- What role does empathy play in your life and how has it helped you?
I think it helps me connect with people, and to be invested in their stories. It allows me to instinctively guess the best ways to help them, and trust that they'll be there for me.
- How does empathy help you build better software?
Software is ultimately by humans, for humans, and is usually created to solve a problem. If you can step into the shoes of the people who will be using your software, understand how best to solve their problem, you will make a better tool.
- Why is empathy important for working on a team?
You need empathy to be able to communicate with your team, and understand the various places they are coming from. There will inevitably be conflict, and empathy allows you to take an "us against the conflict" attitude rather than "us against each other," which usually makes for faster, more effective problem solving without lasting damage.
- Describe a situation in which your ability to empathize with a colleague or teammate was helpful.
A previous supervisor I had for a few months was very difficult for me to work for. Empathy helped me see things from her perspective so that our relationship didn't become toxic. It took a lot of work, but I think when we went to different teams, we were able to do so with relief but not with any bad blood.
- When do you find it most difficult to be empathetic in professional settings? How can you improve your skills when faced with these scenarios?
Empathy is, I believe, a two-way street, so I have the most trouble with it when I believe someone doesn't feel the need to be empathetic or uses their empathy to manipulate. Luckily this is rare, and I've only experienced it twice, but in both cases I sort of shut off my empathy because I thought it would at best be ignored and at worst be used against me.
I'm not sure how to improve my empathy in these situations. This article (http://www.danielgoleman.info/three-kinds-of-empathy-cognitive-emotional-compassionate/) talks about three kinds of empathy, and I suppose developing cognitive empathy would be a useful tool for this. This would help me understand that the person I'm dealing with probably doesn't use empathy because it's painful for them, which would help me approach them from a place of sympathy rather than dismissal.