What is Your Empathy IQ Score at Work?
Just as intelligence can be measured with an IQ, empathy can also be assessed with an Empathy IQ. Take this quiz to measure your level of empathy.
Empathy is when you care about others and express that caring. It is a skill that can be developed through mindful awareness. To avoid empathy overload, it’s important to learn to center yourself, set boundaries, and practice ongoing self-care.
The world needs more empathic leaders, teams, parents and people in every profession. Empathy allows you to understand where another person is coming from even if you don’t agree with them. It bridges differences and opens communication with others.
Take the following quiz to determine your level of empathy:
What is Your Empathy IQ at Work?
- Are you sensitive to team member’s needs?
- Do you listen with your heart not just your head?
- Can you hold space for others to express their needs about a project?
- Can you listen without needing to fix someone’s problem immediately?
- Are you able to set healthy boundaries with draining team members?
- Are you open to a team member’s needs or creative ideas?
- Do you care about the greater good of the world, and the wellbeing of the planet?
No matter what your Empathy Score is at this point, it’s always possible to develop more empathy. If you are experiencing empathy overload—or if you are a sensitive person who absorbs the stress of your team members—it’s possible to center and protect yourself as well as set healthy boundaries.
Do You Have Too Much Empathy?
For many sensitive people, their empathy is out of balance. They wear an invisible sign saying, “I can help you.” Then they take on another co-worker’s emotions and stress symptoms into their bodies and experience empathy overload. At work and elsewhere, you can have too much empathy if you are exhausted from feeling too much.
Take the following quiz to determine if you have empathy overload:
Do You Have Too Much Empathy?
- Do I often take on the pain of my team members and the world?
- Do I tend to over-give and become exhausted?
- Do I enable coworkers who are in a “victim mentality” and listen too long?
- Do I let a chronic talker go on and on?
- Is it difficult for me to set healthy boundaries?
- Am I afraid to say “no” to a team member in need?
- Do I care so much that it affects my health?
- Do I become highly emotional when watching, hearing or reading about an upsetting incident?
- Do I have a hard time showing empathy to myself?
The secret to having healthy empathy at work is to learn self-care and to set boundaries. If you feel there is no on/off switch for your empathy this training offers strategies to prevent empathy.