EmilyLalonde_Gear_Up.md

What role does empathy play in your life and how has it helped you?

Empathy plays a major role in my life as a wife, as a friend, and as a bartender. Empathy helps to to both improve and maintain every relationship in my life. Part of being in a successful relationship with any person is practicing active listening which is something I aim to practice every day. Even the answers to the smallest question of "how was your day?" can bring larger perspective on how someone is feeling. I could either take the answer "fine" at face value, or I could put emotional empathy and active listening to practice and disect the emotional tone of the answer. These tools allow me to understand not only how someone is feeling but why.

How does empathy help you build better software?

Empathy helps you build better software because it helps you understand the people behind the product you're developing. In the article "Why is Empathy Essential for Design", it is made clear that without a true understanding of your consumer your product could likely fail. If your app is geared towards teenagers but your development team has no understanding of the thoughts, feelings, and needs of the current average teenager then their project may not be as relevant or resonate in the way they intended. This can lead to the failure of your product and wasted work time.

Why is empathy important for working on a team?

Empathy is highly important when working on a team because it promotes a healthy working relationship amongst collegues. In the article "The Surprising (and Non-Technical) Skill You Need to Succeed in Tech", the idea of learning how to give and recieve feedback is introduced as an essential component to working with collegues empathetically. If your giving of feedback is viewed as harsh or critical then it would likely lower team moral and create hostility. The same goes for if someone is unable to recieve feedback and gets defensive or shuts down. Empathy allows for a more productive and healthy working relationship with your collegues.

Describe a situation in which your ability to empathize with a colleague or teammate was helpful.

Empathy is a very important tool when working in ther service industry for your relationships with your co-workers. Because this type of job relies on people showing up for their scheduled shifts to allow the restaurant to run properly, it creates anxiety surrounding emergencies and illness. Whenever a teammate needed a shift covered to take their daughter to the doctor, or someone came down with the flu I tried to help by offering to stay to work their shift. Although there were plenty of times I felt like just going home, I listened to what was going on and empathized with their situation. I also empathized with how this persons absence would affect the restaurant and therefore all the other teammates working this shift. By choosing to stay and help it not only relieves the person who needs help, but it also provides the team for that shift with better support.

When do you find it most difficult to be empathetic in professional settings? How can you improve your skills when faced with these scenarios?

I find it to be most difficult to be empathetic in a professional setting when faced with indifference. If a collegue or teammate displays a lack of interest for the success of the project or team as a whole my ability to empathize becomes compromised. I can improve in these scenarios by recognizing that their indifference may simply be a defense mechanism for their self-doubt or personal frustrations surrounding the project. Rather than becoming frustrated I could use my communications skills and active listening to try and understand the reasoning behind a persons indifference and attempt to work through any issues this person might be dealing with before moving forward.