Empathy Training for Workplace Teams & Trainers

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***An additional program “Empathy Training for the Workplace” is available HERE.

To schedule an empathy training program for your business or organization contact Dr. Orloff at [email protected]

“Empathy is the most precious human quality.”
—His Holiness, the Dali Lama

Empathy is a form of emotional intelligence that can benefit every workplace. It allows you to understand where a customer, coworker, team member, or manager is coming from even if you don’t agree with them. Empathy bridges differences and opens communication with others. Empathy doesn’t limit discernment. It allows you to be caring and fosters tolerance and understanding.

Judith Orloff MD is a New York Times best-selling author, an empath, and UCLA-trained psychiatrist who specializes in helping individuals, businesses such as Google, and organizations develop empathy. Dr. Orloff provides practical empathy training programs to help you improve customer interfacing, enhance the health and well-being of your staff, develop your team’s emotional intelligence, and create an empathic foundation in your organization. She believes that empathy is the medicine the world needs.

Forbes recently reported on a large research study which ranked empathy as the most important leadership skill in the workplace. It has been shown to drive positive business results and it has numerous healing effects on stressed out employees. When leaders expressed empathy for their team, it increased the team’s innovation, engagement, retention, improved customer service, and supported them to better balance their home and work life. These changes will improve the excellence and energy of any workplace.

The following two modules can be presented to your team as either a 3 hour, 4 hour or full-day 6 hour training. They offer your team a template for trainers to adapt when they instruct your customer facing staff.

Pre and Post Test Evaluations: Participants will receive self-assessment tests before and after the training to determine what they’ve learned and how much more educated they feel about empathy. The tests are: “What is Your Empathy IQ at Work?” and “Do You Have Too Much Empathy?” These pre and post tests will give the participants a good sense of what they learned during the training and how it can be applied to when they train employees to show empathy to customers (and fellow team members).

Module One: What is Empathy and Practical Strategies to Develop it at Work

In this module, participants will learn what empathy is and discover tools to cultivate it. Dr. Orloff will give a demonstration of ways to handle challenging customer calls with empathic listening, harnessing your tone of voice, and specific empathic statements to utilize to make the customer feel valued and heard. This will be followed by a Q&A mentoring session with Dr. Orloff. Then, the group will listen to a recorded customer simulation call and apply the empathic skills they learned to that situation. Dr Orloff will then conclude the module with another Q&A session for participants to process what they have learned.

Participants will learn:

  • What empathy is and how to develop it to enhance emotional intelligence at work.
  • The type of empathy style that they have, such as Cognitive, Emotional, Intuitive, Spiritual, and how to best develop additional types.
  • The difference between empathy, compassion, and being an empath.
  • Tools to develop empathy to heighten their emotional intelligence.
  • The art of empathic listening.
  • How to master an empathic tone of voice when communicating with customers.
  • Specific “empathy statements” to improve communication skills.
  • How to be empathic with emotional customers, including those who cry.
  • What blocks empathy and how to overcome the blocks.
  • How to set clear empathic boundaries to avoid getting drained.
  • How to express empathy but not absorb the stress of co-workers or customers.
  • Module Two: Overcoming Burnout, Overwhelm & How to Deal with Draining or Negative People

    Dr. Orloff will discuss common causes of burnout, which can occur when you have “too much empathy” and how to reverse this to achieve more balance. Also, she will describe how over-giving or “feeling too much” can cause a sense of being overwhelmed that isn’t healthy. She will teach participants how to identify draining people. They will learn to ask themselves, “Is my energy getting drained by a customer or coworker?” and use specific techniques to effectively deal with the person in a solution-oriented way. As a result, their relationships will be more empowered and stress-free in the workplace. Dr. Orloff will offer an additional Q&A mentoring with participants.

    Participants will learn:

  • Tools to overcome empathy burnout.
  • How to set healthy boundaries with coworkers and customers.
  • Empathic techniques to deal with draining people without getting depleted, emotionally triggered, or upset.
  • How to communicate with an empowered tone and attitude when dealing with a difficult person.
  • Identify common types of draining/difficult customers and co-workers and learn strategies to effectively deal with them. (For instance, “The Chronic Talker,” “The Victim,” “The Drama Queen,” The Criticizer,” The Narcissist,” and “The Angry Caller.”
  • How to identify their emotional triggers (such as an angry or critical customer) so they can keep calm and caring with customers and team members.
  • How to find balance and not over-give or overhelp customers or others.
  • Dr. Orloff has done empathy training for businesses and organizations such as Google Talks, Google Summit for UX Managers, TEDx Asia Gateway, Mass General Brigham hospital group, and Woman’s Mental Health Consortium. She has also spoken at numerous hospitals, churches, universities.

    Endorsements

    “In “The Genius of Empathy” with foreword by the Dalai Lama, Dr. Judith Orloff applies her expertise as a mental health clinician and a professor of psychiatry to draw on insights from neuroscience, psychology, and energy medicine as she introduces ways to develop empathy as a new and compelling leadership skill.”
    CEO World

    Read LeadershipNow’s leading blog Empathy: The Top Leadership Skill For Today’s Work Environment + Dr. Orloff’s book The Genius of Empathy listed as a top leadership book for April 2024 at LeadershipNow

    “Thank you for your Empathy Training program! Our team had a great experience working with you and appreciated all the knowledge you shared. It was a very valuable time spent together learning and conversing.”
    Katie Rathbun MS, RN, Salem Hospital, Mass General Brigham Hospital Group

    “Thank-you for an outstanding session on the power of empathy for TEDx Gateway Asia. Your range and manner conveyed the importance and breadth of empathetic EQ and skills.”
    Ralph Simon, President, Mobilium Global and TEDx Moderator

    “It’s been an absolutely heart-warming experience to host you as well as learn from you. Thank you for sharing your expertise about empathy with our TEDx audience and our team.”
    Anisha Dalvi, Speaker Coordinator, TEDx Gateway Asia

    “Dr. Orloff is a rare combination of academic credibility, intuitive awareness, and the ability to communicate with authenticity.”
    Ping Ho, UCLA Pediatric Pain Clinic

    “Your talk on how to alleviate stress was incredibly valuable. I am grateful for your time, energy, and commitment.”
    Maria Shriver, First Lady’s Women’s Conference

    Judith Orloff, MD is a New York Times bestselling author with the upcoming book The Genius of Empathy: Practical Skills to Heal Yourself, Your Relationships and the World (Foreword by the Dalai Lama). She has also written The Empath’s Survival Guide and Thriving as an Empath, which offers daily self-care tools for sensitive people. She integrates the pearls of conventional medicine with cutting edge knowledge of intuition, empathy, energy medicine, and spirituality. Dr. Orloff specializes in treating empaths and highly sensitive people in her private practice and online internationally. Her work has been featured on The Today Show, CNN, Oprah Magazine, the New York Times and USA Today. Dr. Orloff has spoken at Google-LA, TEDx U.S. and TEDx Asia. More information about Dr. Orloff’s Empathy Training Programs for businesses, The Empath Survival Guide Online Course and speaking schedule at www.drjudithorloff.com.

    Connect with Judith on  FacebookTwitter and Instagram.