The great adman, David Ogilvy once said that one of the greatest assets a leader can have is the power of forgiveness.
Everybody is human. Everybody makes mistakes. And if you terminate your relationship every time the other person screws up, you’ll soon be left with zero people around you.
So to keep the team together, you learn to forgive, even when it’s hard.
And it IS hard. Sometimes it’s REALLY hard, sometimes the “sin” is quite real.
What you learn over time is that forgiveness doesn’t just happen, it’s a quality you learn to cultivate over many years. And that learned via your capacity for empathy. Seeing the humanity in the other, warts and all, and being OK with it.
This image is designed as a reminder of six main qualities of an empathetic person, which you can practice with.
- Curious about others
- Challenges prejudices
- Finds common ground
- Listens. Really listens.
- Not afraid to be vulnerable
- Big imagination
It’s easy to tell a manager, “Be more empathetic”. What’s harder is actually figuring out how to do it, step by step.
It’s not just something you do, it’s something you grow into. It’s hard and it takes years. But as Ogilvy implied, there’s a reason why it’s so highly valued by people who’ve walked the walk.
