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Empathy: A Primer
Empathy is the basis of social awareness and relationship management. It is the ability to sense the emotions and understand the perspective of others. In leadership, empathy is the ability to relate to different types of people, listen attentively, and communicate effectively.
In Empathy: A Primer, Daniel Goleman and colleagues introduce the Empathy Competency, describe why it is important for quality leadership, and give some practical insights for developing this learnable skill.
This is the sixth in a series of Primers that explores each of the 12 Emotional and Social Intelligence Leadership Competencies. Each includes an overview of the Competency Model.
The other Primers currently available are:
Emotional Self-Awareness
Emotional Self-Control
Adaptability
Achievement Orientation
Positive Outlook
Daniel Goleman, Richard Boyatzis, Richard J. Davidson, Vanessa Druskat, and George Kohlrieser explain what it takes to develop empathy from the perspectives of research, psychology, neuroscience, team dynamics, and leadership development.
Here’s what is included:
• Overview of the Emotional and Social Intelligence Leadership Competency Model
• Introduction to Empathy
• The Brain Science Behind Empathy
• Teams and Empathy
• Empathy in Action
• How to Develop Empathy
• Bonding for Effective Leadership
Whether you are an individual looking to elevate your personal performance, a consultant or coach in need of research-based resources, or a head of leadership development in your organization seeking a brief, yet informative, resource to share with your team, this Primer is for you.
In Empathy: A Primer, Daniel Goleman and colleagues introduce the Empathy Competency, describe why it is important for quality leadership, and give some practical insights for developing this learnable skill.
This is the sixth in a series of Primers that explores each of the 12 Emotional and Social Intelligence Leadership Competencies. Each includes an overview of the Competency Model.
The other Primers currently available are:
Emotional Self-Awareness
Emotional Self-Control
Adaptability
Achievement Orientation
Positive Outlook
Daniel Goleman, Richard Boyatzis, Richard J. Davidson, Vanessa Druskat, and George Kohlrieser explain what it takes to develop empathy from the perspectives of research, psychology, neuroscience, team dynamics, and leadership development.
Here’s what is included:
• Overview of the Emotional and Social Intelligence Leadership Competency Model
• Introduction to Empathy
• The Brain Science Behind Empathy
• Teams and Empathy
• Empathy in Action
• How to Develop Empathy
• Bonding for Effective Leadership
Whether you are an individual looking to elevate your personal performance, a consultant or coach in need of research-based resources, or a head of leadership development in your organization seeking a brief, yet informative, resource to share with your team, this Primer is for you.
30 pages, Kindle Edition
Published June 7, 2017
9 people are currently reading
94 people want to read
About the author
Daniel Goleman
386 books5,509 followersAuthor of Emotional Intelligence and psychologist Daniel Goleman has transformed the way the world educates children, relates to family and friends, and conducts business. The Wall Street Journal ranked him one of the 10 most influential business thinkers.
Goleman’s Emotional Intelligence was on The New York Times best sellers list for a year-and-a-half. Named one of the 25 "Most Influential Business Management Books" by TIME, it has been translated into 40 languages. The Harvard Business Review called emotional intelligence (EI) “a revolutionary, paradigm-shattering idea.”
Goleman’s new book, Focus: The Hidden Driver of Excellence, argues that attention — a fundamental mental ability for success — has come under siege. Leadership that gets results demands a triple focus: on our inner world so we can manage ourselves; on others, for our relationships; and on the outer forces that shape our organizations and society itself.
His more recent books include The Brain and Emotional Intelligence, and Leadership: The Power of Emotional Intelligence - Selected Writings.
Goleman’s Emotional Intelligence was on The New York Times best sellers list for a year-and-a-half. Named one of the 25 "Most Influential Business Management Books" by TIME, it has been translated into 40 languages. The Harvard Business Review called emotional intelligence (EI) “a revolutionary, paradigm-shattering idea.”
