Empathy...the new "buzzword" in buisness..?

[hope]

I notice the push to be seen as "empathetic" by some businesses has been more prevalent recently.
Now it seems some politicians are trying to pick up on the need to show this. Ed Miliband has enlisted the help of well known Cambridge academic Professor Simon Baron Cohen to help him with his image/speech making.
In a speech given last week, at the launch of Labours summer campaign, he said empathy was one of the most underrated virtues in politics. He supposedly used the word several times.
http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto...e1439439.ece?CMP=OTH-gnws-standard-2014_07_26

Now I am all for politicians being empathetic, in fact I would say it was a quality politicians should have.
However, I wonder if to-days politicians can convince us they are empathetic or will we see it as just another ploy to gain votes and does not a truly empathetic person have the ability to show how much of this virtue he has, without the help of a much respected academic?

 

[Aberdeen]

I assumed the story was another of Sacha Baron-Cohen's jokes until I did some research and found out that his cousin actually a Cambridge academic and an expert on empathy. Is Ed Milliband empathic? I don't know, but if David Cameron made such a claim, that would be ridiculous.

 

[hope]

I assumed the story was another of Sacha Baron-Cohen's jokes until I did some research and found out that his cousin actually a Cambridge academic and an expert on empathy. Is Ed Milliband empathic? I don't know, but if David Cameron made such a claim, that would be ridiculous.

I totally take your point regarding Cameron, Aberdeen. In fact I think it would be "ridiculous" if Cameron even claimed to be "in touch" with the majority of people here...but when you are increasingly surrounded by old fellow Etonians, how would you be?
I`m not having a go at Miliband as such, in fact I think he is the better of the two. To be honest I have grown more disillusioned with politicans in general, they are all full of pretty much the same old rhetoric and lack of action.

Yes, Simon Baron Cohen is a professor at Cambridge. His fields are Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience. Good news is he is also the author of Zero Degrees of Empathy, where he says empathy is a "universal solvent".
The thing with empathy in a politician is, while it it surely a good start, unless you really understand the problem and can initiate some practical policies to help deal with it, it`s not that good alone...IMO.
Another point I was aiming at was, even if a politician is by nature honestly empathetic, will we the public believe it, taking into account how suspicious we have become of politicians. Again, it is necessary to be able to put action alongside said empathy.

 

[LeBrok]

To be honest I have grown more disillusioned with politicans in general, they are all full of pretty much the same old rhetoric and lack of action.

I have same feelings on the subject. Political parties have smell of 19 century decaying ideologies with chronic shortsightedness of 4 years or less.

 

[FBS]

Here are the outcomes of an experiment:

"Can people in high positions of power — presidents, bosses, celebrities, even dominant spouses — easily empathize with those beneath them? Psychological research suggests the answer is no. Studies have repeatedly shown that participants who are in high positions of power (or who are temporarily induced to feel powerful) are less able to adopt the visual, cognitive or emotional perspective of other people, compared to participants who are powerless (or are made to feel so)."

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/27/opinion/sunday/powerful-and-coldhearted.html

 

[hope]

I have same feelings on the subject. Political parties have smell of 19 century decaying ideologies with chronic shortsightedness of 4 years or less.

Lol..they suffer short-sightedness and after a usually pitiful four years expect us to suffer collective amnesia of said four years and vote for them again!

 

[hope]

Here are the outcomes of an experiment:

"Can people in high positions of power — presidents, bosses, celebrities, even dominant spouses — easily empathize with those beneath them? Psychological research suggests the answer is no. Studies have repeatedly shown that participants who are in high positions of power (or who are temporarily induced to feel powerful) are less able to adopt the visual, cognitive or emotional perspective of other people, compared to participants who are powerless (or are made to feel so)."

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/27/opinion/sunday/powerful-and-coldhearted.html

I think I read something of this a few months ago FBS and couldn`t find it again so really glad you posted this link.

The thing with politicians [ or the big corporates] telling us they feel empathy for you and me, that they relate to us is, for me at least, somewhat patronising.
Many of these people come from a privileged background and have not the slightest idea how it feels to have no job, bleak prospects, wait for years on hospital lists for an operation or loose sleep worrying if they can meet this months mortgage repayment or the many other things the ordinary working class man has to deal with. Of course you don`t have to actually be in the same position as someone in order to empathize with them, you don`t have to loose a limb yourself in order to feel empathy for someone who has, we understand this. However on the other side of this, if you are someone who has spent his life in a financially sound background, gone to a fine public school and been constantly in the company of similar well heeled young men, it may be a little harder for you to fully appreciate the problems of those outside this circle, the ordinary man on the street.
After all, we had David Cameron tell us he really understood how hard these austere times were for us, then only months later we hear that in this time of austerity, politicians were to have a pay rise, while others were facing cuts! It was IIRC Ed Miliband who was first to speak against this..then of course Cameron got onboard.
Perhaps I have answered my own question, maybe such people do need help to feel empathy. How real it is and how long it lasts might be worth noting....but again it is no use a politician feeling our pain if he can`t come up with solutions to help deal with them.

 

[Aberdeen]

And here's a list of the skills needed to be a successful politician (or a senior executive in a large corporation).

www.psychologytoday.com/blog/digital-leaders/201309/are-you-working-sociopath

 

[hope]

And here's a list of the skills needed to be a successful politician (or a senior executive in a large corporation).

www.psychologytoday.com/blog/digital-leaders/201309/are-you-working-sociopath

Perhaps it`s because I have fallen out of love with politicians in general Aberdeen, but I have to say there`s quite a few I think would fit quite a bit of this profile.
On the up side, I took the quiz linked on that page and I`m glad to report I wont be standing for election or chairing any board meetings in the foreseeable future....

 

[oriental]

The trick is to have enough empathy to identify the social problems, seek solutions then take resolute actions to fix the problems and not succumb to sorrow or become immobile from the sadness.

 

[FBS]

Empathy might be a "buzzword" but, when there is a smoke the is a fire as well. Businesses and politicians (political parties) will have to start to listen to new-coming buyers and voters since they think in a totally different manner. So eventually they will have to learn about empathy and how to understand it or at least have advisers who are naturally good at it.