Reading about the Wright brothers offers a lesson in empathy

  • By James McCusker Business 101
  • Friday, August 28, 2015 5:41pm
  • Business

David McCullough’s latest book, “The Wright Brothers,” includes a description of Wilbur Wright’s trip to France in 1908 to demonstrate a flying machine that really worked. Wilbur was naturally an object of great curiosity and, as it turned out, he was unlike anyone else the French had ever seen.

The airplane itself had been severely damaged in its shipment from Ohio, and required substantial rebuilding and fabrication of parts. Leon Bollee, an aviation enthusiast and businessman, offered his shop and even some of his workers to help get the job done.

The men in the factory had never met anyone like Wilbur, and it appears that they appreciated him as much as they enjoyed being part of the new venture.

In one of his frequent letters home, he wrote to his father that, “The men down at Bollee’s shop have taken up a collection to buy me a testimonial of their appreciation. They say that I, too, am a workman.”

Wilbur knew how much that would please his father who had brought up the boys to recognize the value and dignity of hard work. Wilber’s willingness to work side by side with the men in the physically demanding work of rebuilding a complex aircraft was something they had never seen before. His demonstrated respect for them defied the embedded class structure that divided French workmen from the owners and managers who gave the orders — the new economic rulers who replaced the aristocracy discarded a century earlier by the French Revolution.

In today’s business vocabulary, Wilbur’s actions and attitude would be called empathy. He knew what the factory workmen did, how hard they worked, and what they were capable of… and appreciated it. And his working alongside them forged them into a team that became as excited about the project as he was.

Most business owners and CEOs would love to have a Wilbur-like manager on board — or, even better, a whole bunch of them. That would require their having empathy for their workers, though, and the prospects for that are not looking good.

A study led by Sarah Konrath at the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research found that today’s college students have 40 percent lower empathy than college students in the late 1970s.

The reasons behind the decline in empathy are still being debated, but for business owners and managers, the immediate problem is dealing with it. What can top management do to identify empathy problems in job applicants?

The best time to look for empathy-related clues is during an applicant’s interview. It is usually a waste of time to simply ask general questions about how the applicant “gets along with other people.” What you can do, though, is examine his or her resume for activities or employment that involved working with other people — especially people of the skill level that the applicant will be expected to manage. Question the applicant thoroughly about these areas to get an idea of what he or she thought about managers and co-workers.

If the applicant has had management experience, look especially for the word “responsible” or “responsibility” being used. The use of these words often indicates a level of respect for workers that neither “boss” nor “in charge” impart. Word usage should be treated as clues, rather than evidence, however, and prompt further inquiry rather than final assessment. There are lots of successful, empathetic managers “in charge,” or whose team members refer to as “boss.”

One very successful method to reveal a candidate’s empathy is to take him or her to lunch at a sit-down restaurant. Watch closely how the candidate interacts with the server. Politeness is not the same thing as respect, but they are close relatives, and respect is the basis of workplace empathy.

Take your applicant on a tour of your business and observe how he or she interacts with the people there. That is a preview of how those interactions are going to work out in the future, and you should evaluate the candidate accordingly.

Lastly, even after the best screening and interviewing processes, beginning managers often need a lot of help with their skill gaps, and lack of empathy is often at the heart of the problems.

Business owners and top management just have to face up to this issue and plan to work up solutions that fit their operations and goals. With today’s crop of new managers that will be no easy task.

James McCusker is a Bothell economist, educator and consultant. He also writes a column for the monthly Herald Business Journal.

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