Goleman’s new book, Focus: The Hidden Driver of Excellence, argues that attention — a fundamental mental ability for success — has come under siege. Leadership that gets results demands a triple focus: on our inner world so we can manage ourselves; on others, for our relationships; and on the outer forces that shape our organizations and society itself.
His more recent books include The Brain and Emotional Intelligence, and Leadership: The Power of Emotional Intelligence - Selected Writings.
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August 31, 2019
Social awareness
Empathy
The competency of empathy in the emotional intelligence framework essentially highlights one’s ability/interest to sense another’s feelings and his/her thoughts openly form his/her points of view or terms, irrespective of the other person’s background or culture, and the like. It is about picking up cues or unspoken emotions. We can see that empathy is a creative/imaginative/patient (self-regulated)/perspective-taking/open-minded approach of understanding the context of another person, which is likely to be different from the empathiser’s context. As for the other emotional intelligence competencies, self-awareness is the leading fundamental precursor of empathy. Most importantly, the purpose of empathising is not to manipulate/take advantage of others, but to collaborate with them to engage in fruitful endeavours.
As the authors highlight, an important question for many is “does empathy matter for business”? As research outcomes indicate, empathy is a highly important competency, more specifically, for team environments and leadership for the purpose of inspiring, influencing, getting people positively engaged, higher performance, and so on.
It is great to see the authors giving the neural basis of empathy as well. The two types of empathy, cognitive and emotional/affective, were associated with different regions of the brain. Cognitive empathy, the ability to understand another person’s perspective, taking into his/her background and/or circumstances and other forces, is associated with the region referred to as temporoparietal junction (the interface between the temporal and parietal lobes). On the other hand, emotional empathy is found to be associated with the insula – interestingly, the same region that is associated with self-awareness. Intriguingly, does this imply that one who is capable of or developed the capacity to sense and decipher his/her own emotions/bodily signal is able to do so when similar emotions and signals are erupting in another’s body?
Conversely, if one has not developed the competency of self-awareness, is that an indication of less empathetic? As the authors highlight, neuroscientists have also identified a dedicated brain area referred to as the fusiform face area (FFA) that helps individuals to understand others’ facial expressions. The mere existence of such dedicated areas in the brain for understanding others’ emotions and thoughts is a clear indication of human evolution as social beings with essential innate interpersonal capacities. The authors have also extended the notion of empathy/emotional resonance to what is referred to as empathic concern (akin to compassion), which essentially is one’s inclination/motivation to take action to relieve the suffering of another person. From another perspective, if one is severely hampered/struck by another person’s suffering (empathy fatigue), how would the empathiser overcome these excessive negative emotions of him/her without getting to a state of incapacity – possibly through some acts of compassion.
It is commendable to see the authors highlighting the need for practising empathy with self-control in a team environment. Too much empathy may cause team leaders/members to refrain from giving useful feedback, while the emphasis on efficiency/time without sufficient empathy can cause weaker interpersonal understanding that affects team social capital(trust, psychological safety, team efficacy etc.). In practising empathy, authors have duly emphasised the need for active listening, asking questions as a means of showing interest and eye contact when another person/team member talks to us. For developing empathy, the authors give some useful practices such as purposefully/explicitly extending one’s circle of care/compassion, being fully present (with eye contact and nodding etc.) when listening to another, cognising common humanity, and the like.
