What is empathy?

The readings and the book  "Leading at the Edge" mentions that empathy plays important role in leadership. As Ken said in class, Shackleton, who is one of the great leaders, was surrounded by women and developed his EQ(emotional intelligence). I also found some interesting quotes from other leaders.

"Those who can influence people are the ones who understand people's feelings. On the other hand, those who understand people's feelings suffer. Nobody will be moved by those who never suffered."ーSoichiro Honda

 "Successful leaders lead with the heart, not just the head. They possess qualities like empathy, compassion and courage. They also have the ability to establish deep, long-term and genuine relationships where others trust them."ーBill George

From the quotes above and our readings, it is no doubt that there's a connection between empathy and EQ, but what do you think empathy is? How does it work on real situations? Is it something that we can achieve from our efforts? Or is it something we are born with? What is the difference between empathy and sympathy? 

Today I'll try to get my answer for these questions. In my opinion, empathy and sympathy are a little bit different. Sympathy will come out when people around you were sad, or in tough situation. Empathy, on the other hand, is to share the feelings with others. If someone is happy you'll feel the same. It is difficult to explain because I myself don't have a clear answer... However, I found a video that helped my understanding. This video told me the meaning of Soichiro Honda's words. In the video, it said that you'll never going to understand others unless you feel your own pain and joy.

After watching this video, I thought that leaders should try to think about others, even "feeling actually the same" is quite hard. If you take time to think about others, you might be able to see the person from another aspect, and you might understand their needs. Understanding their needs, you can develop deeper relationship with people around you, which will surely have a positive impact to the group's performance!

Lastly, I want to mention here that you can learn empathy by your efforts. It is true that some people have high EQ by nature. But why don't we try to develop ours as well :)?
 
 "Leaders aren’t born, they are made. And they are made just like anything else, through hard work. And that’s the price we’ll have to pay to achieve that goal, or any goal." —Vince Lombardi