Empathetic Understanding And School Leadership Preparation

Empathetic inference is everyday mind readingÐ'...It may be the second greatest

achievement of which the mind is capable, consciousness itself being first (Ickes,

1977, p. 2).

Even though there has been a great deal of inquiry into the value of empathy training for

children and adults, empathy has not been considered a key factor in successful school

Leadership Review, Kravis Leaderdhip Institute, Claremont McKenna College, Vol. 6, Fall 2006 145

leadership. Although empathy has been noted as a helpful characteristic for school

leaders, it has not been fully analyzed. For example, Bennis (2003) observes that for

leaders, "EmpathyÐ'...like charisma Ð'- may be something that people either have or don't

have" (p. 146). Burns (1978), Gardner (1986) and Kotter (1985) persuasively argue that

leaders need to be able to manage relationships which may require such capacities as

empathy, but do not explicate how such capacities can be developed. In this paper we

will present our preliminary theory that empathy is the key leadership quality that

underlies the development of empathetic insight in school leadership preparation. Our

theory posits that people follow leaders who sense and articulate their deepest needs,

while manifesting the capacity to organize and rally them to action in order to satisfy

those needs.

We agree that leadership matters and is vital to school success, but we want to point out

that rarely do scholars examine what it takes to do the actual work of leading. Our

standpoint is that empathy is a pre-condition of any leadership style; however, scholars

often end up in definitional disagreements in lieu of examinations of how, if at all,

leadership can be taught, learned or practiced.

Empathetic understanding requires a leader to develop self-awareness that can separate

the leader's own needs from those of people being led. We believe this self knowledge

can be developed though careful reflection and the patience to practice. This requires a

leader to be able to identify her biases and understand what influences her. Such abilities

contribute to all leadership functions, but are especially helpful in understanding the

modern and diverse world of schools.

It is important to note that empathy can be used for both constructive and destructive

ends. Kohut's analysis of Nazi sadistic empathy highlights how powerful empathy can

be (Goldberg, 1978). For example, when Nazis put loud sirens on dive bombers they

knew the sound would create panic in the people below. Using empathy, the ability to

understand others, the Nazis played on their victims' fears in a calculated attempt to

destroy them. This moral component is critically important. Just because a leader is

empathetic it does not mean the leader will act morally. Our goal is for empathetic

understanding to enhance moral leadership.

Empathy is sometimes identified with sympathy, while leadership is often identified with

command and control. When we use the term empathy we are referring to the ability to

accurately assess another person's point of view. Empathy involves fact finding and for

that reason is objective, while sympathy is subjective.

Understanding Empathy

Theorists outside of leadership studies, mainly in psychology, have suggested that

empathy is an innate, core personality trait (Hoffman, 1977). Allport (1968), however,

found empathy to be more elusive and concluded, "the process of empathy remains a

riddle in social psychologyÐ'...the nature of the mechanism is not yet understood" (p. 30).

Empathy is most typically defined as including: 1) the affective capacity to share in

another's feelings; and 2) the cognitive ability to understand another's feelings and

Leadership Review, Kravis Leaderdhip Institute, Claremont McKenna College, Vol. 6, Fall 2006 146

perspective. We suggest that cultivating in leaders the ability to synthesize understanding

of feelings and cognition can contribute to successful leadership. Although the synthesis

of the affective and the cognitive is a product of cognition, we believe developing greater

understanding of others in a cognitive sense can simultaneously heighten affective

sensibilities.

Literature on empathy has been confounded by definitional controversy that focuses on

the "extent to which either cognitive processes or affective experiences formulate

empathetic response" (Pecukonis, 1990, p. 60). Gallo (1989) notes:

Ð'...an empathetic response is one which contains both a cognitive and an affective

dimensionÐ'...the term empathy [is] used in at least two ways; to mean a

predominantly cognitive response, understanding how another feels, or to mean

an affective communion with the other (p. 100).