A new university study finds that, while high-empathy leaders tend to be better at giving negative feedback in a helpful manner, they become more distressed, inattentive and less effective at their jobs afterwards.
In a penned article in Harvard Business Review, the researchers led by Ravi Gajendran, Florida International University’s chair of the global leadership and management department, wrote, “Since being more empathetic essentially makes leaders more likely to ‘catch’ others’ emotions, a strong negative emotional reaction from the recipients could spill over onto the high-empathy leaders, affecting their own emotional states and thus their performance.”
