For the past couple of weeks, I have been on holiday, relaxing on board a cruise ship as we pottered around Spain and Portugal. I took with me a couple of books and my trusty tablet, the Google Pixel (which is by far the best tablet I’ve ever owned). One of the books was a volume in the series “HBR’s 10 Must Reads” from Harvard Business School. The book was simply entitled “2025” and had a series of chapters devoted to the “definitive management ideas of the year”.
After reading a couple of sections, I decided to pick up my tablet, as I watched the ocean slowly passing by on our way to the next port of call. I was sitting on a quiet deck area, just looking out to sea and relaxing. I suddenly thought about one of the chapters I had read, which was about sustaining empathy in difficult times. There I was, relaxing and thinking of not very much, just looking after myself and doing what I wanted, where I wanted, with no worries other than what to choose for dinner that evening. Meanwhile, I noticed on the news app on my tablet how different the rest of the world was at that moment.
So, I delved deeper into the news and wondered how people in business were coping. Everywhere I looked, there were struggles. One American business owner was complaining that tariffs were costing him $100,000 a month. A British businessman said that the London Tube strikes would reduce his income by up to £700 a day. Back in the USA, people were worried about their jobs as the employment market was weakening. Meanwhile, over at Jaguar Landrover in the UK, workers had to stay at home following a serious cyberattack on the firm. And all this was in a week of political turmoil, growing global tensions, and increasing levels of conflict in various war zones. I shut down the news app on my tablet, stared out to sea, and thought about how lucky I was to be able to ignore all of that and focus on having a relaxing and enjoyable time.
You might call that being selfish. I call it a psychological necessity. The Mental Health Foundation reported back in July that the UK’s mental health is getting worse. According to the Foundation, the latest Government statistics show that mental health issues now affect almost a quarter of the population, which is a 20% increase since the figures were last collected seven years ago. The chaotic world and the enormous pressures on businesses I saw in the news app can’t be helping.
Good leaders, of course, will be empathetic with their workers. Indeed, empathetic leadership is linked to increased employee engagement. A similar point was made in that Harvard Business Review article about sustaining empathy in difficult times. The more a leader can be empathetic, the more their staff will be able to cope with the surrounding difficulties.
However, there is a flaw in this argument. Who is providing empathy for the leaders? If you are a business leader, who cares for you and shows you compassion and sympathy?
Recently, a Gallup study revealed that employee engagement is declining. Having reached a peak in 2023, it is now falling. Over three-quarters of employees are disengaged from their jobs. That means they lack a sense of pride in their work, have low motivation, and are not fully dedicated to their role. Three out of four people around you could be struggling to connect with their work — and you may well be one of them.
Like your co-workers, you are in troubled times too. Even though you logically realise the need to show empathy to their plight, unless you also receive empathy, you will suffer and potentially be one of those mental health statistics. Research in healthcare shows that doctors lose the ability to be empathetic unless they have high levels of self-empathy. You have to take care of yourself first, before you can take care of those around you. After all, that’s what we are told should the oxygen masks descend on a troubled aircraft.
The world we are in needs leaders to be more empathetic if people are to cope, avoid mental health issues and engage more with their work. But those leaders also need to be more compassionate and empathetic toward themselves. If you think that relaxing on a cruise ship is selfish, when I should be concerned about my workmates, then you need to give your head a wobble. We cannot care for our colleagues unless we first care for ourselves.
