Turn On Your Empathy Radar
Just arrived to Colombia on our sailboat, Fortuna
When sailing, understanding everyone’s emotions isn’t just about having a good time—it’s about safety. Seasickness is a universal issue (yes, it happens to everyone), and if left unchecked, can become dangerous.
On a boat, emotions are right in front of you. A twelve-meter sailboat offers no escape, making it easy to gauge how people are doing.
In large projects spread across multiple teams, reading emotional energy becomes much harder. Some emotions can quietly derail even the best strategies, while positive ones often go unrecognised and underutilised.
This is where an empathy radar becomes essential.
Let’s jump into it
When sailing long, exhausting multi-day passages, we rely heavily on radar. It helps us avoid unseen obstacles—like fishing boats that turn off their tracking systems—especially at night. Sailboats unfortunately always seem to find these fishing vessels and their secret fishing spots.
Most importantly, radar helps us when our vision is limited and we still need to “see” approaching weather or other boats.
Using our radar (upper left) while sailing to Colombia
While we’re tuned into external dangers, how often are we scanning the internal ones? Emotional energy is just as critical as the weather when determining success.
Ignoring emotions is risky. Gauging your team’s emotional state can guide whether you need to adjust deadlines or pivot strategies. Think of it as the emotional weather forecast for your team, predicting future success.
Fun fact: Early radar technology faced skepticism, but it became a game-changer during WWII. Today, understanding emotions as performance indicators may seem unfamiliar, but could soon be just as crucial.
A helpful resource
Imagine having a radar to track emotional energy just like project metrics. Understanding the emotional undercurrents in your team can help you course-correct or leverage positive developments.
The Empathy Radar is a visual tool that illustrates the progression of team emotions—from initial signals to potential outcomes. Every initial emotion—whether Enthusiasm and Curiosity or Doubt and Uncertainty—can end up in different places.
Addressing emotions early can either prevent issues or keep the positivity on-track.
The Empathy Radar
While working for a beauty CPG (consumer packaged goods) company, our team wasn’t meeting the client’s expectations. Frustration was building, but no one acknowledged it. Once we finally addressed the tension, the solution became clear.
Emotional energy was the missing piece. Too often, teams suppress emotions until frustration boils over. Catching it early allows you to treat emotions as key performance indicators.
How leaders can tune into emotional energy:
- Check the emotional climate: Regularly gauge your team’s emotional energy. It doesn’t require long meetings—sometimes, a quick question can reveal a lot. For example, “What’s one word that describes how you feel about our team’s progress?”
- Watch for nonverbal cues: Burnout or frustration is often communicated nonverbally. Stay alert to subtle signs, such as changes in participation levels.
- Encourage openness: Make it safe for your team to express their feelings, especially when stress is high.
- Create empathy checkpoints: Build regular emotional check-ins into your timelines. These can be scheduled at certain milestones.
- Leverage empathy as a leadership tool: Soft skills like empathy aren’t optional—they’re crucial for keeping your projects on track.
Your empathy radar is one of the most powerful tools you can use as a leader. Next time you’re navigating a challenging project, make sure it’s switched on—because often, what you can’t see is what can derail a project.
Turn on your empathy radar and steer your team to success
And there’s more
✏️ Join: I’ll be virtually presenting “A Sailor’s Guide to Creative Risks” with People of Research.
📚 Read: The Blue Machine: How the Ocean Works by Helen Czerski is a great book that delivers what it says.
🎧 Listen: Eliminate your competition, build a category of one is a good perspective for personal brands and big ones too.
📍Visit: Bonaire , the “B” of the Dutch ABC islands, is fantastic for diving and has really chill vibes.