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Gary Had

Ghosts Gateway to Organizational Transformation

Lisa began her career in the financial services industry, where over the course of more than 20 years she led numerous learning and organization development functions, such as consumer sales, operations, mergers and acquisitions, and enterprise operations. Her last role with Wells Fargo Corporation, the fourth largest U.S. financial institution, was as head of executive and leadership development, where she was responsible for developing 22,000 leaders worldwide. After leaving financial services, Lisa joined Delhaize Corporation as the director of talent development, where she was responsible for creating and implementing the talent development strategies for a business with 1,200 stores and 76,000 employees across 11 states. In 2010, Lisa joined Ingersoll Rand as the director of global leadership development, where she designed and implemented a comprehensive global leadership development strategy, ensuring that Ingersoll Rand had effective and efficient development for frontline leaders and senior leaders, and a sustainable leadership pipeline for Ingersoll Rand’s growth. Lisa is now responsible for developing Ingersoll Rand’s strategic capabilities of operational excellence, strategy and market analytics, product management, innovation, and sales excellence. Lisa is also responsible for global learning, learning operations, and advanced learning technologies, as well as ensuring aligned learning strategies globally.

Lisa Knight Gary

Today’s economy is … challenging. On top of that, some organizations are still adapting to the changes caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, like distributed teams, remote meetings, and hybrid offices. The need for strong leaders is more significant than ever in light of those obstacles.Strong leadership skills are essential for managers to build and lead engaged, innovative teams prepared to handle today’s challenges. And the key to being a strong leader might be different from what you think. In an ELB Learning webinar, Kristie DeLoreto, SVP, Client Solutions, and Laura Doerr, VP, Operations at ELB Learning, demonstrated why empathy matters in leadership.Empathy in leadership is the ability to relate to and connect with people to inspire and empower their lives. However, it’s important for leaders to understand the difference between empathy and sympathy. “It’s a very gray line,” said DeLoreto. “I think you either kind of understand it, or you need to practice to get better at being more empathetic or knowing the difference between those two.”Lack of Empathy vs. EmpathyYou may have worked in environments where the first second somebody has performance problems at work, the automatic response is to say, “You’re out.”That is an example of a lack of empathy. Unfortunately, this can be fairly standard in our business world. Someone walks into your office and says, “Your numbers have been down for the third quarter in a row. You have to pick up your numbers. Otherwise, I can’t guarantee what the future will look like.”How inspired is that person going to be at work the next day? On the flip side, here’s the empathetic approach.Someone walks into your office and says, “Your numbers are down for the third quarter in a row. Are you okay? I’m worried about you. What’s going on?”We all have performance issues. Maybe someone’s kid is sick. Maybe they’re having problems in their marriage. We don’t know what’s going on in their lives, which will affect their performance at work. Empathy means being concerned about the human being, not just their output. Most people don’t want to be bad performers; they want to do a good job. Leaders must remember this.Exercising empathy can help leaders build teams, hire employees, and work with clients.Building teams. According to a 2022 Gallup report, employee engagement has dropped over the last several years to 32 percent, and 17 percent of employees are actively disengaged. Recognizing and respecting your employees’ emotions—even the negative ones—is a powerful way to connect with them. Empathy lays the groundwork for mature leadership and connecting with your workers as people.Hiring employees. Empathy is also important in the hiring process. It gives insight into another person’s motivations and helps you judge whether a candidate is right for a position. “If you look at your candidate with empathy, you can see the person and the human they are. And if they’re going to bring that to the table and bring those right skills and the right fit culturally, and all those other pieces just by thinking about that,” said DeLoreto. Working with clients. By employing empathy in your conversations with clients or subject matter experts, you can better understand their pain points and get on the same page. Having an open, thoughtful, empathetic conversation—especially with difficult clients—where you align and get on the same page will improve your relationship. In addition, empathy allows you to understand how another person is likely to behave, which can be powerful in negotiations.Why Leadership Training Can HelpDuring the webinar, DeLoreto polled the audience, asking who had worked for a leader who lacked empathy at any point in their career. The response was a resounding 95 percent “YES.”Effective leadership training needs to include soft skills training such as empathy. While there will always be a demand for training on hard skills, at ELB Learning, we’re seeing more and more clients come to us for manager and leadership development.

Most Important Skill for Leaders Is Empathy—Here’s Why

Mary F. Slaughter is a seasoned corporate executive, human capital consultant, and published author. Her global enterprise roles have included chief learning officer, chief talent officer, global head of employee experience, chief diversity and inclusion officer, and chief human resources officer. In addition to consulting with Fortune 100 firms on their talent agendas, Mary has worked for such notable brands as AT&T, Lucent Technologies, Wachovia, SunTrust, Morningstar, The NeuroLeadership Institute, Deloitte, and EY. Her executive advisory roles have including the Association for Training Development (ATD) Board of Directors, Bersin by Deloitte’s Advisory Council, and The Conference Board’s Council on Learning, Development and Organizational Performance. She had also specialized in advising women CEOs leading start-ups in Silicon Valley.A frequent industry speaker, Mary has been featured in _Harvard Business Review, Business Insider, PwC’s strategy+ business, Fast Company, Quartz, Reworked, Talent Management, T+D, CLO, Selling Powe_r and Consulting magazines. Under her leadership, her teams have won awards from Bersin & Associates for leadership development, Brandon Hall for sales talent management, CLO Magazine for academic partnerships, Training Magazine’s Top 125, ATD BEST for exceptional enterprise learning and Consulting Magazine as one of the top management consulting firms for buildinga career.Mary resides in Atlanta with her amazing daughters who brighten her life every day.

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