In twelve booklets, a team of contributors led by the world-renowned psychologist/author Dr Daniel Goleman enlightens readers with the essentials of the competencies associated with the important personal/leadership development framework of emotional intelligence (EI). Year of research has shown that EI competencies are directly related to high performance at all levels of work, and EI is referred to as the distinguishing competency when used over a threshold competency such as general intelligence/IQ. In fact, it was a book on emotional intelligence published by Dr Goleman over two decades ago that made the notion highly popular among many others working in the field of psychology, and business leaders alike. We further see that EI competencies also provide useful guidance for any individual in their personal growth so that he/she could become a valued social member/citizen in general. These twelve booklets give the readers the latest enhancements/refinements on the notion compiled by associating the research outcomes, experiences and knowledge/insights of many other scholars working in the area. The authors have divided the notion of emotional intelligence into two broad sets of abilities: self-awareness led self-management and social-awareness led relationship management. It is very interesting and insightful to see that EI led personal growth/leadership development must start from internally oriented self-management before extending to externally oriented relationship management. In other words, it suggests that some introversion characteristics need to be more prominent and given focus before moving onto the extrovert ones. Another interesting research revelation highlighted is that depending on the number of EI competencies a leader possesses, he/she would follow different approaches to managing/leading. A leader with six or more EI competencies was shown to be more democratic in their approaches, and as a result, boost employee motivation and effectiveness, leading to strategic gains. On the other hand, a leader with three or fewer competencies tends to fall back onto directive/coercive approaches (i.e. giving commands and ordering people around) that are likely to produce only short-term relative results, if, if at all.
Moreover and importantly, the authors give the neuroscience basis of the EI framework. Essentially, achieving a higher degree of EI is indicative of enabling the use of the executive area of the brain- the prefrontal cortex (PFC) - to manage one’s emotions (and associated brain areas including the amygdala), disallowing the situations referred to by amygdala hijack. Another example of a neuroscience basis for the EI framework is the use of the brain areas referred to as the social brain, which includes mirror neurones, for understanding and connecting with other people/relationship management.
The review/appreciation is written on “Building Blocks of Emotional Intelligence: 12 Leadership Competency Primers” by Daniel Goleman, Richard Boyatzis, Vanessa Druskat, Richard J. Davidson, George Kohlrieser, Mette Miriam Boell, George Pitagorsky Michele Nevarez, Matthew Lippincott, Ann Flanagan Petry, Peter Senge, Matthew Taylor, Amy Gallo and Claudio Fernández-Aráoz
Empathy
The competency of empathy in the emotional intelligence framework essentially highlights one’s ability/interest to sense another’s feelings and his/her thoughts openly form his/her points of view or terms, irrespective of the other person’s background or culture, and the like. It is about picking up cues or unspoken emotions. We can see that empathy is a creative/imaginative/patient (self-regulated)/perspective-taking/open-minded approach of understanding the context of another person, which is likely to be different from the empathiser’s context. As for the other emotional intelligence competencies, self-awareness is the leading fundamental precursor of empathy. Most importantly, the purpose of empathising is not to manipulate/take advantage of others, but to collaborate with them to engage in fruitful endeavours.
As the authors highlight, an important question for many is “does empathy matter for business”? As research outcomes indicate, empathy is a highly important competency, more specifically, for team environments and leadership for the purpose of inspiring, influencing, getting people positively engaged, higher performance, and so on.
It is great to see the authors giving the neural basis of empathy as well. The two types of empathy, cognitive and emotional/affective, were associated with different regions of the brain. Cognitive empathy, the ability to understand another person’s perspective, taking into his/her background and/or circumstances and other forces, is associated with the region referred to as temporoparietal junction (the interface between the temporal and parietal lobes). On the other hand, emotional empathy is found to be associated with the insula – interestingly, the same region that is associated with self-awareness. Intriguingly, does this imply that one who is capable of or developed the capacity to sense and decipher his/her own emotions/bodily signal is able to do so when similar emotions and signals are erupting in another’s body?
Conversely, if one has not developed the competency of self-awareness, is that an indication of less empathetic? As the authors highlight, neuroscientists have also identified a dedicated brain area referred to as the fusiform face area (FFA) that helps individuals to understand others’ facial expressions. The mere existence of such dedicated areas in the brain for understanding others’ emotions and thoughts is a clear indication of human evolution as social beings with essential innate interpersonal capacities. The authors have also extended the notion of empathy/emotional resonance to what is referred to as empathic concern (akin to compassion), which essentially is one’s inclination/motivation to take action to relieve the suffering of another person. From another perspective, if one is severely hampered/struck by another person’s suffering (empathy fatigue), how would the empathiser overcome these excessive negative emotions of him/her without getting to a state of incapacity – possibly through some acts of compassion.
