Importance of Empathy in Leadership

A member of the Midwest Cable Television Hall of Fame and former resident of Michigan, Scott Westerman previously served as a telecommunications executive in leadership roles at Comcast and Continental Cablevision. In addition, he’s a published author whose bestselling book, Motor City Music - Keener 13 and the Soundtrack of Detroit, explores the history of the Michigan radio station WKNR. Scott Westerman is also a blogger who leverages his executive experience to write about corporate culture.

The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated stress among employees. As a result, empathy in leadership has become increasingly important. In the early stages of the pandemic, Qualtrics carried out a global study that suggested more than 40 percent of people noticed a decline in mental health. In addition, more than 50 percent of respondents experienced increases in stress and anxiety. Stress has been shown to negatively impact employee productivity, as has workplace incivility, which a Georgetown University report suggested is increasing.

Rather than simply demanding more out of workers, corporate leaders need to exercise empathy to make employees feel valued and promote cooperation and productivity. In a recent study involving 889 workers, Catalyst found that 61 percent of employees who reported their respective leaders as empathetic also reported increased capacity for innovation on the job. Moreover, at least half of all respondents who reported leaders as empathetic felt more engaged at work, characterized their workplace as inclusive, and reported a better work-life balance.

Content Creation Versus Content Curation

Scott Westerman, a native of Michigan, serves as the CEO of the publishing company Ramirez & Clark in Florida. He has published several books through this company. A motivational speaker, Scott Westerman maintains several personal blogs for which he creates and curates content.

Online content builds brand reputation and supports marketing efforts. Content creation refers to the process of making original material, such as articles, podcasts, and videos. This type of content does not contain elements directly borrowed from other sources and is capable of generating leads, driving traffic, and accurately representing a particular brand. However, creating content from scratch is time-consuming and requires strong writing skills.

For those who lack the time for creating content regularly or are not confident in their creative capabilities, content curation provides them with many of the same benefits online. Content curation matches a company’s brand and helps it build a positive reputation online. It also provides audiences with a wider range of viewpoints about certain topics while keeping websites less self-promotional, since the material does not come only from the company itself.

How to Effectively Curate Content

An entrepreneur, educator, and former corporate executive based in Michigan, Scott Westerman has held positions in fields such as publishing, technology, and telecommunications. Scott Westerman leads Ramirez and Clark, a publishing firm in Michigan catering to independent authors, and he also runs the websites RockAndRollRevisisted.com and Keener13.com. He handles all content creation and curates the websites.

Effectively curating content breaks through the clutter and supports the brand and operations of a business or website. Usually, the first step to successful content curation is mastering the audience. Businesses and other groups must know what readers expect from them and who their audience is. This lets them precisely curate content that appeals to their target audience, instead of filling websites with information of little actual value to the reader.

Once companies know who their audience is, they must put their own spin on the content they are curating. This doesn’t mean re-working the content into something new. Instead, it refers to adding a brief explanation or introduction to the content that lets the brand’s personality shine through.

Although companies can add their personality to the mix, they must give credit to the original author. This means linking or tagging the original source of the content. Content curation is not plagiarism, nor is it content scraping. It is content sharing, and sharing means that the original creator gets recognition for their work.

Finally, organizations must manage their curating process. Curating content is a time-consuming task that quickly becomes overwhelming when done manually. Instead of constantly scrolling through websites searching for quality content, businesses will do well to implement a content curation tool that makes finding relevant content easier. This helps companies consistently curate quality relevant content, thereby successfully drawing in target readers.