Phillip Holmes argues that leaders who stay trapped in their own perspective damage their teams. When leaders judge harshly instead of understanding their employees' experiences, incivility spreads. Empathy isn't optional for leaders with power.
I can't really understand the real world until I'm willing to step out of my world, Philip's world, and engage in your world. And then I get a bigger piece, right, or a clearer vision of what this world is actually like. But if I'm always looking at things from my perspective, from my biases, from the framework that I was raised within, I'm never really going to understand what the world is actually like. And I'm always going to be judgmental. And And anytime you're judgmental and hypercritical, uh, it's always going to lead to incivility because people oftentimes respond in the same manner. The reason why we're talking specifically to leaders right now is because they have more power in these situations. Right. And so it's not just a, hey, well, you guys can just go your separate ways. There's a lot of damage that can be done by the leader as a result of the power that they have if they are not willing to be empathetic and enter into, or condescend in a sense, uh, into their employees' world to understand, uh, what life is like on that side.
