“Empathy is about finding echoes of another person in yourself.” – Mohsin Hamid
We believe empathy is one of the most important ingredients enabling effectiveness and so we connected with some amazing folks to ask them about the conditions that allowed them to develop into such empathic leaders.
Tyler Blackstock
Well to start with, I would have to say pain. At least for me that is; I’ve experienced my fare share as we all have and even though some may have experienced more than others pain is pain. Also, thinking how you would feel if something was done to you 9/10 it’s how the other person would feel so always keep that in mind. Read more>>
James Dietrichson
Going through the struggles I have faced in life, I had two choices to make, one being let it overcome me or the other being that I overcome it. Seeing other people go through hard times also played a major role in my empathy. I never want anyone to feel the pain that I have experiences but I know that people are. With that being said I made it my life mission to be try and help all those who cross my path. Read more>>
Tammy Barr
Empathy has been an ever present strength for me since I was a teetering toddler. It’s like an inherent skill that I’ve honed and practiced over time. I feel like empathy is my superpower. Maybe creating stories and scenarios with my Barbies helped me think outside the box and become more empathetic. But there have also been some key circumstances in my life that have helped me grow my superpower. Read more>>
Agustina Forest
Have you ever cried during a movie because the character was experiencing hardship? Have you ever caught yourself smiling at the TV? Or at the page of a book? Stories help us develop empathy. It’s through knowing stories that we are able to share the feelings that another person is experiencing. Read more>>
Jasmine Hirt
I have always felt that I can easily empathize with most people. It comes very naturally to me, sometimes to my detriment. Others tend to open up to me about deeply personal issues, even total strangers sometimes (but that might say more about that person than my intune-ness to others’ emotions). Read more>>
Christian Nelson
Of all the topics, I picked this one because of a Maya Angelou quote that people never forget how you make them feel. Human connection is really the way forward, I believe, so that’s why I picked this topic – If I can save someone else my mistakes or help them know where to look, then I believe that the world will become a much better place. Read more>>
Marina Eve Martinez
After Hurricane Maria our Puertorricans families were impacted emotionally, economic and lack of community. That is when as a mom I started selling low rates plates to make it easy on moms that only had electric stoves and there was no light in Puerto Rico from more than 9 months. I just couldn’t imagine how they were doing it. Read more>>
Minnie Yang
As an artist I think I always have this love-hate relationship with my empathy. I grew up in a family where my mom is an independent, open-minded and avant-garde woman and my dad is a quiet, resilient and patient gentleman. With that combination I was born with a hyper-sensitive personality which gifted me creativity, but meanwhile detail-oriented and sometimes too perfectionist, in simple words, now that I think of it – I just FEEL a lot more than others. I think that’s the seed of my empathy. Read more>>
Jessica Ransom
Throughout my life, I always knew I had my father in my corner. He had high expectations and expected me to do my best in all situations and to be reliable. As a high school guidance counselor, he knew many teenagers in our community and always stopped to engage with them in public. After he retired, I realized that he engaged openly with every person he encountered in daily life. Read more>>
Tabitha Lundskog
Life is full of experience, but as humans it is also comprised of attitude. This duality suggests that we each contain a capacity to learn from our individual circumstance while simultaneously cultivating a measure of comprehension which affects our ability to empathize with the various situations of others. Read more>>
Nadine Promes García
Nowadays, to me, empathy is what humanity needs more than ever. It could be debated whether or not empathy is taught or born with each individual but in my case, it was taught. No one educated me on empathy, in fact, my childhood was filled with violent emotions and selfish thoughts, which fueled my insecure bully attitude. Read more>>
Trey Duncan
I’m fortunate to a have been raised in a family that supported me and instilled in me the belief that I could do whatever I wanted to with my life. I was also raised in a family of faith and believed that my life had a calling and a purpose. No matter what happened all things would work towards the good. Read more>>
Tia Gist Thomas
Becoming a single mother to a special needs child – being a mom creates a environment when you learn to take your eyes off yourself and focus on someone else, since my daughter was mostly nonverbal I learned to look at the world through from her perspective, to recognize the challenges and make ways to manage those challenges. Read more>>
Aubrey Turner
I once thought empathy was an emotion that I didn’t possess and never would, never could. Then two things happened, one personal and one professional. Professionally, after going back to school for functional nutrition, I became a health + nutrition coach and started working intimately with woman who were struggling with their health, with most of their symptoms, pains, and imbalances coming from childhood experiences. Read more>>
Jasmine Lewis
Hello my name is Jasmine Lewis, and the way I have developed empathy was through experiences, I use to talk about people that where on drugs. It wasn’t until I fell into the path of drugs that allowed me to understand others, I now understand the saying “never say never”, once I fell into the path of addiction, I now understand that you should never judge or talk about someone, because you never know what someone has or is going threw. Read more>>
