DDI | Development Dimensions International‘s latest Global Leadership Report is out today and it provides further evidence that empathetic leadership is essential to success. A few key findings:
+ The top 3 concerns of CEOs are attracting and retaining talent, developing the next generation of leaders, and maintaining an engaged workforce, and
+ When team members saw their company’s leadership as lacking interpersonal skills, they were 3.5x more likely to say they wanted to leave within the year.
The report also delved into the importance of trust–and the scarcity of it. It found that less than half of leaders trust their direct supervisor to do what is right, and only 32% trust their senior leadership. Pretty dismal. However, the pathway to building trust was clear. Step one? Listen and respond with empathy. Where leaders consistently followed that step and other trust-building behaviors, 85% of their employees trusted them.
One final note: Modeling vulnerability was a trust-building booster. “When leaders regularly display vulnerability, their employees are 5.3X more likely to trust them. Furthermore, when leaders genuinely acknowledge their failures or shortcomings, they were 7.5X more likely to maintain trust over those that did not.”
Access the report here, and check out the following for a few resources if you’d like to improve your empathetic leadership skills:
5 Ways for Leaders to Strengthen Their Empathy at Work
Top 3 Active Listening Techniques