I was recently speaking with an accomplished shop owner, and he mentioned something that stuck with me for days after our conversation. He said: “This isn’t typically an empathetic industry.” In the true nature of our business we often deal with the unpleasant, unplanned, and unexpected car repair. A customer that wasn’t expecting his car to break down or upon a DVI finds a safety hazard on their vehicle that needs immediate attention. Not only do they face inconvenience, but all too often, the unplanned expense. And it’s our duty to inform them of that scenario that they face. I believe the industry does an acceptable of showing empathy in these cases, but even though it’s shown, how much can really be done in this situation?
When we delve a little deeper into understanding empathy in the business world, and in our niche of that pie, we quickly realize that empathy isn’t only something to apply to our customers, but to our employees, suppliers, peers, and colleagues. This sounds kind of obvious, but is it really? When an employee has a personal problem, are we really putting ourselves in their shoes and understanding where they are coming from without applying our frame of mind to that scenario? I’d say it’s hard to have a yes or no answer to any of these questions.
Empathy can appear to be a double-edge sword, it can be interpreted as being “soft” or “easy to take advantage of” and that’s a fine line to play when you are a shop owner. Now let’s be clear here, empathy is not charity, and while charity can be a gesture into the realm of empathy, one should not be confused with the other.
Ernst & Young’s second Empathy in Business Report states the following: “Empathy in the workplace drives psychological safety and fosters an experiential culture that allows for experimental failure to generate learning and new ideas.” I find this a very enlightening concept, as when it comes to the workplace, the fear of experimental failure often holds back new ideas and concepts from being fully developed. And we might wonder why this happens, and I believe it happens when empathy is not applied from the top down. When employees are afraid to fail, they will not try new concepts. The fear of losing a source of income far outweighs the potential gains of innovation. And lets be honest, nobody likes to live in fear of not having their job and being able to provide for their families.
Developing empathy from the top-down fosters a culture of understanding, growth, learning, and innovation. This might be seen as corporate jargon, but from a pragmatic standpoint, implementing this culture is much easier with smaller companies, auto repair shops, for example.
