A Day In the Life by Lauren Owen, MBA, Redpoint Succession and Leadership Coaching

Team members work on each others "Day in the Life" pages

by Lauren Owen, Principal, Redpoint Succession and Leadership Coaching

One of the biggest challenges we see in work teams is a lack of understanding and empathy among co-workers.  The sales people think that the finance people are holding them back from closing deals.  People in the field think that the office people don’t know or appreciate their jobs and place impossible demands on them. The support staff thinks that the field guys only follow rules when they feel like it. Support staff doesn’t feel valued by professionals. Owners think that their workers don’t have a clue of the challenges and stresses that they face. And so on and so on.

Why is empathy so important in the workplace?  It helps us to work together on a daily basis with less stress. It allows us to step into another’s shoes, forge relationships, provide aid to a co-worker who needs help, and bite our tongue instead of muttering something snide.  Empathy helps us to see better from our client’s point of view and understand their true needs so we can provide better service and create products they truly need.

Here’s a good exercise for your next staff meeting or retreat to help increase empathy within your organization and team. It comes from Daniel Pink’s excellent book, “A Whole New Mind.” It’s called a Day in the Life.

Have each participant write his or her name on a piece of flipchart paper and then list four categories:

1. My highs
2. My lows
3. My frustrations
4. My rewards.

Post all these sheets on the walls. Then ask everyone to walk around the room and write what they think the answers are for their colleagues.

What’s the biggest frustration for the sales manager?  What’s the biggest reward for the pharmacy tech? What’s the biggest win for the office paralegal? What’s the biggest high for the owner?

Once people write what they think, each person takes back his own sheet. Then each person takes a turn responding to his colleagues guesses and explains what a workday is really like. You can do a variation on this: organize people by departments and have each group try to describe a day in the life of the other departments.

For more info on our succession and leadership coaching, visit www.redpointcoaching.com.

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