Duvet Musings: Vital empathy of the older generation

Empathy is a quality shared with others of that generation.

That is why it was so well deserved for Woman of Steel Kathleen Roberts to be awarded a Honorary Doctorate by the University of Sheffield.

She exemplified the service of her peers who worked in our steelworks during the war, as well as bringing up their families and maintaining their households.

Indeed one of our family’s most prized possessions is the medal awarded to my late mother Irene in recognition of her work at Cravens in our East End during the war.

She did this at the same time as supporting her husband Percy, who worked at Samual Osborn's, and bringing up her children.

Empathy was replicated and much prized when we had to cope with our worst peacetime crisis with a virulent pandemic that challenged every part of our society, costing lives and livelihoods.

Empathy is a core attribute of those looking after their families, of any successful leader and we saw how considerate ones not only ensured their organisations survived and prospered, but importantly maintained the morale and wellbeing of their colleagues that will be of benefit for years to come.

I witnessed a great example of empathy recently when a considerate bank employee was so patient dealing with an elderly customer bringing in bags of change and to her credit treated him as though he was the only person in the queue.

After all good customer service is treating others as we would wish to be treated, and it would have been easy for us in that queue to be impatient.

Indeed, often courtesy to other people motivates them to replicate that to others creating a nice domino effect.

That quality will be required again as we enter the choppy waters that rising inflation will bring, particularly to the vulnerable who have the dilemma of choosing between feeding their families and keeping them warm.

Empathy is really understanding how others feel.

Iin a world where leadership is becoming so critical, we have to balance being decisive while not prejudicing long-term relationships.

Although I appreciate that many of us have had to embrace that having been brought up to see leaders as people who get things done, and quickly in crises, we can of course cause unintended collateral damage to relationships.

However, the last couple of years or so have reminded us that leadership is best achieved with consideration of those affected by our decisions and the benefits of serving those who we are privileged to lead.

After all most of us spend more time at work than at home and company culture has such a major effect on our mental and physical healthe. So why not make it a happy environment?

That is why for instance when we challenge the NHS to reduce waiting times, we cannot underestimate the huge pressures its staff have faced during the pandemic.

As we recover we have to consider their health and wellbeing, as caring for our carers is the best way of making sure we have our needs cared for also.

We learned during the pandemic the importance of effective and timely communication as we went through a cycle of unprecedented restrictions and then easing of them, of life-saving necessity done speedily and for some insensitively.

I suspect second time round, with hindsight, hopefully we would have done things differently.

That is why our late Queen Elizabeth II's life has reminded us how important empathy is.

If nothing else it has highlighted the importance of having the humility to recognise that and realise we can only lead change by accepting change and feedback ourselves.