03/01/2024

It’s Cool to be Kind

The value of empathy at work

Empathy: We all aspire to it, but does it really make a performance difference in the workplace? Definitely, according to Jamil Zaki, a research psychologist at Stanford University and author of The War for Kindness: Building Empathy in a Fractured World(Crown, June 2019).

In this episode of McKinsey Talks Talent, Jamil joins McKinsey talent leaders Bryan Hancock and Brooke Weddle, with global editorial director Lucia Rahilly, to make the case for investing in empathic behavior—for reasons including higher productivity, a stronger workplace culture and better organizational health—as well as to discuss how to go about cultivating kindness at work.

This conversation has been edited for clarity and length.