Satya Nadella has written a book called 'Hit Refresh'. In the book, he talks about the time when he was being interviewed for Microsoft, maybe 20 or 25 years ago. He says that he had a full day of interviews with various engineering leaders who tested his fortitude and his intellectual chops. Then he says, "I met with Richard Tate, an up-and-coming manager, who went on to found Cranium Games. Richard didn't give me any engineering problems to solve on a whiteboard, or a complex coding scenario to talk through. Nor did he grill me on my prior experiences or educational pedigree. He just had one simple question. 'Imagine you see a baby lying in the street, and the baby is crying. What do you do?' he asked." Nadella says, "Without any forethought I replied, 'You call 911'." Richard walked him out of the office, put his arm around him and said, "You need some empathy, man! If a baby is lying on a street crying, pick up the baby."
What a wonderful delineation between sympathy and empathy! Sympathy calls for you to look at the baby and think: The baby needs help. Who can I get to help? Call 911. Call for help. Empathy on the other hand says: A baby is crying. It needs to be picked up. It is on the street. Let me do that. And we do it.
Sympathy and empathy – two words that are sometimes used synonymously together, and yet they ought not to be. The only thing in common with them is their root verb which comes from the Greek word patheo or pathos. Pathos means suffering, or the quality that evokes pity or sadness in a person. But it is the prefix in both these words that helps us to understand what they really mean. Sympathy, or the prefix 'sym-' means 'with'. So 'with suffering'. You come alongside people who are suffering and you stand by them. But you don't get into their suffering. Empathy on the other hand, has the prefix 'me-' which means 'in'. You enter into their suffering. You help them and do what you can to help in the situation.
Empathy and sympathy. This made me think about you and me as we go through our days. How do we deal with people that we see around us? How do we deal with needs? It may not be a baby lying on a street crying. But it could be a colleague or co-worker, or friend or family member, somebody who is in desperate need of some kindness or a touch or something. How do we respond?
Jesus mentioned a parable in the New Testament. This is what He said. A man was walking along a highway and was caught by robbers. They knocked him down and took everything that he had, beat him up and then left him. As he was lying there, a man who was a religious leader came along, saw him. But he just kept going. Then somebody else who worked with the religious leaders passed by. But he too had his own agenda and kept going. Then a third man came, saw this man bleeding. He stopped and looked at him. All the things that he had on himself just in case something like this should happen to him, he then used on this victim. Then he used his own transport to pick up this man and take him back to a place that would give him care. He told the owner of the facility to take care of him. He paid for the care in advance and then said, "If you run out of money, when I come back, I will pay you."
That's empathy! The first two people who passed by may have had sympathy for him. They must have felt for him. They must have seen his wounds, and maybe said to themselves, "We can't stop now. I'm sorry that you've got into this particular problem." But the third person had empathy. He got into the situation and began to help him.
We talked about sympathy and empathy and I talked about the workplace. But how does that look in the workplace? Does it make a change? Why did Satya Nadella bring that in? he was talking about Microsoft, the culture that needs to evolve is the culture of empathy, where people feel for each other. His point was that with empathy, there is greater ability to think creatively. People work together in harmony and production increases. Innovation is brought to the fore. All of this is good for the situation in the company.
But how does it pan out in real tones? Let me take you to 20-22 years ago when Herb Kelleher was CEO of Southwest Airlines. He was such a fabulous CEO, well-loved by all his employees and one of the few CEOs who was really doing a great job particularly in the airline business. On Boss's Day in 1994, 16,000 of his employees took out a full-page ad in USA Today. This is what they said about him.
Thanks, Herb, for remembering every one of our names,
For helping load baggage on Thanksgiving.
For giving everyone a kiss,
For listening.
For running the only profitable major airline.
For singing at our holiday party.
For singing only once a year. (tongue in cheek J)
For letting us wear shorts and sneakers to work.
For riding your Harley Davidson into Southwest headquarters.
For being a friend, not just a boss.
That's what empathy does. It gives you a great connection between you and the people that you work with. I thought about that. We can do with more empathy in our situations, in our workplaces., in our homes, in our modes of commute, wherever we are. Maybe today we can put aside our sympathetic lenses and put on empathetic lenses and look and see where there are needs of people, and then be able to help them. That's my prayer for you, that's my prayer for me.
May I pray with you? Almighty God, thank You for all that You have done in our lives. Even as we talk about empathy and sympathy, Lord, we are reminded that You were empathetic in Your response to us. You didn't look at us from heaven and say, "Look at those poor human beings running around trying to figure out what to do" and have sympathy for us. You had empathy. You came down to earth. You lived here, gave your life for us, to show us the way back to You, and so we thank You for that. Help us to model that kind of empathy in our day-to-day lives. Help us to see through Your eyes. Help us to see people who we need to touch. I pray Your blessing upon each one who reads this post. In Jesus' precious name we pray. Amen.
· Satya Nadella, "Hit Refresh." https://www.amazon.in/Hit-Refresh-Rediscover-Microsofts-Everyone/dp/000824765X?tag=googinhydr18418-21&tag=googinkenshoo-21&ascsubtag=b4c70ca4-6a9e-45d5-9c36-18e1f86b3371
· "Empathy Vs Sympathy" https://www.englishgrammar.org/empathy-vs-sympathy/
· John C. Maxwell, "Real Leadership: The 101 Collection. https://books.google.co.in/books?id=AjWlNLDBCtYC&pg=PT25&lpg=PT25&dq=USA+Today+on+Boss'+Day+in+1994.+16000+employees+of+South+West+Airlines+took+it+out+for+their+CEO+Herb+Kelleher.&source=bl&ots=EXfKcSg_V6&sig=tebY7qqV4CaBICSSoDseMvlY670&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiY_8-04_bWAhWEto8KHfPBCvIQ6AEIJTAA#v=onepage&q=USA%20Today%20on%20Boss'%20Day%20in%201994.%2016000%20employees%20of%20South%20West%20Airlines%20took%20it%20out%20for%20their%20CEO%20Herb%20Kelleher.&f=false
· Bible story: Luke 10:25-37
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