What is Empathy and What is It Not?
Empathy is our capacity to understand other people’s feelings and needs, to take the perspective of another person. Empathy entails a warm-hearted, open, and kind attitude. This does not mean, though, that you must like the other person and that you must be happy and smiley all the time—nor does it mean sugar-coating messages, only telling people what they want to hear, and putting up with issues. The opposite is true: You can empathically address unhelpful and inappropriate behaviour, as the following example shows.