Human Quality

Since the mind needs time to evolve, a person’s progress is decided by their mentality rather than their abilities. Life interactions and how people react to them form one’s attitude. The lessons learned by friends, guardians, and spiritual teachers also have a huge impact on someone’s life (Karazman 24). The mentality is used to explain a person’s habitual way of thought. About the fact that changing someone’s personality is difficult, the goal of life is to help them develop into a stronger human being. As a result, one should always keep an eye on certain characteristics in order to improve them. Quality of life is hence the development of someone’s mindset for their success in work and life. In this essay, we are going to look at the quality of empathy and how it works in a person’s life.

When we look at the world around, many problems are created because someone does not want to accept the practice or why people are doing some things. However, the moment they put themselves into their shoe, then their perception will change and begin to understand the true nurture and meaning of people’s traditions, emotions, and decisions (Karazman 44). Every person these days have become egoistic and selfish. This has made them create exclusive compartments around them concerning someone else persona. For instance, no one is willing to help you unless they know that you need assistance, neither will they go an extra mile to make you happy unless you probably want it. The best way is to understand that a life well lived always turns to be a good life to others. Thinking about this, everyone should care if someone is in need of help. Common to that, bringing a smile to somebody will cost nothing because once they know they are loved, they will give more back to where they experienced it.

Empathy in customer care

One quality that everyone should have is empathy. In a simple definition, empathy is being aware of someone’s emotions and feelings. It is also an essential element of emotional intelligence link between one’s self and others through understanding what others are experiencing. One relation that connects well with empathy is customer service. Most people think that giving quality service is all about fixing things but the reality is that the customer wants to have a positive experience by solving their problems as well as understanding how they feel (Meier 22). What is a hundred percent true is that the majority of customer expects that they should be heard and felt especially what they are going through.

Once the customer’s emotions are ignored, they usually give up either to the problem or the company. Excellent services are where the customer rep exudes the customer’s personality by making them feel grateful beyond initial questions. This happens when the rep cares about the outcome. One aspect of empathy is that it is teachable because it ultimately comes when someone understands another person’s experience. However, some people are naturally empathetic. One way the customer’s perspective could be captured is through stories.

When there is a catalog of old cases, someone can understand the customer’s highs and lows. Instead of using facts and figures to customers, there is a complete finished painting concerning the customer’s experience. Listening is another element to empathy. The service rep should be able to pick up the customers tone in the sense that they can tell the level of stress, frustrations or anger. Active listening also assists the rep in asking better questions as they try to analyze the cause of the pain. Therefore, the more room both the customer and the rep have to speak comfortably; the natural their words become thus creating empathy at the end (Meier 31).

Empathy in leadership

When many people think that leadership is composed only of rank, privilege, and power, then the Marines believe that it is the willingness to place people needs beyond yours. According to Shelly Levit (60), he says that when a leader develops empathy, they can empower others to achieve what they believed they could not. He also says that when the leader prioritizes the well-being of his people, the workers in return offer protection back to one another as well as to the company.

As it turns out, the human body is equipped with a built-in chemistry that has the incentive to protect others. There are four primary neurochemicals according to Sinek that are seen to be essential for the normal functioning of the brain. They include dopamine, oxytocin, endorphins, and serotonin. When these traits are combined, they contribute to the positive feelings of pride, joy, happiness, fulfillment, and achievement (Levit 89). Beyond that, it also makes sure that a person is feeling good and in return, they acquire long-term survival.

Dopamine and Endorphins are known to be the selfish chemicals that are only released when one persists in doing things on their own. Endorphins in this case usually mask the physical pain and replace it with pleasure. Dopamine, on the other hand, gives a warm flush of satisfaction especially when one completes the project or achieve an important goal (Levit 97). As a result, the satisfaction feeling makes the person want to take a broader task.

