Marcel Schwantes: A Look at the Science and Best Practices of Leading with Empathy

Episode recap:

Marcel discusses the concept of kindness in leadership, focusing on empathetic interactions as one of two types of kindness that work well in the leadership trenches, backed by science. He explains that kindness can spread throughout an organization, creating a more civil work atmosphere. Marcel presents five practical ways to practice empathic leadership: active listening, showing genuine interest in team members, encouraging perspective-taking, maintaining open communication, and discussing empathy as a cultural value. 

For bonus content of his book not available anywhere else, subscribe at Marcelschwantes.substack.com.

Bio:

Marcel Schwantes is a speaker, author, and acclaimed executive coach with a global following. Marcel delivers presentations, workshops, courses, and coaching programs about the human side of business and how cultures of care, connection, and belonging power companies to thrive and outperform the competition. 

Quotes: 

• "Empathy is a competency that can be learned. When it's displayed among teams, it helps bring people together." 
• "When you interact with a colleague or a direct report, try to understand how the person is feeling, not how you would feel in the same situation." 

Takeaways: 

• Practice active listening in your next three workplace conversations by focusing entirely on understanding the other person's feelings, not your own perspective. 
• Map out your team members' individual goals and interests, then intentionally match their upcoming work assignments to align with those personal objectives. 
• Conduct a quick self-audit: Ask your direct reports to rate your empathy on a scale of 1-10, and be prepared to hear honest feedback without becoming defensive.  

Timestamps: 

[00:09] How Kindness Actually Shapes Better Leadership 

[02:35] What Gen Z Really Wants from Their Bosses 

[04:54] Five Ways to Lead with Empathy That Stick 

[07:40] Why Compassion Will Be the Next Big Topic 

Conclusion: 

Kindness in leadership isn’t just a personal trait—it’s a practical skill that shapes how teams work together. When leaders show empathy and take time to truly listen, they help build trust and stronger connections across the workplace. This approach not only improves morale but also supports long-term performance and retention, especially among younger employees. By making empathy part of everyday practice, organizations can become more adaptable, supportive, and effective. 

Links/Resources: 

The book: Humane Leadership: Lead with Radical Love, Be a Kick-Ass Boss

Substack: https://marcelschwantes.substack.com/ 

LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/marcelschwantes/ 

Twitter/X: https://x.com/MarcelSchwantes 

YouTube: https://youtube.com/@MarcelSchwantes1 

Instagram: https://instagram.com/marcel.schwantes/ 

Transcript

Marcel Schwantes  00:09 

All right, so for those of you that have not read my book humane leadership, one of the chapters is on kindness, and I titled it leadership is kind, and it's one of the five principles of humane leadership that makes up the framework for my book. So you know, you can consult your dictionary if you want a definition of kindness. Well, I went way, way, way back, and I decided to explore religious text, ancient literature, and I went to the Bible to find out, what did they say about kindness? And what I found out is that the Greek root word for kindness means to be useful, serving and gracious. Useful serving and gracious. So as I inspected those words, what really stood out for me is there's intent behind each word. It involves taking tangible actions that show you care about others. So as I investigated the science to back up the religious text or the origins from the Greek root word, and as I explored the evidence and the literature, I realized that a lot of a lot of research points to kindness being spread sort of like it spreads like a good virus, if you will. So in other words, kindness begets kindness. If it's practiced in an organization, you will see it actually spread so as it kind of spreads throughout your organization with coworkers helping each other out, a snowball effect takes place. So think about it, the work atmosphere becomes more civil and less fear based. And employees not only will provide better customer service on their own accord, without prompting, but they also develop better relationships at work, kindness begets kindness.  

So I needed some practical application for kindness. So, you know, so it's not just pie in the sky stuff, right? I wanted to bring it from the clouds down to some everyday behaviors in the trenches. So I found through the evidence, two types of kindness that work really well for leadership. One is empathetic interactions, and the second one is proactive compassion. For the rest of this episode, I want to talk about empathetic interactions. I read a survey that was conducted by Deloitte Digital. Deloitte put out a survey of 2000 Gen Z years, and what they found is that Gen Z years lift empathy as the second, the second most important characteristic in the workplace, as it relates to boss employee relationships, empathy came second, while bosses themselves rank empathy as a distant fifth. So there's your disconnect, right there. So only 35% of Gen Z ers, as you dug into the data, feel that their boss is empathetic. And looking closer at the data, Gen Zers who feel cared for at work. So in other words, where empathy is displayed in relationships and in everyday interactions, those Gen Zers are 3.3 times more likely to look forward to coming to work and are less likely to leave their job. So empathy is also good for retention. So when empathy reaches a leadership conversational skill, an everyday practice, and we're talking about skills, right? A competency empathy is a competency that can be learned. So when you have this happening and displayed amongst teams, it helps bring people together. So I wanted to investigate some ways. Practical ways and strategies because, you know, I'm a coach, so I need to help my clients employ strategies in the workplace that work for them, that help their managers to increase their capacity for things like empathy. And I found five ways that you can practice empathy. You know, some of these, as you listen to me go over them, you're, you're probably going to be thinking these, this is just common sense, yeah, but it's not common practice.  

So we have to put these things on our radar screen, because this is, even though it's, it's common sense. We don't do enough of it. So here they are, five ways to practice empathic leadership. Number one, simple as active listening. People don't get the power that comes with active listening. So when you interact with a colleague or a direct report, try to understand how the person is feeling, not how you might feel in the same situation. So this shows empathy to increase your understanding. Number two is just showing genuine interest in other people, especially those that work for you. So take the time to understand each team member's unique needs, interests and goals, and then match work assignments to contribute to both their performance as well as their employee satisfaction. Number three is practice and encouraging perspective taking. So consider your employees personal experiences or their ways of seeing the world, their perspectives right, and then apply those things to solving problems, managing conflicts and even driving innovation.  

Number four, and here's common sense again, you got to keep the lines open. What I mean is to maintain open communication to build trust within the team, making it easier for team members to share when they need support. So keep the lines open. And then finally, number five is you want to discuss empathy as a leader and discuss it as a cultural value. So explain to team members that investing time and attention in other people, seeing things through their eyes promotes empathy, which in turn, enhances team performance. Do you want empathy as a cultural value? Well, I hope that helps. The next time I talk to you, we're going to cover that second way of really exemplifying kindness, and that is through proactive compassion. I can't wait to share that with you. That's all I got today. If you haven't read my book, I'm going to put a link in the show notes to it. Humane leadership. Lead with radical love. Be a kick ass boss. We'll see you next time.