Imagine a world where compassion is the norm. This is the world I’m trying to build with my work. In this final Hot Take episode of 2024, I talk about the importance of humanity, compassion, and empathy in all aspects of our lives and businesses and remembering those things that matter most as we go into 2025. With clear statistics from the 2024 Businesssolver State of Workplace Empathy report showing increased loneliness, toxic workplaces, and higher mental health challenges, it’s key that we fight against these negative trends by embracing our values, modeling them, celebrating them, and rewarding them in whatever sphere of influence we have. We fight by disproving the false belief that you can’t be empathetic and successful or impactful at the same time.
To access the episode transcript, please scroll down below.
Key Takeaways:
- Business is just another way we humans interact with one another. We should be able to be whole people wherever we are in the world. However, we move about it, and with whomever we choose to interact.
- We cannot “go gentle into that goodnight,” as poet Dylan Thomas once wrote. Human connection, empathy, and compassion are worth fighting for.
- Embracing empathy is how we will change the cultures of toxic workplaces and improve mental health.
“I invite you to be part of turning the tide – speak out, and model empathy and compassion whether you’re with your kids, on social media, stuck in traffic, or, yes, at a budget meeting at work.” — Maria Ross
Episode References:
- Get a volume discount on multiple copies of The Empathy Dilemma for employees, Colleagues, partners, clients, or customers: Check out both Book Passage and Porchlight Books at www.TheEmpathyDilemma.com. For brand customization or a custom landing page for fulfillment, please contact me directly and I’ll take care of you with Porchlight: https://red-slice.com/contact/
- Apple TV series Severance
Related Articles:
- 3 Observations About Compassion from the Dalai Lama
- How Purpose Leads to Company Success
- Empathy for Others Starts with Empathy for Yourself
From Our Partner:
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Go to sparkeffect.com/edge now and download your complimentary Professional and Organizational Alignment Review today.
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FULL TRANSCRIPT:
Welcome to the empathy edge podcast, the show that proves why cash flow, creativity and compassion are not mutually exclusive. I’m your host, Maria Ross, I’m a speaker, author, mom, facilitator and empathy advocate. And here you’ll meet trailblazing leaders and executives, authors and experts who embrace empathy to achieve radical success. We discuss all facets of empathy, from trends and research to the future of work to how to heal societal divisions and collaborate more effectively. Our goal is to redefine success and prove that empathy isn’t just good for society. It’s great for business. Hello, everyone. It is December, the last podcast of 2024 what a year it’s been. I hope you’ve had a good year. I hope that if you are facing challenge, if you are facing adversity, that you can find ways to find the compassion and the self empathy that you need for yourself to keep moving forward and to do your work in the world. And today, I want to talk about a variety of things with you around this idea of empathy in life and at work being worth fighting for. But before I dive into this month’s hot take, I do want to take a moment to wish everyone a happy holiday, whatever you celebrate.
This time of year, we tend to get reflective, we tend to get nostalgic, we tend to get filled with love and hope, and usually at this time of year, what happens is that we open our hearts, we open our wallets, we donate service hours. And I would just invite you as I’m going to invite and challenge myself this year to do more of that on a consistent basis, year round. I think we tend to get into this trap that this is the only time of year to give back. And I know I’ve tried to fight against that tendency my whole life, but especially after I had a child, it got increasingly harder to do that, so I am recommitting to myself, not just with monetary donations, but with time, with service to really be that example for my son, that service should be a part of our life, Just like family, time, just like work, just like exercise, all of the things we try to teach our children. So I invite you to join me on that 2025, challenge of dedicating a little bit more time, carving out a little bit more time for service.
