By Communication Consultant Xinyi Cui (Accounting and BIS, ’22)
Empathy—“the ability to understand and share the feelings of another”—plays an integral role in the communication process. Empathy applies to communication because it can be a powerful tool in moving and inspiring the people around us. To have empathy in communication, we have to stand in our audience’s shoes to understand their needs and emotions. However, doing so can be difficult because we have to understand our own emotions in the first place, which might require us to face strong feelings such as pain, pressure, and loneliness. When we are trying to communicate in a stressful or high-stakes setting, such as creating a report for a class or providing analysis and recommendations in a professional setting, our own emotions sometimes make it difficult to understand the perspectives of the people with whom we are trying to communicate. That’s why it is important to share your work in progress with someone you trust before you turn it in.
As staff members in the Rauch Center for Business Communication, our responsibility is to take on the student perspective and guide students to go through the communication process. We do our best to understand the needs and feelings of those who ask for help, especially because everyone has such unique life experiences. However, by being truthful and listening, we can build a strong connection. To better develop the relationship between the consultants and advisees, we make sure to offer praise, statements of encouragement, and expressions of concern with the aim to reinforce the student’s feeling of ownership and control.
Furthermore, because we are also students, we can better understand the needs of our clients, as many of them reflect our own. However, it is important to balance between these two identities when we do our jobs. As emotional laborers, we are learning more every day through direct experience and practice. At RCBC, we are committed to maintaining a communication center that places empathy at the core of our work.
Get information and resources about our center at The Philip Rauch Center for Business Communication.