Spread a little empathy

The article makes the case that:

Overall empathy consists of at least three skills

There are three skills relating to what laypeople commonly refer to as empathy

None of the other statements is entirely correct

There are two main components of empathy along with at least one other minor one

In a questionnaire asking an employee to assess a leader’s empathy, the statement 'My leader gets excited when I express my enthusiasm' is:

Indicative of a leader’s empathetic action

Likely to measure emotional empathy

Probably related to cognitive empathy

Unlikely to measure any useful aspect of empathy

Which of the following statements is most indicative of high cognitive empathy?

'My leader’s mood often seems to be affected by how others are feeling'

'My leader is able to stay calm when we feel stressed'

'My leader understands when we feel stressed'

'My leader understands that people’s emotions often affect their judgments'

In which of these situations might high emotional empathy lead to negative outcomes?

When employees are working with stakeholders who are experiencing a high level of distress

When colleagues are performing well and expressing high levels of joy and pride

When the organisation is suffering from extremely poor business performance

When an employee’s line manager has communicated negative feedback about the employee’s job performance

Relating to performance appraisals, Dr Rob makes the argument that:

Leaders should try to balance negative feedback by providing positive feedback that elevates an employee’s mood

Leaders should demonstrate their empathy by downplaying negative feedback

Employees should use their emotional empathy to understand their line managers’ concerns

Leaders should choose their words carefully in order to be honest but at the same time compassionate

Emotional empathy is:

Likely correlated with higher levels of intelligence and formal education

Equally as important for career success as cognitive empathy

More important for career success than perspective-taking

Probably related to the concept of emotional intelligence

Leaders:

All of the other statements are correct

Are more likely to succeed in their careers when they have higher levels of cognitive empathy than emotional empathy

Are less inaccurate at judging their own levels of empathy when they are more senior within organisations

Should seek feedback on how empathetic they seem from not only employees but also other stakeholders

In a one-to-one meeting between a line manager and an employee, which of the following comments by the manager is most likely to encourage the employee to change their behaviour?

‘OK, we have established that a mistake occurred, but I have confidence that we can make a considerable improvement on this matter soon'

‘I understand that you’re sorry for this mistake, but I trust that you can make a big improvement on this matter soon'

‘I would feel just as sad and angry with myself if I had made this mistake, but I feel that you can make a massive improvement on this matter soon'

‘I understand how sad and angry you are about this mistake, but I have faith that this matter will be resolved by you soon'

An implication of the article is that:

None of the other statements is entirely correct

Both cognitive empathy and emotional empathy are relatively fixed skills, but we can change our level of empathetic action

Empathy is likely a set of skills that may change as a result of our experiences and conscious efforts

Empathy is a fixed and unchangeable set of abilities given that psychopaths typically possess less emotional empathy than cognitive empathy

The article makes the argument that:

Displays of empathy by leaders may improve some aspects of employee performance but harm other aspects of employee performance

Displays of cognitive empathy by leaders may reduce some aspects of employee performance

Demonstrations of emotional empathy by leaders may improve employees’ levels of job satisfaction but possibly at the cost of leaders’ own job satisfaction

Demonstrations of empathy by leaders may improve aspects of employee performance

Spread a little empathy

The article makes the case that:

In a questionnaire asking an employee to assess a leader’s empathy, the statement 'My leader gets excited when I express my enthusiasm' is:

Which of the following statements is most indicative of high cognitive empathy?

In which of these situations might high emotional empathy lead to negative outcomes?

Relating to performance appraisals, Dr Rob makes the argument that:

Emotional empathy is:

Leaders:

In a one-to-one meeting between a line manager and an employee, which of the following comments by the manager is most likely to encourage the employee to change their behaviour?

An implication of the article is that:

The article makes the argument that:

You scored

0

out of

0

Test passed. Enter your details to download your certificate. Your certificate will also be sent to you by email.

Our sites

Useful links

Using this site

Contact us

Planned system updates