When a person tells you about a personal struggle, it can be difficult to feel empathy. It's easy to think, "Well, I've been through that before. Toughen up!" But this won't do any good for your relationship. Try and resist the urge to judge, to interrupt and share your personal experience, or to propose a solution. Instead, focus on understanding: how the person feels, and why they feel that way. Friend and colleague Dr. Hendrie Weisinger illustrates it perfectly this way: “If a person says, ‘I screwed up a presentation,’ I don’t think of a time I screwed up a presentation—which I have and thought, no big deal. Rather, I think of a time I did feel I screwed up, maybe on a test or something else important to me. It is the feeling of when you failed that you want to recall, not the event.” Of course, you’ll never be able to imagine exactly how another person feels. But trying will get you a lot closer than you would be otherwise. Read more about the positives and negatives of empathy in Ch 5 of my new book, "EQ Applied: The Real-World Guide to Emotional Intelligence": https://amzn.to/2sxFLho #Empathy #EmotionalIntelligence #BestAdvice #leadership #management #relationships #PersonalDevelopment #EQ #EQApplied #MakeEmotionsWorkForYouNotAgainstYou
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