But again, before I get to the meat of our talk today, I do want to remind you that even though it’s Christmas Eve today that you’re hearing this, there’s still time to give a gift of love, a gift of empathy, to your favorite leader, your favorite employee, your favorite partner, your favorite client. So I want to remind everyone that the empathy dilemma and the empathy edge are both available in a bulk sale at a volume discount, and there are a couple of options you have. So I’m going to send you to one URL, which is the empathy dilemma.com, that is the main book website on my website, and you’ll there, you’ll find options for two places where you can get a volume discount on books. One is porch light, the other is book passage, which is actually a regional independent bookstore chain in Northern California. I actually don’t know if they extend to the rest of California, but I have done book events there in the past. I had a successful book event there this past fall, and they are wonderful people keeping the magic of reading alive. So if you want to support an independent bookseller and provide a great insightful gift to your employees, to your partners, to your customers or clients, to your neighbors, to your family, please go ahead and investigate that option with book passage. If you order more than 25 books from them, they will do free shipping. If I believe you are in the United States. The continental United States. Porch light is a larger bulk distributor, and there are options there if you want to personalize the books with your brand. So if that’s something you’re interested in, to give out as thank you gifts or client gifts into 2025 send me an email at Maria, at red dash slice.com and I will put you in touch with the folks over there, and they can customize that for whatever you need. They can even create a custom landing page for you where people can fulfill their own orders. So that is porch light that will save you the hassle of having to mail out books to people. They also do ebook fulfillment on a landing page if you want to do something like that. So check out that page, the empathy dilemma.com. You’ll find porch light, you’ll find book passage, and if you have any questions on any of it and you just want me to help you through it, send me an email. So that’s my little advertisement for you for today.
But I want to get to the. Meat of our hot take today as we close out December, and that is, again, that empathy in life and at work is worth fighting for. Now, the Dalai Lama had a lot to say about business and leadership. Yes, the Dalai Lama. And a few years ago, I read the book a force for good, the Dalai Lama’s vision for our world, by Daniel Goleman, and it was a game changer for me in terms of marrying values and ethics and business with kind of a splash of spirituality. And I want you to just imagine us for a second or a minute, a lovely, decadent minute, a world where compassion is the norm, not the exception, right? And when I say a world, any sphere of our life, our neighborhood, our community, our government, our business, our schools, this is the world that I’m trying to build with my work. And His Holiness has met with leaders from around the world. He has seen how many of them bring purpose and positive energy into their work, and he loves how successful they have been as a result. And he often talks about self awareness and self mastery being the essence of good leadership. And you might recognize self awareness from the new book, from the empathy dilemma, as pillar number one. So if you are able to be self aware and have self mastery. That usually means you’re putting your ego aside for something greater than yourself. And he has noticed that in some of the greatest leaders of our time and the most successful leaders of our time, and I’m talking about even business leaders that he admires and respects. So when studies like the 2024 business solver state of workplace empathy report, and I will put a link to that in the show notes.
Of course, when those reports still show that 37% of CEOs, 30% of HR professionals and 24% of employees believe empathy doesn’t have a place in the workplace. I you know, in my humble opinion, that number should be zero. Everyone should believe that empathy has a place in the workplace, but they are saying this. You know, this percentage of these folks are saying it has no place in the workplace. And there’s also findings claiming higher rates of workplace toxicity and mental health challenges. How are they not putting those two things together that the lack of empathy, the lack of civility, the lack of humanity in the workplace is causing this toxicity and mental health, these mental health challenges. So I want to just remind all of us the business work is just another way that we humans interact with one another. It’s not outside of ourselves, and for many of us, we spend the bulk of our time working, that’s a reality. So again, it kind of boggles my mind. How is it possible that some of us still think we have some sort of armor we put on when we clock in. Or if you’ve seen the Apple TV series, severance, that a chip is implanted in us to forget about everything going on in our personal lives when we walk through the Office Store, and then everything about our work life and how we were treated there is gone when we take the elevator back up, which is the premise of that show. That’s not the world we live in. Empathy belongs in any place where humans interact with other humans, and we when we lose touch with our ability to be compassionate in the face of adversity, in the face of challenge or tough decisions, we relinquish our humanity. We shouldn’t be required to give up our humanity just to work at an accounting firm or a software company or a construction site. We should be able to be whole people, wherever we are in the world, however we move about it and with whomever we choose to interact now, I know you know there are some pretty awful leadership role models entering our spheres of business, society and government, there always have been, there always will be. And it’s easy to say we’re resigned to that, but we cannot go gentle into that good night, as poet Dylan Thomas once wrote, human connection, empathy and compassion are worth fighting for, and we fight for them, not with weapons and screaming, but by embracing those values, by modeling them, celebrating them, rewarding them in whatever sphere of influence we have, we fight by disproving the false belief that you can’t be empathetic and successful or impactful at the same time, only then can we really strengthen the connections that are needed to build community.
