Many leaders come to empathy in their style and communication based on their own challenges. Today’s guest shares how vulnerably sharing her story led her down the path of teaching and training on empathy, and how you can boldly leverage vulnerability as an asset in your communication, leading to stronger connections and better results.
Sharon Steed is a keynote speaker, author, and empathy expert specializing in communication and collaboration. As the founder of Communilogue, she helps organizations build more inclusive, connected teams through the power of vulnerability and empathy. A stutterer since childhood, Sharon uses her personal experience to illustrate how embracing discomfort fosters growth. She has worked with Fortune 500 companies, tech leaders, and global organizations, delivering impactful talks and workshops. Sharon is also a LinkedIn Learning Instructor with multiple courses on empathy. She hosts a weekly live podcast on LinkedIn and YouTube on empathy in the age of AI called Empathy In Automation. Her work empowers professionals to lead with authenticity and compassion.
Sharon shares her powerful story and discusses how to be vulnerable and communicate with empathy in productive ways—ways that influence and ignite your team, customers, and other stakeholders. We also had an interesting discussion about the intersection of empathy and AI and how to keep humanity in a tech-driven world.
To access the episode transcript, please scroll down below.
Listen in for…
- Why curiosity is an empathetic power.
- What it means to communicate with empathy and how to overcome communication barriers.
- The power of setting your conversational intentions out loud.
- The importance of empathy in the age of AI.
“Everybody swears that they are terrible at communicating. And (I say), well, no, every single time you enter a room, you are communicating.” — Sharon Steed
Episode References:
- The Empathy Edge podcast episodes:
About Sharon Steed, Speaker and Founder, Communilogue:
Sharon Steed is a keynote speaker, author, and empathy expert specializing in communication and collaboration. As the founder of Communilogue, she helps organizations build more inclusive, connected teams through the power of vulnerability and empathy. A stutterer since childhood, Sharon uses her personal experience to illustrate how embracing discomfort fosters growth. She has worked with Fortune 500 companies, tech leaders, and global organizations, delivering impactful talks and workshops. Sharon is also a LinkedIn Learning instructor, with courses on Communicating with Empathy and Driving Inclusion with Empathy; she hosts a weekly live podcast on LinkedIn and YouTube on empathy in the age of AI called Empathy In Automation. Her work empowers professionals to lead with authenticity and compassion.
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Connect with Sharon:
Communilogue: communilogue.co
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/sharon-steed
LinkedIn Learning Course: Communicating With Empathy
YouTube: Empathy in Automation
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FULL TRANSCRIPT:
Welcome to the empathy edge podcast, the show that proves why cash flow, creativity and compassion are not mutually exclusive. I’m your host, Maria Ross, I’m a speaker, author, mom, facilitator and empathy advocate. And here you’ll meet trailblazing leaders and executives, authors and experts who embrace empathy to achieve radical success. We discuss all facets of empathy, from trends and research to the future of work to how to heal societal divisions and collaborate more effectively. Our goal is to redefine success and prove that empathy isn’t just good for society. It’s great for business. Many leaders come to empathy in their style and communication based on their own challenges. Today’s guest shares how her vulnerably sharing her story led her down the path of teaching and training on empathy and how you can boldly leverage vulnerability as an asset in your communication, leading to stronger connections and better results. I’ve been wanting to get today’s guest on the podcast for a while. Sharon steed is a keynote speaker, author and empathy expert, specializing in communication and collaboration. As the founder of communi log, she helps organizations build more inclusive, connected teams through the power of vulnerability and empathy. A stutterer since childhood, Sharon uses her personal experience to illustrate how embracing discomfort fosters growth. She’s worked with Fortune 500 companies, tech leaders and global organizations delivering impactful talks and workshops. Sharon’s also a LinkedIn learning instructor like me, with courses on communicating with empathy and driving inclusion with empathy. She hosts a weekly live podcast on LinkedIn and YouTube on empathy in the age of AI called empathy in automation. And her work empowers professionals to lead with authenticity and compassion. Today, Sharon shares her powerful story and talks about how to be vulnerable and communicate with empathy in productive ways, ways that influence and ignite your team, customers and other stakeholders. We also have an interesting discussion about the intersection of empathy and AI and how to keep humanity in a tech driven world, a great conversation. I am so excited to present to you today. Take a listen. Welcome Sharon steed to the empathy edge podcast. This has been such a long time in the planning to have a conversation with you about your wonderful work, empathy and communication, empathy in the age of AI, all of this great stuff. So welcome to the show.
Sharon Steed 02:52
Yeah, I am so happy to be here and have this conversation today. I
Maria Ross 02:56
know. I know, and I don’t even know how we originally got connected. I think it was through a conference or something that we were both on years ago, maybe a virtual conference? Yeah? Yeah. That makes sense. Yeah. That makes sense. I know it’s like that sounds right. How we’re connecting with people, and meeting with people is so different than it was like a decade ago. So so tell us a little bit about your story before we kick off into this topic of vulnerability and empathy and communication and empathy in the age of AI, before we go there, what got you into the empathy world?
