March Top 5 LinkedIn Recap

This month, we had the opportunity to read many thought-provoking articles about leadership and mindfulness in the workplace, and to then share those articles with our community. And the community spoke—as we approach the end of the month, we want to share some of the most popular articles from the past three weeks with you. We based our picks on our LinkedIn engagement, which includes reactions, shares, clicks, and comments. If you want to join us on LinkedIn, click here. For each article, we’ve shared a summary and key points, as well as a link to the full article.

This month, we saw a major focus on empathy, compassion, and emotional intelligence among managers and leaders. There was also an interesting look at what having high sensitivity can mean for employees. Take a look and let us know what you think of the articles in the comments below.

The Emotional Crumbling of Leaders

LinkedIn engagement number: 1,709

Leaders are facing increasing amounts of emotional struggles. Burnout is getting worse, and managers believe that it impacts their work ability. 70% of senior leaders say burnout affects decision-making ability according to a study from Asana. Dan Pontefract is a leadership strategist who talks with managers across a wide variety of industries, sharing stories such as an operations manager who recently needed four months to recover from burnout caused by working sixteen-hour days with no end in sight. 

Leaders are now navigating increasingly complex workplaces, balancing many balls such as:

• Remaining empathetic and compassionate with employees
• Performing emotional labor
• Emotional understanding with employees in a way that each employee can recognize
• Appearing authentic and genuine to employees
• Being transparent about their own vulnerabilities and shortcomings
• Maintaining employee trust

Read the full article from Forbes here.

The Importance Of Empathy In Leadership: How To Lead With Compassion And Understanding In 2023

LinkedIn engagement number: 685

Empathy is becoming an increasingly important workplace skill, and so it is important to understand just what empathy is—and how it differs from sympathy. Sympathy involves feeling a sense of care for someone going through a difficult situation and can extend to actions such as donating money to a cause or sharing support on social media. Empathy is the ability to feel identify and share in another’s feelings. One way to look at it is to imagine that empathy is sympathy, only turned internal rather than external. 

Here are examples of empathetic leadership traits:

• Seeing an individual, rather than a collective
• Active listening
• Authenticity
• Recognizing and understanding individual struggles
• Perspective awareness
• Emotional flexibility

Read the full article from Forbes here.

Leading with Compassion Has Research-Backed Benefits

LinkedIn engagement number: 472

Data shows that an employee’s decision to remain at a job often has much more to do with relationships than it does with pure economics. It is when employees feel that they belong, are valued by leaders, and trust and feel trusted by their coworkers that they are likely to stay. Compassion may be seen as a soft skill, but it still matters in meaningful and measurable ways. Showing compassion can help not only the person on the receiving end but the person giving the compassion as well. There is also evidence that compassionate workers do advance and often make higher salaries. However, research shows that the compassion must be altruistic, not self-serving, showing evidence for a “live-to-give” model.

How managers can improve their compassion skills:

• Start small
• Be thankful
• Be purposeful
• Find common ground
• See it
• Elevate
• Know your power

Read the full article from Harvard Business Review here.

How highly sensitive people can thrive in the workplace

LinkedIn engagement number: 448

High sensitivity is often stereotyped as someone who is fragile and must be protected because their feelings can be easily hurt. However, in clinical terms, it refers to someone who takes in more information from the world around them. Highly sensitive people process input at a deeper level and spend more time and mental resources on reflection. Around 30% of people have high sensitivity scores, which means that workplaces are more often built for the 70% who are not highly sensitive and who have different needs. Highly sensitive people may not thrive in a traditional workplace environment, instead preferring a quieter, less stimulating environment that allows time for deep focus. 

Ways sensitive employees can build their ideal work environment:

• Be honest and upfront with managers about needing time to focus without interruptions and ask when you should schedule that time
• Consider what environments are best for your work style
• Find workarounds to carve out your own space, such as noise-canceling headphones
• Build space and time into your work day for what you need

Read the full article from Fast Company here.

How High EQ Helps Build An Inclusive Workplace Culture

LinkedIn engagement number: 447

Post-pandemic leadership requires different skills. Now, emotional intelligence, also known as EQ, is prioritized above the top-down model of leadership that was previously popular. Leaders with high EQ can foster a psychologically safe environment where employees feel that they are able to speak up and have their concerns heard. EQ has benefits for the individual as well, with those with high EQs reporting higher innovation rates and more job satisfaction.

Here are three types of EQ that leaders can practice:

• Self Awareness
• Mindfulness
• Openness

Read the full article from Forbes here.

Were any of these your favorite articles of the month? Have another one you think we should look at? Let us know in the comments!