An Interview With Cynthia Corsetti
Empathy will make you more logical. By understanding this perspective, you will realize the importance of creating time and space for members of your team to solve complex problems. You will learn that communicating the “why” is extremely important for this segment of your organization.
Empathy, the ability to understand and share the feelings of another, is increasingly recognized as a pivotal leadership trait. In an ever-evolving business landscape, leaders who exhibit genuine empathy are better equipped to connect, inspire, and drive their teams toward success. But how exactly does empathy shape leadership dynamics? How can it be harnessed to foster stronger relationships, improved decision-making, and a more inclusive work environment? As part of this series, we had the pleasure of interviewing Jennifer Stanford.
Jennifer Stanford is the CEO of Emergent Performance Solutions LLC. Jennifer is a sought-after Trust Coach and Organizational Change expert with 30 years of experience in high-level consulting. She has a notable reputation for innovation, creativity, and reliability. Her entrepreneurial spirit, balanced with years of practical experience, provides opportunities to create fun and exciting experiences that produce desired results. She coaches, facilitates, and consults with uniquely complex organizations such as the Pentagon, Department of Homeland Security, HPE, Cisco, Coca-Cola, Indeed, tech start-ups, financial firms, and ministry leaders. She works to transform organizations and teams during critical times while ensuring the fostering of excellent relationships and collaboration. She considers herself a servant leader and enjoys that role both in business and in her community. She is a published author, executive coach, Vistage Worldwide speaker, mother of 2 fantastic adult children, youth group leader, and an animal lover. She lives with her husband of 29 years in Loudoun County, Virginia. Learn more about her company at emergentps.com
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series. Before we dive into our discussion about empathy, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you share with us the backstory about what brought you to your specific career path?
I started in the program management industry and quickly realized a training and understanding element was missing when projects weren’t going as planned. What I know now is that expectations were misaligned, so as I grew in my career and started developing leaders, I knew it was essential to not only help people better align expectations but also understand how diversity of perspective impacts leadership. Ultimately, I was able to align my passion for helping people have better lives and create better communities by assisting leaders in maneuver change utilizing emotional intelligence.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career?
I have been so fortunate to travel and meet so many extraordinary people in my career. As an entrepreneur, I appreciate the opportunity to align my business with people and organizations that share my value system. Five years ago I was approached via LinkedIn by a lovely lady, Emily Guilding. She and her husband, Rex Pemberton, were looking for Emotional Intelligence experts to complement a unique offering to help organizations align their cultures. I was intrigued, to say the least. It was a huge success the first time we “tested” working together. Our passion to help people and organizations blossomed into a hugely successful partnership. Our organizational program that utilizes actual footage from Mount Everest to create a second-to-none simulation is propelling highly successful organizations even higher (pun intended)! However, most fortunately, I have been invested in a treasured friendship. I could not have predicted that the first Aussie to summit Mount Everest and a British Wing Walker would become incredible partners in business and life!
What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?
We are a relatively small, woman-owned small business in a wide change management industry. Our niche, however, is the threading of emotional intelligence through change. More change fails than succeeds. We have found the formula that has helped organizations succeed through transformation. We help people understand and appreciate the power of emotional intelligence in aligning expectations, motivating teams, and building strong relationships in business and life. We are creating more fulfilled people who can excel at relationships where they live, work, play, and pray. This aligns with my personal Why, which transcends our entire organization as a life mission.
You are a successful business leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?
- Sincerity
- Determination
- Levity
- Talk about dispute
Leadership often entails making difficult decisions or hard choices between two apparently good paths. Can you share a story with us about a hard decision or choice you had to make as a leader? I’m curious to understand how these challenges have shaped your leadership.
As my business evolved and I gained clarity around solution offerings, I had to make some hard personal and client choices because who and what I started with ended up not being who I needed to be successful (sweet spot).
Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview. Let’s begin with a basic definition so that all of us are on the same page. How do you define empathy in a leadership context, and why do you believe it’s a vital trait for leaders to possess in today’s work environment?
The ability to understand and appreciate another’s perspective. Caveat- I do not believe that all leaders possess the ability to “put on another’s shoes,” which is the traditional definition of empathy.
