How Empathy Builds A Better Business

Vice President of Global Business at Confiz, one of the world’s fastest-growing technology services and solutions companies

I am a walking success story of cultural adaptation. I’m originally from Pakistan, but I’ve lived all over the world, and I have been traveling over 150 days a year for more than a decade. What I do spans both developing and developed nations. I’ve realized in all my diverse travel experiences that no matter where you look to build an impact, the one thing that fuels growth is empathy.

As our economies become more global and our customers and employees become ever more spread across the globe, empathy ultimately keeps us all meaningfully connected. Companies need to build an empathy ecosystem that spans the markets they operate in to deepen the value system that builds their businesses.

What Is An Empathy Ecosystem?

An empathy ecosystem is a system of behaviors and processes that puts empathy at the center of decision-making for companies, eliminating layers of clutter and directly influencing how companies conceive a people-first culture, rethink their service offerings and execute a growth strategy. This ecosystem connects every aspect of the business, customers, partners and even the company’s impact on the planet.

I believe a well-thought-out empathy ecosystem can solve the biggest employee retention challenges, help build impactful businesses and tackle diversity and inclusion biases.

My philosophy in developing an empathy ecosystem uses 13th-century poet Rumi’s advice to “unfold your own myth” as its foundation. What that means is to never follow someone else’s interpretation of anything, and to instead trust your experiences and your imagination. For the purposes of the empathy ecosystem, that means unlearning the labels and definitions you didn’t create and looking creatively and objectively at the opportunities that unfold.

Building An Empathy Ecosystem In Your Organization

Breathing is the most basic human function. What breathing is to humans, empathy should be for your business. Here are a few simple ways to introduce empathy into your business.

Fix the taxonomy: Get rid of words that carry perceived bias, like “offshore team,” “leads” and “sales pipeline.” Replace them with terms such as “global team,” “ideas” and “success journey.” A change in the taxonomy plants the seed of self-awareness and inclusion in your team. This is the first and fastest change you can make.

Fight stereotyping in titles: Recently on a call, a peer of mine said, “Ali is a sales guy, and you know how they are. They smooth talk and would sell anything.” With a label like this, you’d build a perception that whatever I do, I’d be selling something, which is not true.

When assigning job titles at your organization, consider that every title has an attached connotation that limits the perceived value of the employee. “Engineers” are supposed to be analytical and logical. “Salespeople” are supposed to have dollar signs in their eyes. Again, none of this is actually true, it’s just the stereotype. When handing out job titles, consider rewriting them—unfolding your own myth—into titles that reflect the whole value of the employee. Realize that everyone has a wealth of talents, and a title can close them into a box if not properly applied.

Think about this when making introductions as well. Instead of introducing an employee to a new client by their job title, consider saying something like “This is Ella. She brings original thinking and creativity to our team.” When your introduction honors the whole person, you are empathizing with that person and honoring their value.

Reimagine the wheel: People say “Don’t reinvent the wheel” because the thought of doing something completely new triggers fear. Don’t let it. Go ahead, reimagine whatever processes and models your business needs. No one knows your company better than you, so empathize with your business, employees and customers and create models that work best for them.

Define your business’ well-being: We speak a lot about employee well-being, but go one step further and consider your business an entity that deserves well-being, too. For example, is it truly in your business’ best interest to have your staff working 16-hour days endlessly to grow your bottom line? Or would giving your team time to refresh and celebrate a “well-being month,” in which no one talks about bottom lines and costs but rather commits to introspection, removing clutter from processes, and celebrating the company’s values be better for your business’s well-being?

Defining and focusing on your company’s well-being makes decision-making easier, allowing you to empathize with the business as a whole and make decisions that keep it healthy.

Most growing companies are held hostage by their own success. They respond to growing pains on the fly and end up creating a Frankenstein company that is all patched up with no heart or purpose. Instead, at every stage of growth, make sure your actions are aligned with one vision and purpose.

Reimagine the sales pipeline: Right now, your sales pipeline probably looks something like “leads, qualification, opportunities, propose, negotiate, close.” Instead, imagine it as “ideas, define success, prove, and partner/execute.” Doing this maps the success journey of an idea/initiative through the eyes of your client. When you empathize with your client’s view, you deliver success as opposed to a product/service. I have fully implemented this in my company, and 100% of the initiatives that have gone into the “prove” step end up being executed and purchased by the client.

Put empathy at the center of product development and delivery: Empathy thinking goes one step further than design thinking in product development, as it asks not only, “What does the user need?” but also, “What are the motivations for using the product?” Find ways to discover more about why your users will use your product, and use that in your product development and delivery. Miro and Mural are great tools to facilitate continuous discoveries.

Empathy is the next step in your company’s evolution.

The time to build an empathy ecosystem is now. With the pandemic forcing us all to confront what’s really most important in our own lives, it’s time to expand that thinking to others as well. We are all empowered and we have been offered a great reset opportunity.

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