143: Leaders with Heart Lift Up Others

Heather speaks to Garth Jordan and Heather Loenser of the American Animal Hospital Association. Both leaders of this organization: Garth, CEO, and Heather Loenser, Senior Veterinary Officer, together with Heather Younger have a very dynamic discussion about their personal leadership findings.  To the Heathers, empathy comes naturally. To Garth, it has been a work in progress. Yet, they all agree that empathy is crucial to the art of leadership, and that the follow up action is just as crucial as the initial empathetic response. Leaders cannot merely seek to understand; they must go a step further. Heather Loenser describes how empaths have their own struggles, you cannot stop at feeling what the other person feels, you must help them resolve the issue, and step out of the dark hole with them, together.  Garth shares about his leadership journey and where he found a place for empathy amidst it. He speaks to the importance of hearing every voice. Leaders are responsible for responding to the findings of any listening exercise, and they have a duty to accompany their team through the changes, and to the solution. Everyone wants change, few want to change, and no one wants to lead the change.  Takeaways: Being an empath, it can be exhausting to feel another's fears.  Compassion is a necessary follow up to empathy-we see and feel someone's pain—what do we do about it? Do unto others what they want you to do for them. Change will only happen if everyone is lifted up, understands what it looks like and their role in it. If you only have one to one empathy and compassion, design thinking helps you get from the one to many. With voice comes responsibility; a responsibility to become part of the solution.  Your worth as a person is not tied to your performance. Empathy is like a muscle, you can exercise it and find ways to bring it into personal and professional life, and find more value by practicing it every day.  Leaders bring to the table lessons learned, a lot of us learn a lot about how to exist in the world from our first families. If our experiences with our families weren't perfect (and few are) then we will carry that with us throughout the rest of our lives. Best step to take to grow and become grounded and self aware is therapy.