The Empathy Triad
Cognitive empathy
Emotional empathy
Empathic concern
Some highlights from HBR Emotional Intelligence Series on Empathy. Bold emphasis is mine.
We talk about empathy most commonly as a single attribute. But a close look at where leaders are focusing when they exhibit it reveals three distinct kinds of empathy, each important for leadership effectiveness:
Cognitive empathy: the ability to understand another person's perspective
Emotional empathy: the ability to feel what someone else feels
Empathic concern: the ability to sense what another person needs from you
Cognitive Empathy
"Contrary to what you might expect, exercising cognitive empathy requires leaders to think about feelings rather than to feel them directly."
Emotional Empathy
Emotional empathy is important for effective mentoring, managing clients, and reading group dynamics. It springs from ancient parts of the brain beneath the cortex-the amygdala, the hypothalamus, the hippocampus, and the orbitofrontal cortex-that allow us to feel fast without thinking deeply.
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Accessing your capacity for emotional empathy depends on combining two kinds of attention: a deliberate focus on your own echoes of someone else's feelings and an open awareness of that person's face, voice, and other external signs of emotion.
Empathetic Concern
Empathic concern requires us to manage our personal distress without numbing ourselves to the pain of others.