[Workshop] Adjust Your Leadership using an Empathy Map
With everything going on in the world, we are all, in some ways, feeling a little unsure of what’s happening and what’s to come. It has been made clear that a new style of leadership is needed, but many leaders are unclear where to start or what to change.
If you want to ensure you show up for your team to see them through this time of uncertainty make sure you reflect on what they need from you, not what you think they need from you.
At OverTime Leader, we like to get leaders to stop and check-themselves, by taking the time to put themselves in their team’s shoes.
We use an Empathy Map, a commonly used tool in UX research and product design. This tool helps us move away from our own preferences and into the user. The result enables us to better connect with their current headspace.
Empathy Maps give us the space to check our assumptions and really think about the space your user (i.e. your team) is in at that moment.
Once we have a better idea with how our team is feeling, we can then start to look at the leadership style they need right now, and see where we might make some intentional adjustments in order to support them better.
Here’s how to shape your leadership style to land more intentionally with your team.
What You’ll Need
Paper, pens, post-its - anything that allows you to think expansively.
A quiet space.
The Process
Set aside 60 minutes to do this exercise properly and turn all notifications, distractions off!
Download our Empathy Map for Leaders template below.
Sit still. Take a few breaths, calm the mind. Start thinking about each member of your team. What do you know about them? Who do they talk to? What responsibilities do they have? What’s their work ethic like? What previous experiences (negative/positive) have they had before? What were their goals this year? What kind of quarter are they having? etc etc.
Fill out the empathy map - you can do this for your team or for each individual (add more time if that’s the case).
Now, read over this team as if your friend is describing their team to you. What advice would you give your friend? Note down what behaviors, attributes, and characteristics you think this team needs in a leader?
Now come back to you. Are you demonstrating those behaviours? What could you be doing more or less of?
Commit to a set of tangible actions that you will take to be more intentional for your team right now. This can be something simple like; add a new question in your 1:1s or something that requires a bigger effort like letting then lead quarterly the planning session.
Enjoy this process, repeat every so often to make sure you’re not defaulting into comfortable behaviours.
Let me know how you get on.
Gillian
Download our Empathy Map
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