Hostile Client De-escalation

Process for De-escalating a situation with a hostile client.

Emotional Intelligence

Emotional Intelligence Overview

When Silence Isn’t Golden

We’ve all heard the statements, ‘silence can be deafening’ and ‘silence speaks louder than words.’ This is even more evident while on a phone call. Think about the times you’ve been placed on hold and how it made you feel. Did your level of agitation or frustration increase the longer you were on hold? Now […]

Which One Are You?

Can you show compassion to a caller?

The Other Side of the Phone

We most likely speak to clients and/or co-workers on the phone every day we come to work. It’s hard enough to try and decipher what’s going on in someone’s personal life when face-to-face, let alone over the phone. Yet our first instinct is to get irritated if we feel the person on the other side […]

The Four-Part Process of Empathy

Empathy really involves the simultaneous blending of at least four processes: (1) tuning in to your feelings, (2) expressing your feelings, (3) tuning in to other’s feelings, and (4) responding to those feelings with understanding. Step 1: Tuning In To Your Own Feelings Every person experiences a continuous flow of feelings: about himself, about how […]

Sympathy-vs-Empathy

Sympathy is feeling “for” someone, ie. “I feel so bad for you.” “That thing that happened to you is awful.” A sympathetic response to someone’s circumstances may include an “at least ______” statement within the listener’s attempt to put a silver lining on the bad situation, hoping that it will make the other person “feel […]

Empathy – An Acquired Skill

Empathy involves accurately tuning into and responding to the feelings of another person. It involves responding to the feelings in a way that allows the other to know he has been heard. Empathy involves “hearing the whole person” (i.e., who he is, how he feels about himself and his world), not merely his words. Empathy […]

Developing Empathy for Building Relationships and Helping Others

Empathy is a Powerful Resource for Building Relationships and Helping Others Many people hear of a friend’s trouble and wish to “fix the problem”. We are uncomfortable with their pain and struggle because it reminds us of our own. We find it difficult to “just” listen, understand and acknowledge the difficult feelings, but often that […]

Empathy Overview

Empathy can have a profound effect on the way you build relationships