1. In the supplemental reading “Empathy: A True Leader Skill,” Garner (2009) discusses the concept of “tough empathy.” Do you agree with the practice of “tough empathy”? In what situations would you find this technique effective? Please give examples.
From the article, we could see that tough empathy is the ability to understand others with intense emotions and devoted to assist others to develop others by promoting a strong relationship among them. I would say that it would be beneficial if we could perform tough empathy. Although, this skill is needed in every situation, tough empathy would likely play an important role while a team or an organization is having a critical situation. Moreover, when a team has a challenging …show more content…
A lower-trust situation only produces defensive communication, which is resulting the lowest performance of a team; a win/lose or lose/win condition. Since members have lower in trust, the environment seems manipulative and protective to each other. As the trust becomes apparent, the communication set in the middle level that shows a respectful communication. In this situation, members respect one another, but they tend to withdraw from interactions, which could promote conflicts among them. Therefore, they express politeness in communication without empathy. Moreover, this condition shows a development in building trust. Although they have not yet reached synergy, they start to compromise and feel interdependent in the group. In the highest trust situation, people have synergy among them. It is a win/win situation, where they could produce more than they could as an individual, and even more than a combination of individuals’ outcomes. In addition, they feel truly enjoy the communication and collaboration that produce high productivity and satisfaction. As a result, we could see that trust could bring an open climate, which supports openness in communication and promotes a higher productivity and