How to Exercise Your Empathy Muscle at Work: Empathy is hailed as a corporate cure-all. But what is it and how do you build it?

It’s tempting to dismiss empathy as the latest corporate buzzword…until you look at the numbers.

 

Last year, the top 10 companies in the Global Empathy Index—blue-chip firms like Facebook, Disney and Apple—increased in value more than twice as much as the bottom 10 and generated 50 percent more earnings. The connection seems clear: Caring in business is good for the bottom line.

 

But what does it really mean to be empathetic in business? And, more importantly, how do you cultivate the kind of genuine empathy that gives you a business edge. Here’s my perspective from the front lines of a growing company.

 

What is customer empathy, anyway?

By Caren Maio