LIVE WEBINAR- Empathy in Action – the Pathway to a Positive Impact at Work

Hosted by U of G's Learning and Development team.

For Faculty and Staff

Human beings are wired for empathy from birth. Compassion is empathy in action. Several discoveries from the field of neuroscience shed light on what happens in our brain when we are in conversation with someone who is feeling distressing emotions. First, our emotions are contagious – both the positive and distressing ones, so unless you are an experienced meditator or monk, it’s challenging not to take on another’s emotions. But, quite often, and unintentionally, we act in ways that are opposite of empathetic. When someone shares a painful experience with us, we may try to lighten their mood. Or when someone tells us they are upset with us, we may get defensive, angry, or justify our actions, which tends to escalate their emotions. We all have a strong human need to belong, to feel heard, cared about, and understood. Empathy in action is the pathway to having that kind of impact. While empathy is a complex skill, it can be learned. In this interactive session, you will build your understanding of empathy and have tools to be able to put empathy into practice (that’s compassion!), especially during this heightened time of distress for humanity.

What Participants Will Learn:

• Distinguish compassion and empathy from sympathy and pity
• Describe the four attributes of empathy
• Understand what gets in our way of being empathetic
• Acquire the language of empathy - what to say and what not to say if you genuinely want to be empathetic
• Identify how you prefer others to be empathetic towards you and to communicate this
• Explain why empathy is a powerful means to connect with others, even in extreme cases like hostage negotiations
• Give examples of empathy in action

Facilitator: Linda Watt, Director, and Evelina Rog, Senior Consultant, HR Learning and Development

Learn more and register.