It is commendable to see the authors highlighting the need for practising empathy with self-control in a team environment. Too much empathy may cause team leaders/members to refrain from giving useful feedback, while the emphasis on efficiency/time without sufficient empathy can cause weaker interpersonal understanding that affects team social capital(trust, psychological safety, team efficacy etc.). In practising empathy, authors have duly emphasised the need for active listening, asking questions as a means of showing interest and eye contact when another person/team member talks to us. For developing empathy, the authors give some useful practices such as purposefully/explicitly extending one’s circle of care/compassion, being fully present (with eye contact and nodding etc.) when listening to another, cognising common humanity, and the like.
In twelve booklets, a team of contributors led by the world-renowned psychologist/author Dr Daniel Goleman enlightens readers with the essentials of the competencies associated with the important personal/leadership development framework of emotional intelligence (EI). Year of research has shown that EI competencies are directly related to high performance at all levels of work, and EI is referred to as the distinguishing competency when used over a threshold competency such as general intelligence/IQ. In fact, it was a book on emotional intelligence published by Dr Goleman over two decades ago that made the notion highly popular among many others working in the field of psychology, and business leaders alike. We further see that EI competencies also provide useful guidance for any individual in their personal growth so that he/she could become a valued social member/citizen in general. These twelve booklets give the readers the latest enhancements/refinements on the notion compiled by associating the research outcomes, experiences and knowledge/insights of many other scholars working in the area. The authors have divided the notion of emotional intelligence into two broad sets of abilities: self-awareness led self-management and social-awareness led relationship management. It is very interesting and insightful to see that EI led personal growth/leadership development must start from internally oriented self-management before extending to externally oriented relationship management. In other words, it suggests that some introversion characteristics need to be more prominent and given focus before moving onto the extrovert ones. Another interesting research revelation highlighted is that depending on the number of EI competencies a leader possesses, he/she would follow different approaches to managing/leading. A leader with six or more EI competencies was shown to be more democratic in their approaches, and as a result, boost employee motivation and effectiveness, leading to strategic gains. On the other hand, a leader with three or fewer competencies tends to fall back onto directive/coercive approaches (i.e. giving commands and ordering people around) that are likely to produce only short-term relative results, if, if at all.
Moreover and importantly, the authors give the neuroscience basis of the EI framework. Essentially, achieving a higher degree of EI is indicative of enabling the use of the executive area of the brain- the prefrontal cortex (PFC) - to manage one’s emotions (and associated brain areas including the amygdala), disallowing the situations referred to by amygdala hijack. Another example of a neuroscience basis for the EI framework is the use of the brain areas referred to as the social brain, which includes mirror neurones, for understanding and connecting with other people/relationship management.
The review/appreciation is written on “Building Blocks of Emotional Intelligence: 12 Leadership Competency Primers” by Daniel Goleman, Richard Boyatzis, Vanessa Druskat, Richard J. Davidson, George Kohlrieser, Mette Miriam Boell, George Pitagorsky Michele Nevarez, Matthew Lippincott, Ann Flanagan Petry, Peter Senge, Matthew Taylor, Amy Gallo and Claudio Fernández-Aráoz
January 4, 2026
An excellent learning resource for learning how to establish empathetic connections.
An excellent educational resource for learning how to build empathetic connections. Being able to understand others and help both yourself and them progress toward a common goal for a more fulfilling life.
An excellent educational resource for learning how to build empathetic connections. Being able to understand others and help both yourself and them progress toward a common goal for a more fulfilling life.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews