What is empathy? What are the qualities you associate with empathy (actions, speech, gestures and behaviors)?
For the EI Lenses framework, “empathy” is the big emotion, that results in building trust, accelerating collaboration and intimacy. Typically, empathy is the emotion most associated with an emotionally intelligent individual.
The wisdom of crowds might suggest that EI probably, makes Individuals kinder, more compassionate and definitely more empathetic. But for the EI Lenses framework, empathy is also powerfully linked to the competency of building trust, nurturing relationships and creating high value partnerships. So it is particularly accentuated in the context of understanding the “needs” of your partner, or your team members or your client.
It depends on your ability to step out of the “cocoon” of your reality to really see, feel and hear the concerns of another, all the time diminishing your self-interest consciously while doing so.