Leading with Empathy

Daniel Goleman is author of the international best-seller Emotional Intelligence and Optimal: How to Sustain Personal and Organizational Excellence Every Day. He is a regular contributor to Korn Ferry. 

When it comes to what success looks like, one leadership trait has become more critical than ever: empathy. No longer just a “soft skill,” this seven-letter word has become a hard requirement for business success.

The correlation between empathy and results isn’t new—the data has been pointing in this direction for well over a decade. The top 10 companies on the Harvard Business Review's "Global Empathy Index" saw 50% higher earnings than the bottom 10 companies, perhaps due to the impact of empathy on engagement and retention. The vast majority of employees—87% in one study—say empathy boosts morale and increases efficiency, creativity, idea sharing, and innovation.

Opportunities to demonstrate empathy are everywhere in organizational life, from the openings of meetings to watercooler conversations to the handling of mergers and acquisitions. Authentically empathic leaders actively listen to employees’ concerns, recognize their challenges, and respond with support that fosters both well-being and productivity. They take the time to be with the real issues and emotions their teams face—to understand both what motivates people and what gets in their way.

But while 87% of US workers say empathy leads to better leadership, over half see most attempts at empathy as inauthentic. This has been called “empathy washing”— a performative or insincere display of care or concern. It’s what happens when corporate statements, companywide communications, and handbooks refer to a kind of consideration and focus on people that just doesn’t exist in the day to day. It’s the dissonance people experience when empathy is positioned as a program, policy, or priority, without any real change in leadership’s behavior.

If trust is the currency of leadership, empathy is what builds wealth. And yet, according to a 2024 study, close to 40% of CEOs still believe it has no place in the workplace. For those who do see its positive impact, developing it feels like a challenge, with 63% of CEOs saying it's hard to demonstrate this kind of care in their day to day.

The challenge has much to do with the state of anxiety most leaders live in. In a series of six studies with over 1,300 total participants, researchers found that of all the emotions, anxiety and surprise were most likely to cause egocentrism and make people unable to consider the feelings and perspectives of others. Turns out, an incessant ruminating about the past or trying to control the future makes attuning to those around you far more difficult.

This is the inflection point we are at: Empathy is what is needed—and also what may be most challenging to cultivate.

If last year was any indication, we could be entering a moment of more stability in leadership: According to one study, the average executive tenure rose slightly in 2024, from 4.5 years to 4.9. While this may be a sign that businesses are finding their footing after the seismic disruptions of the COVID-19 pandemic, leaders still exist in a landscape shaped by uncertainty and change. Even if the increase in executive tenure suggests that businesses are finding their footing again, longevity alone isn’t enough. The real question is: What kind of leaders will occupy these roles for the next five years? Will they be transactional and focused solely on performance metrics, or transformational—driving growth through connection and understanding?

Co-written by Elizabeth Solomon

Click here to learn more about Daniel Goleman's Building Blocks of Emotional Intelligence.