Empathic Leadership

Humphrey, Ronald and Miao, Chao and Qian, Shanshan (2021) Empathic Leadership. In: The SAGE Encyclopedia of Leadership Studies. Sage Publishers. (In Press)

Abstract

Robert L. Katz (1963, p. 3) best illustrates the meaning of empathy when he states, ‘‘when we experience empathy, we feel as if we were experiencing someone else’s feelings as our own. We see, we feel, we respond, and we understand as if we were, in fact, the other person.’’ Although much of the early work on empathy was done with regard to therapy and counselling, prominent leadership scholars and authors began to argue for the crucial role of empathy to leadership.