The Leading with Empathy Scam

I've been spending more time on LinkedIn these days and in addition to seeing multiple people post a different version of the same image on a weekly basis, I also see the same tired "lead with empathy" bullshit that sounds great but is always worthless unless you can give your audience a path to execute it when the pressure is on.

Everybody wants to be liked, respected and admired. Nobody wants to be that asshole boss whom his employees dread interacting with. So what's the difference between the former and the latter?

Well to start, you need to have a winning product. It's a lot easier to keep everyone happy when you're able to keep everyone fed. Entire cultures break down when economic growth stalls and what is true at the country level is also true at the company level.

Your company needs to have a comparative advantage over the competition. And YOU as a leader need to operate from a position of abundance rather than scarcity. Because when you feel threatened, you won't give your team the most productive side of you.

So to reverse engineer what you need to do to WIN with empathy:

1) Create and expand your moat

2) Develop and practice physical habits and mental frameworks that don't leave you feeling threatened all the time

Winners keep winning because their success allows them to operate from a place of abundance. So what do you do if you haven’t been winning? You need to create a plan that is viable enough for YOU to believe that it will eventually result in a moat that results in you feeling at peace.

Moats keep you safe. And feeling safe is what leads to leading with empathy.