and behold, that’s what we’re seeing. When we look at skills for the future, empathy always rises to the top and I truly believe it. There is no evidence that tells me that it’s not going to be there as we use more technology in future jobs.
“Empathy is more important than ever in our workplaces. For years, we have already had the conversations about understanding our customers. In fact, many of us understand our “customer’s journey” as they engage with our brands. The challenge of today is to apply that thinking to our colleagues, friends, and everyone we meet. Can you walk a mile in their shoes? Do you respect that their opinions may be very different from yours, and as a result present a real LEARNING opportunity
to find a better resu“
every day.
lt or new ways of thinking? Empathy means living that mindset
- Rob Lauber
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Former CLO of McDonald’s Corp CEO & Founder of XLO Global LLC