Oxytocin and Serotonin are selfless chemicals that manifest someone to have pride. On a deeper level, one usually feels that their work has to be noticed and appreciated by others. In normal circumstances, this compound reinforces the bond between the teacher and student, parent and child, boss and employee, coach and player, and leader to the follower. It is the work of oxytocin in this case because it promotes trust and empathy by allowing people’s bond to deepen. Unlike the constant gratification, oxytocin also amplifies the way people bond. As Levit says, oxytocin is a manifestation of love where everything becomes warm and fuzzy (p 101). While in the company of family members, friends, and close colleagues, it is only through oxytocin that the act of generosity strengthens the connections.

Habits of empathy

There is a big buzz when it comes to the revolutionary shift of empathy and how scientists understand the human nature. The old view showed that humans are self-interested creatures who are nudged firmly to one side because when they were homo-empathicus, they were wired to social cooperation, empathy or mutual aid. For some years now, neuroscientists have discovered the 10-section ‘empathy circuit that functions in the human brain. Evolutionary biologists like Frans de Waal (p.44) showed that human is social animals that naturally evolved to take care of each other. Therefore, empathy does not stop developing right from childhood, but its nature grows throughout someone’s life. Research has also shown that an individual could make empathy become an attitude in their daily lives. Several habits are developed in empathic people.

Curiosity about strangers

People who are empathic usually have an insatiable interest when it comes to strangers. They often have the habit of talking to them because they have a natural inquisitiveness that was developed ever since they were children (Waal 52). Most of the time they find these people more interesting than themselves. However, they do not interrogate them. Thus they only respect them. Curiosity is what comes to a person who has empathy because they usually try to understand the world of someone’s head.

Try another person’s life

Individuals with this character try to expand their empathy by gaining people’s direct experience. Everyone, in this case, can conduct their own experiences to each other. For instance for religious people they try and swap ‘God’ in attempting to attend other services of a different faith (Waal 77). Moreover, an atheist can attend a different church. Another example is that when a person wants to take a vacation, they should try and switch their mind to volunteer to go to a village in a developing country so that they could experience the kind of life they have.

Empathy inspires social change and mass action

As it is typically assumed, empathy has the ability to bring a mass phenomenon especially if it has fundamental social change. A good example is the movement against slavery that took place in the 18th and 19th century. As journalist Hochschild reminds people, the abolitionist took place not because of sacred texts but through human empathy (Waal 84). They did this to make people understand how they were suffering in the plantations and well as slaves in the ships. Equally another movement that took place because of empathy is the international trade union which showed how workers were being exploited. The last example is the response to the Asian tsunami that took place in 2004. The sense of empathy took place to show how victims suffered and so their plight was to share the video to show that they need help (Waal 104). Beyond education, empathy can also be used in social networking technology to harness the power through the creation of mass political action.

Conclusion

There are many benefits to empathy when it comes to interpersonal effectiveness and relationship with others. When one is empathic, they tend to view the world around them in a more balanced and objective way. Also when people relate or understand themselves with the feelings, thoughts, and emotions, situations can always turn to be beneficial. To obtain the viewpoint of others is essential especially for a lasting bond between others.

Just as elaborated by Sinek, empathy goes well with leadership. Not only does it benefit the employees and the leader but also the company because it makes people to have unity. He also elaborated how empathy develops in the minds of human beings and how the behavior or intention of a person develops a specific character to be released. Franse De Waal, the biologist revolutionist, also elaborated empathy controls the characteristic of humans. He specified this by giving examples of historical movements that took place sometimes back where no one knew the reasons why it happened. Therefore to summarize, empathy is something that should be embraced by everyone because of its favorable nature.

Works Cited

Karazman, Rudolf. “Human Quality Management.” 2015, pp. 14–55., doi: 10.1007/978-3-662-45464-0.

Levit, Shelly. ”Leading with Empathy.” Handbook of Ethical Educational Leadership, vol. 4, no. 5, pp. 55–102., doi:10.4324/9780203747582.ch8.

Meier, Roland. ”Customer Care Excellence — Mit Benchmarking zum Erfolg.” Customer Care Management through empathy, 2001, pp. 13–38., doi: 10.1007/978-3-322-88933-1_1.

Waal, Frans De. ”Levels of Empathy – Primary, Extended, and Reiterated Empathy.” Empathy, 4 June 2017, pp. 27–120., doi: 10.1057/978-1-137-51299-4_2.