Sharon Steed 03:28
So I have a little bit of an unusual background. I’m a person who stutters, and I had sort of come to this point in my life when I was so afraid of just like talking to people like that, I was beginning to, like avoid conversations entirely, right? And so I had gone through like, all of my youth and all of schooling and college, and I was able to sort of just skate by on, like avoiding some conversations and like only, like including myself in things where I felt more comfortable and confident speaking. But then, you know, you graduate from college, and then you get out into the workforce, and all of a sudden, you know, I have to be able to, you know, confidently speak about all of the things that I’m capable of and the things that I want to do and to accomplish. Well, I was so intimidated, like, by this whole idea of just like, having to talk to people, that I was sort of avoiding a lot of situations where I was going to have to talk to people, right? And so I remember, like, attempting to go to like events, to, you know, connect with people, to network. And I would just be so terrified that, like, I would be, like, in the corner and like, I’m not going to. Able to say my name and like stuff, and so, yeah, I was talking to a speech therapist like that I was seeing at the time, and she suggested that I try public speaking. So I said, Yeah, okay, cool.
Maria Ross 05:16
Well, I was like, did you really say yeah, okay, cool.
Sharon Steed 05:20
But yeah, I was like, we’re, you are completely bananas. There’s no way I can do this. I’ve avoided having to do this my entire life. And you want me to get in front of a room full of people and talk like you’re what? No, absolutely not. But then, you know, it sort of like came around to this whole like, idea of like, okay, like, if I am afraid of something, I think the only way that I’m going to be able to really, like, conquer this fear is if I just pace it in the most, you know, over the top way possible, right? So I thought, like, I’m just going to give one or two talks, and I’ll be cured, and I’ll never be afraid that, obviously, is not what happened, right? However, what did happen was a lot of people began to really come up to me and say, hey, you know, I really appreciate you talking about vulnerability and empathy. And I thought that was really interesting, because, like, I don’t even think I said the word empathy in my talks, but I think it just came through. And so after hearing that several times, I decided to just explore this concept and really research this topic, and sort of create content around insecurity and vulnerability, and like how those things can help us be better connectors, and how they can help us to be a little bit more understanding, a little Bit more empathetic at work specifically,
Maria Ross 07:01
wow. And I’m curious if, like specifically diving into empathy. And the answer can be No, I’m just curious, is it because you felt sometimes that people weren’t being empathetic with you, or even just seeing people not be empathetic with anyone who’s different, or anyone who might have an issue? Like, was that part of it of diving deeper into empathy, or was it did that just come through from the responses that you were getting to what you were talking about? So I
Sharon Steed 07:29
think it was twofold, right? Yes, like it came from what a lot of people were like coming up to me and saying, but also I am an incredibly sensitive person. Like, I feel things very deeply, and I feel like I’ve always sort of viewed situations and like viewed other people and like how they are going to feel in a specific situation, and I’ve always related it back to like, how it would make me feel. And I think a part of that is like being a person who stutters, I, you know, always like, wanted to talk to people like, but I didn’t want to be like, the center of the conversation, and so I was always asking follow up questions as a way to, like, sort of continue to like be in the conversation, like, but to avoid talking. And so I spent a really long time just being, like, really curious about other people and just like constantly, like trying to find questions that I could like pose to them. And I think that as a result of just like always asking questions, I was able to better see, you know, how like people think, how they like come to the feelings like that they have. And that combined with just being like a very sensitive person, yeah, just really, you know, just lament itself, yeah, you me eventually talking about being empathetic, yeah, yeah.
Maria Ross 09:15
And we both know Curiosity is the number one trait of empathic people. And so just, and I love that, because you know that concept of, like, when I do this too, where if I don’t want to talk, or I’m feeling like my tank is low, I’ll tend to ask more questions, or if I’m uncomfortable in the situation, because then it gets the other person talking, and the focus is off me, and then they’re like, that was the best conversation I’ve ever had, because they’re talking about themselves the whole time. That’s the trick, right? Okay, so let’s talk a little bit about communicating with empathy. So that is what you train on. That’s what you speak on, is helping people understand how to communicate and get their point across. And you know, like with my work, as you know, with leaders, is helping them still hold people. Accountable. Still have performance expectations, but communicate with empathy so that they can actually accomplish more, and they can actually optimize their people for peak performance. So I would love to hear what your definition of communicating with empathy is, and what do you see as the reasons why some people are unable to communicate with empathy.
Sharon Steed 10:22
Well, so like, off the bat, I feel like every time we are opening our mouths to, like, have a conversation with someone, we are actually, you know, engaging in an act of incredible empathy, and we probably don’t even know, right? Like, if we are in a conversation and there’s, you know, like us and another person, like, just the act of listening to them is supposed to be an incredibly empathetic act, right? And so, you know, when we are listening to people, our goal there is to really just understand where they are coming from and to just hit another perspective, right, like that’s the entire point of listening and like those two things are really foundational communication and empathy principles. And so, you know, I describe communicating with empathy as putting understanding and perspective at the center of every single conversation. And you know, we spend a lot of our lives communicating, right, having conversations, like talking to people, and as a person who spent, you know, her entire life being so concerned about, you know, how I’m communicating, you know, I was really able to sort of focus on, you know, how do we continue to really impress upon teams and companies that when we speak, we should always be coming from a place of, you know, yes, I Want to get my point across however, you know, I want to really understand where you are coming from as well, because it’s going to help us, you know, one, create better products, and two, just be a lot better at collaborating as well.
