We realize empathy, when we empathize with someone (including ourselves) or something, through an unexpected realization.
One that often make us go “Ah ha!” “Oh...” or “Ha ha ha!” concerning something we either did not or had incorrectly assumed to have understood or appreciated enough.
Realizing empathy may not be easy.
Yet, it is by realizing empathy in the face of tension that we mature as leaders and human beings.
Empathizing points to B. an experience, where we’re feeling as if we’re connected as one with an “other,” as opposed to A. disconnected or at odds with them.
Hyper-Empathizing points to B′. an experience, where we’re feeling as if there is no or cannot be any distance, distinction, or boundary between ourselves and an “other.”
Empathy is a word invented to explain our potential to move from A. to B. or B′.
About the Director
Executive Performance Coach to Founder-CEOs
brief biography
- 300 words or less
- 100 words or less
seung chan lim (slim)
As a CEO performance coach, Slim guides compassionate Tech Founders to become the best CEO they can become. One that can steer, align, and manage their organization with greater clarity and confidence without the frustration and energy drain they’re used to. Especially while the organization navigates significant change such as rapid growth and shifts in direction.
Slim is also the author of the book Realizing Empathy, which has won a number of awards including the National Indie Excellence® Book Awards: New Non-Fiction for content and the Communication Arts Typography Annual Award of Excellence for design. Slim has shared the message of this book with people across North America, Europe, and Asia.
Slim envisions a world, where compassionate leaders can have the impact they intend. A world where they have access to the connections and support they deserve for the important work they’re doing. A world where they’re appreciated and rewarded for the effort they put in to align their intention with their impact. A world where their day-to-day no longer has to feel synonymous with self-sacrifice.
Background
Over the past 24 years, Slim has guided the growth & innovation process at organizations of various scales ranging from large organizations like the Department of Defense, General Electric, and Eaton, to small startups with less than 100 employees.
What he has noticed from this experience is that compassionate leaders often fail to have impact because their good intentions prevent them from clearly seeing themselves or the stakeholders whose support they need for the impact they intend. As a result, they often use inappropriate frameworks, tools, and techniques for impact, which leads to significant frustration and energy drain as they struggle to realize the kind of impact they intend.
He first experienced this himself as a leader in the company at which he worked. He then saw the same pattern repeat with his consulting clients who were leaders at Government and Fortune 500 companies. Finally, he saw this yet again while conducting a 4-year-long ethnographic research into the subjective experience of innovation by temporarily becoming a fine artist going through innovation at the Rhode Island School of Design and Brown University.
After writing about this phenomena and its related solution in his book Realizing Empathy: An Inquiry into the Meaning of Making, Slim began working with compassionate Startup Founders who were experiencing the same challenges.
With invitation from Singularity University, Techstars, and Google for Startups, Slim has spent the last 11 years coaching over 200 compassionate Startup Founders to not only see themselves and their stakeholders more clearly, but also to use more appropriate frameworks, tools, and techniques so they can steer, align, and manage their stakeholders with greater clarity and confidence.
TEDx Talks
duration
11 min 21 sec.
duration
8 min 44 sec.
Interviews
duration
11 min 21 sec.
duration
8 min 44 sec.