Can you share a personal experience where showing empathy as a leader significantly impacted a situation or relationship in your organization?
When I kept looking at BD opportunities from my action-oriented point of view, I imposed my sense of urgency without considering their logical need for answers.
How do empathetic leaders strike a balance between understanding their team’s feelings and making tough decisions that might not be universally popular?
You want to understand your team’s feelings for context. Feelings are a way to inform our decisions because it helps us determine reactions through decisions in advance without wondering. A strong leader will still do what is best for the organization and will be able to modify communications to ensure alignment to employees’ perspectives.
How would you differentiate between empathy and sympathy in leadership? Why is it important for leaders to distinguish between the two?
Empathy is understanding and appreciating someone’s perspective and where they are coming from. Sympathy to me is feeling sorry for someone based on that perspective. Sympathy is a personal emotion. It does not require another’s input.
What are some practical strategies or exercises that leaders can employ to cultivate and enhance their empathetic skills?
Understanding the 4 perspectives and working to know who’s on your team.
How can empathy help leaders navigate the complexities of leading diverse teams and ensure inclusivity?
Using understanding of the 4 perspectives creates more empathy for leaders and that can trickle down to all levels of the organization to create a more empathetic culture.
What’s your approach to ensuring that succession planning is a holistic process, and not just confined to the top layers of management? How do you communicate this philosophy through the organization?
Creating career paths in your organization that are visible to all levels and shows how they can grow — being able to mentor the next generations. Proper succession planning cannot happen without documented and communicated career paths.
Based on your experience and research, can you please share “5 Ways Empathy Will Affect Your Leadership”?
1 . Empathy will make you more logical. By understanding this perspective, you will realize the importance of creating time and space for members of your team to solve complex problems. You will learn that communicating the “why” is extremely important for this segment of your organization.
2 . You will appreciate and be able to respond in a relationship fashion connecting with those in your organization who need to feel appreciated and that they are contributing in a meaningful way to the organization.
3 . Empathy towards the organized way will allow you to lead a team with a more structured plan, understanding that preparation, timeliness, and not missing key steps is important for this segment of the organization.
4 . you will be able to demonstrate appreciation and understanding for those who want to more quicker than the rest of the organization. Those that want the freedom to use their experiences rather than a detailed plan to get to success fast
5 . Empathy will demonstrate that you have true emotional intelligence and can understand and appreciate the perspectives and feelings of the various numbers in your organization.
Are there potential pitfalls or challenges associated with being an empathetic leader? How can these be addressed?
A pitfall is that we can make wrong assumptions about how someone is thinking/feeling. Like other key skills, we must continue to hone empathy as a craft and work on building our skill set. In the cases where we mistake what someone is thinking/feeling in an attempt to be empathetic, I believe that genuine attempts will be met with grace and not anger. This is why our intentions are so important. When we intend to connect, people realize and are usually willing to coach us toward better understanding.
Off-topic, but I’m curious. As someone steering the ship, what thoughts or concerns often keep you awake at night? How do those thoughts influence your daily decision-making process?
Personally, being high relationship and high action in my approach to work, I am often stressed by people not meeting my expectations. I tend to take it personally even though I know better. I have to coach myself to think logically before responding to certain messages or behaviors from clients/staff to ensure I am measured and not letting my personal emotions influence my interactions (easier said than done.)
You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
As a means of having better connections, relationships, higher trust, and realizing that we have more in common or the ability to appreciate our differences rather than view them as antitheses’.
How can our readers further follow you online?
Visit our website, emergentps.com, follow our blog, and download some valuable resources. Feel free to connect and further discuss with me via Jennifer Stanford LinkedIn.
Thank you for the time you spent sharing these fantastic insights. We wish you only continued success in your great work!
About the Interviewer: Cynthia Corsetti is an esteemed executive coach with over two decades in corporate leadership and 11 years in executive coaching. Author of the upcoming book, “Dark Drivers,” she guides high-performing professionals and Fortune 500 firms to recognize and manage underlying influences affecting their leadership. Beyond individual coaching, Cynthia offers a 6-month executive transition program and partners with organizations to nurture the next wave of leadership excellence.
Jennifer Stanford Of Emergent Performance Solutions: 5 Ways Empathy Will Affect Your Leadership was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.