Empathic Self-Directed Teams 2022 Latest Answers
Research in self-directed teams shows that emergent team leaders tend to be the
most empathic individuals, due to their ability to understand and address emotional
needs of fellow team members. 26 Empathic leaders sense the emotions of the team
and are compelled to act accordingly which can in turn enhance support, cohesion,
and team participation.
I had the privilege to see empathic leadership in action observing a board meeting of an educational organization in the UK. Directors and affiliates arranged their
chairs in a circle and started by meditating on the outcome of the meeting. They
then started discussing their projects, the challenges they faced, what was going
well, and what wasn’t going so well. The discussion seemed honest and every person was speaking without trying to project a highly effective persona—as happens
in most board meetings I have observed. As an observer (I was asked to sit in the
circle with everyone and was encouraged to participate), I could not distinguish
who was a director and who an affiliate. T