The Biggest Mistake in Modern Business Today

I know that sounds grandiose. But as Tony Bates and I were doing research for our book, Empathy in Action, back in 2019, before empathy became a buzz word, we came to some interesting conclusions. As we started collaborating, our inquiry began with examining why customer and employee experience hasn’t really changed despite all the proclamations about its importance.

In fact, customer/employee experience is often mentioned in most all company’s mission and vision statements, and in shareholders and investors annual report which provides insight into the future direction of the company, along with its goals and objectives.

And while you’ll have to read the book to get the full picture (yep that was a plug), below is a synopsis of some of the insights and conclusions. And now that the book is launched, we are curious to see which companies and leaders will embrace what’s coming now we are in the Fifth Industrial Revolution.

Insights, Conclusions and Questions

Companies say it’s important: customers and employees disagree

Research by Bain and Company shows the same results Forrester Research showed nearly 15 years ago: “80% of companies believe that they provide great customer and employee experiences. Yet, when you ask the customers and employees, only 20% would agree.” We asked ourselves,” How can there still be such a huge gap?”

Sympathy is not the same as empathy

We found people tend to confuse empathy with sympathy. Sympathy is simply saying, “I’m sorry that is happening to you.”

Empathy is about listening, understanding, predicting, acting, and learning about the person you are serving whether it’s an employee, a customer, a citizen...

In essence, an empathic approach would include changing behaviors, not just saying something. For instance, sympathy would be kin to saying you wish you had a washboard stomach. Empathy is doing the strength training to sport 6-pack abs.

Business-centric approaches reduce a competitive advantage

We found most leaders and businesses use business-centric approach- very different than a customer/employee/citizen-centric approach which is rooted in empathy.

Employing empathy means standing in the shoes of your people, seeing the world through their eyes, and changing choices, decisions, and behaviors. It is a required strategic mindset shift.

Without it, as Einstein said, “You’ll end up doing the same things and expecting different results.” (FUN FACT: Einstein didn’t necessarily know any more physics that others at the time. The key thing he did? Shift his mindset to come up with the theory of relativity. So, ask yourself, “Do you know what it would take to be the next Einstein in business leadership?”)

Leading using Empathy in Action isn’t about creating kumbaya factories

We are talking about the ability to differentiate yourself in a market where customer expectations are higher than ever. Where your online presence, from retail to digital media can make you or break you. And where brick and mortar have taken on a whole new meaning, as business models are shifting to business-as-a-service, regardless of the industry.

And employees? In early 2021 as told by an article on NBCnews.com, Organizational psychologist Anthony Klotz and a management professor at Texas A&M University’s Mays Business School coined the term “The Great Resignation.” The CNBC.com article looks because millions of employees retiring/quitting, this shift in employee loyalty is making companies rethink the employee experience. It’s a phenomenon that is leaving many businesses without enough employees to run their businesses.

But do leaders see the connection to an empathic approach? Not generally. At least not yet. But give us a minute. What it means is we must stop pretending we care about our customers and employees. And instead, really listen; understand and predict the next best things from their point of view, take action, (make choices and decisions), and then continuously review the first three steps to learn what would be better if… and then repeat the steps over, and over and over and never, ever stop.

Put yourself in someone else’s shoes

There is enormous value in walking in someone else’s shoes. And was in part how we came up with the idea of for our book. Empathy, in our definition is the ability to put yourself in the shoes of another person, see the world through their eyes and without being singularly focused on what “you” think they need or should want and then when taking action, incorporate their point of view.

What’s interesting is-- when we asked business leaders to do this, they found they’d change most everything they are doing. More musing to come…