Empathy and perspective taking
People aren’t looking for their leaders to try to understand their viewpoint and experience as a dry intellectual exercise, but empathically.
That means understanding others deeply and leaving them feeling heard. The leader’s empathy in interacting with others, makes the leader approachable, trustworthy and shows their eagerness to work with and/or support peers, colleagues and superiors.
When cognizance of bias is combined with high levels of empathy/perspective-taking, it can increase peoples’ feelings of inclusion by up to 33%.
