In a leadership meeting, I was told I’m too empathetic to be strategic. Meanwhile, my “soft” approach helped reduce turnover by 48% in 18 months and boosted internal mobility. Empathy is a strategy, but I still feel like I have to justify it in rooms full of people who think decisiveness means detachment. Why is emotional intelligence seen as a liability unless it’s coming from the CEO in a TED Talk? Do you think there’s space for women in HR to lead authentically without constantly defending our tone?

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This sort of commentary from someone in leadership chaps my ass! The number of organizations that will lead with “our employees are our most important asset” and then turn around and not treat them with empathy, kindness, and gratitude that they choose to work every day at that company.
I would say that you being an empathetic leader will take you farther strategically in getting people aligned with what the company wants to accomplish. That has always been my experience and when I’ve had leaders like that above me, I will do anything to make them look great and help them accomplish their goals because I appreciate their empathetic leadership style I would guess
most people feel that way!

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Two empathetic? That’s a laugh. If you were more aggressive, they’d be calling you bitching and difficult to work with. You can’t win for losing in this industry.

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If you were told something like that you should have disputed it and cited the figures you're citing here. Don't stand for that kind of obnoxious commentary. If there's a need to defend your tone, just do it. We can hope that ill-informed comments will eventually fade away, but that may take a long time by the look of things.

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