Now we have a mental health crisis in our culture. We’re dealing with a loneliness epidemic, toxic masculinity, oppressive systems that only make room for a few. Two while hurting the many and society could not be flying a large enough banner across the sky to tell us we need to change something. What we’re doing is not working. We need to embrace empathy, get again in all areas of our lives, at work, the Dalai Lama got it smart, successful leaders I speak to all the time. Get it. So I invite you to be part of turning the tide. Speak Out model empathy and compassion, whether you’re with your kids on social media, stuck in traffic or yes, at a budget meeting at work, and I say all of this with the acknowledgement that it’s hard. No one ever said it was easy. It’s hard for me when my capacity is low, when I’m under stress, when I’m under pressure, it gets even harder. And I know it gets harder for you, but we have to make an intention to try otherwise, what are we left with? So I’m going to share some resources in the show notes on some past articles about this. I’m going to share the link for you to the business solver survey I was referring to. I’ll share a link to this wonderful book by Daniel Goleman, where he was curating the lessons and the teachings of the Dalai Lama in terms of Compassionate Leadership. And I invite you to spark a conversation with me, either on LinkedIn, I’m Maria J Ross, or you can find me on Instagram, red slice Maria, spark a conversation and let me know what this episode brought up for you. If it inspired you, if it motivated you, if it gave you some ideas, or if you have some other resources that you turn to to build your leadership capacity and build your own capacity to be a more human, centered leader, individual person in the world, I would love to know I and That’s an invitation that stands for you throughout 2025 to reach out to me at any time, with articles, with resources, with whatever you’ve got, because the more that we share, the more that we normalize, the more that we can make this movement gain traction and have an impact on our world. And you know, they say you, the only person you can control is yourself. The only person you have agency over truly is yourself. And so we need to start with ourselves. And if there’s a world out there that you are not quite thrilled with what you’re seeing right now, like me, I invite you to join me on this journey. Keep listening to the podcast. Please check out my books, the blog, and reach out to me. Interact with me. I really want to build this community this year and hear what’s going on for you and highlight your stories and your successes and your insights and ahas. So please feel free to reach out to me as I close out the year.
As I close out, you know, what are we in? We’re year four and a half of the podcast. Oh my goodness. I just want to thank you for being with me through all this, and being a supporter of this work, and hopefully being a modeler of this work in your own spheres of influence. And thank you for being a loyal listener. Thank you for being a subscriber. Please make sure that you are also signed up for my newsletter, because platforms come and go, but my newsletter, you’re in my tribe, so please make sure you go to Red slice.com and sign up for the newsletter so we’re in each other’s orbits. You don’t have to read every newsletter that comes out, but I only send, like, twice a month, unless something cool is going on and it’s chock full of insights and inspiration to help jump start your leadership and jump start your day, and until next time, please remember that cash flow, creativity and compassion are not mutually exclusive. Take care, be kind, and have the best 2025 you could possibly ask for more on how to achieve radical success through empathy, visit the empathy edge.com there you can listen to past episodes, access show notes and free resources. Book me for a Keynote or workshop and sign up for our email list to get new episodes, insights, news and events. Please follow me on Instagram at Red slice. Maria, never forget, empathy is your superpower. Use it to make your work and the world a better place. You.
