Carrying Empathy into Workplace Leadership
Over the course of my life and my career, I’ve discovered the key to servant-hearted leadership is listening and remaining teachable. I’ll never forget the valuable lessons I learned from my father about listening. And one of my favorite models for being coachable and teachable has to be Jim Fish, the diligent employee who became Waste Management’s successful CEO.
From my father, I learned the importance of empathic listening as a leader. He encouraged me to speak directly with the frontline employees of our family construction business when I was going through school, asking them two questions (which has served me well throughout my career):
“What things are getting in the way of you doing your best job every day?” (Then, fix it.)
“What things are causing you the most frustration in your job?” (Then, eliminate these frustrations.)
My former colleague and dear friend Jim Fish (now Waste Management’s CEO) is one of the best models I had the opportunity to see in action for teachability. We initially hired Jim at Waste Management as a young financial analyst, and he progressed steadily to ever-increasing positions of responsibility to eventually leading large business units of the company, and later becoming CFO and then CEO—Jim advanced in his career because he remained teachable and sought knowledge and new skills in order to grow.
I will never forget when Jim, while still in his financial analyst position, came to me and asked if he could move into operations. I reminded Jim that it would require an entirely new skill set. He responded with, “I know. Will you help me?”
I told him I would be delighted to help him. Over the years, we worked together to develop his operations expertise and leadership, which involved moving him (and his supportive wife and family) around the U.S. to gain experience. His growth was ultimately the result of his drive and teachability. He was willing to get out of his comfort zone to learn new skills.
Be the Example
Though I haven’t always followed Jesus’ servant leadership model—I've certainly fallen short many times when it comes to leading and wanting to be somebody rather than serve others—when I did follow it, it resulted in some of the most high-performing teams with which I’ve ever worked.
For whom would you rather work: someone who only cares about himself and keeps you around solely to benefit his own career, or someone who actually cares about you, pours into you, and keeps your best interests at heart?
Jesus flipped the standard leadership model on its head. The reason Jesus was the perfect leader is because He acted in perfect empathy and servanthood; He listened to His disciples, He poured into them to teach them, and they knew He cared about them.
People want to follow your lead when they know you care about them.
Let us not ‘lead’ as the world tells us we should—as top-down leaders, ruled by insecurity, abusing power through fear, intimidation, and volatility to prove control.
Instead, let us lead like Jesus in our God-granted positions through servanthood. Servant leaders help position all team members for success, encouraging and empowering them to be the best they can be, thus building trust among team members and driving team success. Furthermore, servant leaders are secure enough in themselves to know they need to surround themselves with people who are smarter than they are and who have different skills than they have so they can win together.
Every Position is an Opportunity to Serve Others like Jesus
This profound servant-hearted model not only works in workplace leadership, but also within all our relationships—encouraging our friends, placing our spouses ahead of ourselves, listening to our children, helping our colleagues, and serving our bosses (good and bad) with excellence. No matter the relationship, we should always aim to love, listen, learn from, and desire success for those around us.
“Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus.” Philippians 2:3-5