Leaders Need To Realise That There Is More To Empathy Than Saying That You Care

Ed Miliband, leader of Britain’s opposition Labour Party, is certainly attracting a lot of attention (for example, here and here) over his recently-announced attempt to present himself as a different sort of political leader.


As a man who is not renowned for his admiration of business, he might not appreciate this, but in his attempt to present himself as having empathy with voters he is following a trend growing popular with his counterparts in the corporate world.


================

Indeed, it could be that Miliband himself does not truly understand the notion of empathy. As Christine M. Riordan, professor of management at the University of Kentucky, wrote in a Harvard Business Review blog earlier this year, listening is a key aspect of empathy.

=========