That “shoes” metaphor: yes, it’s a cliché.
So much so that American humourist Jack Handey deadpanned that …
“Before criticising someone, walk a mile in their shoes; that way, when you criticise them, you’ll be a mile away, and you’ll have their shoes.”
Pause on the laughter: “Walking in the shoes of another” carries deep meaning around many important issues. It refers to empathy – the wellspring of perspectives about the feelings of others.
Empathy as a workplace unifier
Empathy is vital for good leadership and management in the workplace. Prudence Gourguechon is a past President of the American Psychoanalytic Association and a business writer. She identifies empathy as one of five essential cognitive capacities and personality traits of leaders carrying significant responsibility. Critical thinking, self-awareness, self-discipline and trust are the others.
Why does empathy matter so much? Consider these questions. How do you build a brilliant sales team without knowing how to inspire them? Can you truly understand your clients’ needs without connecting with them? Can you mentor the next generation of leaders without empathising with your employees? The answer to all three is no.
In general, acting with empathy towards all the organisation’s stakeholders helps leaders navigate extraordinary times. It also safeguards the sustainability of the enterprise.
How passion and humility can drive employee performance
“Leaders are often so concerned with their status in an organisation that they forget their real job,” Simon Sinek believes.
The former Chief Operations Officer (COO) of one of South Africa’s largest restaurant franchises made a deliberate decision soon after his appointment. He spent a fortnight working as a griller, chippie and waiter. Over the years, he repeated this regularly across the chain’s countrywide footprint. He became the opening night griller whenever a new restaurant launched. Then he thrived in the state of semi-chaos. And he always kept learning about what it meant to be a frontline server.
“You understand everything about your business when you see the coalface,” he confirms. “Most important, it gave me an understanding of the work and life circumstances of our lower-level staff. I realised that improving their lives even in small ways would help them to enjoy their jobs more, and to perform better. I walked in their shoes for fractional periods of time, but I’m convinced it changed the company for the better – and it made my life richer.”
From COO to griller: what better way to be reminded of what’s important, to participate in empathetic experiences, than to swap roles?
A not-so-strange concept: an approach to teaching empathy
Netscape co-founder Marc Andreessen and Vice President Ben Horowitz faced a dilemma early in the company’s history. Horowitz tells the story of his ‘Freaky Friday Management Technique‘. He developed it after watching the original version of the movie of the same name starring Jodie Foster. The film’s storyline is simple. A mother and teenage daughter cannot get along. Their bodies are swapped. They learn to adapt. They start to understand one another.
Horowitz applied this idea to solve a major organisational problem. Netscape had two vital and high-performing divisions: Customer Service and Sales Engineering. Both had excellent managers. However, those managers constantly clashed and competed.
His solution was to get both managers to watch Freaky Friday. Then he swapped their roles. It worked. Both individual and business unit performance improved exponentially. Horowitz describes it as the best management training intervention he has ever implemented.
The metaphor of stepping into another’s shoes carries real commercial power.
The View finder principle as a key to empathy
Psychologist Kevin Dutton refers to the benefits that flow from the right view. He compares this to the viewfinder mechanism in a camera.
Imagine standing equidistant from Johannes Vermeer, the 17th century Renaissance master, and Claude Monet, one of the great 19th century impressionists. You would appreciate the beauty of both. Step closer and you would marvel at Vermeer’s extraordinary detail. Step back and you would be awestruck by Monet’s subtlety and innovation.
As in art, so too in life. Dutton refers to the need to find the right perceptual range when addressing problems.
This right range also clarifies something important about empathy. Empathy is not necessarily about being nice. Gourguechon confirms that empathy is a neutral data gathering tool. Better understanding others gives us a commercial advantage. Organisations are human environments. Human insights improve decision-making. Better decisions produce better results.
Exercising empathy directly affects business results
A leader’s inability to empathise carries major consequences. When that lack of empathy filters into the corporate culture, the damage can be devastating.
In 2017, United Airlines ground crew physically pulled from the plane and injured a passenger already seated and holding a boarding pass. The reason was that a United Airlines employee needed a free seat.
The episode was serious enough. What made it worse was the CEO’s response. Oscar Munoz showed no remorse initially. His statements were defensive rather than empathetic. Bloomberg described his response as one of the worst corporate PR disasters on record. The business cost tells the full story: “United Airlines Suffers Near $1bn Loss in Value.” “United Airlines CEO Apologises Once Again as Profits Fall 69%.” “United Shares Slide as PR Nightmare Catches Up With Investors.”
Practising empathy at work and in everyday life
“As an innate human trait, we all have the capacity for empathy.”
It is a difficult skill to master. But yes, leaders can practise walking in another’s shoes. This applies in the workplace and in everyday life.
There is an important caveat. Those who believe they are naturally good at seeing others’ perspectives should take particular care. Actor Okieriete Onaodowan puts it precisely: “It’s easier to be empathetic when the subject raises no objection to your idea of self. But when you’re at an impasse, and you need to find a path that’s different to your own to understand someone else, it’s much harder for your heart to hear.”
“We all walk in shoes that are too small for us,” observed Carl Jung.
In other words, we become too attached to the strategies that helped us at an earlier stage of our lives. Walking in the shoes of another may be the best way to get our own shoes to fit better for the journey ahead.
Empathy is something we should keep practising. With empathy we become better people. Better people do better business.
At LRMG, empathy sits at the heart of how we think about leadership development in South Africa. We believe the best leaders are not the most technically skilled. They are the most human. In practice, this belief shapes how we design talent development and talent advisory solutions that build leaders who genuinely connect with their people. Because with empathy, we become better people who do better business. To find out how LRMG helps South African organisations build empathetic, high-performing leadership teams, contact the team.
Frequently Asked Questions: Empathetic Leadership in South Africa
What is empathetic leadership and why does it matter in South Africa?
Empathetic leadership means understanding the feelings, perspectives and circumstances of the people you lead. In South Africa, where workforce diversity, social complexity and economic pressure create unique leadership challenges, empathy is not a soft skill. It is a commercial necessity. Leaders who understand their people build stronger teams. They retain talent more effectively. They make better decisions because they access more honest, more complete information about the human reality of their organisations.
Can empathy be developed as a leadership skill?
Yes. Empathy has an innate component, but leaders can develop it deliberately. This means actively seeking experiences that expose them to different perspectives. The COO who spent a fortnight working as a griller and waiter did not need a formal programme. He put himself in a different position and learned from it. Structured leadership development, coaching, role rotation and peer learning all accelerate empathy development in leaders who are open to growth.
How does a lack of empathy affect business performance?
The consequences of empathy failures can be severe. When United Airlines forcibly removed a seated passenger in 2017, the CEO’s defensive response compounded the damage. The outcome included near $1 billion in lost market value and a 69% fall in profits. At an organisational level, a culture shaped by leaders who lack empathy produces higher turnover, lower engagement, weaker collaboration and a reduced ability to attract talent. Empathy is not just good ethics. It is good commercial strategy.
What is the Freaky Friday management technique and how does it build empathy?
Ben Horowitz developed the Freaky Friday management technique at Netscape after watching the 1976 film of the same name. He had two high-performing but constantly clashing divisions. He resolved the conflict by swapping their managers’ roles. The result was improved individual performance and better business unit outcomes. The technique works because it forces leaders to genuinely experience the world from another person’s position. Role rotation and job swapping remain some of the most effective empathy-building interventions available to organisations.
How does LRMG build empathetic leadership capability in South African organisations?
LRMG builds empathetic leadership capability through talent advisory and talent development solutions that address both the mindset and the skills of leadership. This includes leadership development programmes, coaching, organisational culture work and capability building interventions. With nearly three decades of experience and partnerships with over 800 organisations across Africa, LRMG helps South African organisations build leaders who connect, inspire and perform. To find out more, contact the team through our contact page.