Maria Ross 12:38
And so, what do you when you’re working with teams or people? What are some of the biggest barriers they have to communicating with empathy?
Sharon Steed 12:44
I think that the biggest thing that I’ve seen, and I constantly hear this, is that people are just very intimidated, like, by this concept of communication. I don’t know if you have seen this as well, like, where everybody swears that they are terrible at communicating. And I’m like, Well, no, every single time you, like, enter a room, you are communicating, right? Yeah,
Maria Ross 13:12
whether you’ve opened your mouth or not, yeah, exactly.
Sharon Steed 13:15
And so I think that, like, I think that a part of the reason, like my talks are so effective is because, like people you know, see that, like I do, have a physical, you know, challenge with communicating. However, I am still articulate, and people can, you know, really connect with, you know, like my content and like the things that I’m trying to get across and so, you know, like I am attempting to show people like that, even if you think you are terrible at communication, you know, you’re not. Because if you are able to, like, go into a conversation, you know, you speak, the other person speaks, and you can come to some sort of positive conclusion where you can both and Co Op, and you know, like, do the things that you have to do as a result of that conversation, then you are a good communicator. And so the biggest you know thing that I have to sort of convince people of is that you are not bad at communicating, right? And then the other challenge is just explaining what empathy you know should be in terms of behaviors, right? Like empathy? Is this really cool concept? However, a lot of people don’t really like completely understand, how can we go into a conversation and focus on being empathetic? And so those are the two things that I really sort of um. And hone in on when I’m giving a talk, right?
Maria Ross 15:05
Yeah. And so when you’re working with it’s funny, because you’re talking about these leaders who don’t think they’re good communicators, and yet, there’s lots of leaders who think they’re great communicators, and they’re not empathetic at all, right? And it’s almost that I always talk about, ego kills empathy because it your self awareness is not there, and you’re not aware of what you’re bringing to the table. You’re not aware of what you’re bringing into the interaction and how it might be impacting somebody else. And it’s only when you’re willing to see how something impacts someone else that you start to change your communication right? For some people, whether it’s modulating your speed or your tone, whether it’s these people need a little bit more direction and guidance and these people need a little bit more. Just give me the bottom line. Tell me what to do, right? That’s actually communicating with empathy. When you adjust and adapt to the person that you’re talking to, it’s not, I always say, it’s not just crying on the floor with your employees. Empathy shows up in these ways that we actually do without thinking sometimes, if we’re interested in effective communication, I should say, right? Oh, yeah for sure. But what about the people who are trying, who are communicating and saying, Well, I and there’s research that bears this out, there’s a lot of executives who go, well, empathy has no place in the workplace, which boggles my mind, because empathy has a place whenever humans are interacting with other humans. But how do you work with clients like that, who are saying, you know, this isn’t the time or place for empathy.
Sharon Steed 16:29
You know what I I always have to begin, like with, how is this going to make you money, right? Like the ROI of empathy? Yes, exactly, right. And so, you know, a thing that, like, I explained to people is that, like, if you are beginning a company, or if you are creating a product, right, you are doing that because, like, there is some sort of cap in the current consumer marketplace like that requires your product to be created, your product or your service. And so you know, when you are creating this product or you are creating this service, you are thinking about, okay, like, what does my ideal customer. Why would they use this product? How are they going to use this product? How can I get this product in front of them? Like, so it can improve your life, right? So you are going to do like, a lot of testing, right? You are going to talk to your customers. You are going to like listen to their stories, and you are going to have conversations around the reasons why you know they are going to use this product, how it’s going to benefit their life and these situations, you know, where specifically they are going to, like, insert that product into their like, day to day experience, all of those things I have described are 100% empathy, right? And so imagine would sort of transpire if you, like, had that same approach on your teams in internally, right, like, if you have a co worker, or if you have a direct report having a hard time, right, like they feel uncomfortable sharing their ideas or or their opinions, or they’re just struggling to really keep up with their teammates. Well, what is their experience on this team, you know, like, in a day to day basis, you know, how are they approaching their work? Like, what steps are they taking? And, you know, why are those steps, you know, like, not effective in, like, either productivity or communication or, like, good collaboration. So, you know, anytime a company comes to me and says, Hey, like, I don’t see why this is important. Well, you know, you, you know, used empathy to create this company in the first place, and you are going to have to have empathy in order to keep your employees in, you know, your company, and to continue to, you know, create, like, good, effective products. And so, yeah. Mean, it really is a, you know, you have to hold up a mirror and say, hey, yeah, why are you here? Okay, all those reasons why you are here are the same reasons why you need to focus on your internal operations as well as your external operations,
Maria Ross 20:21
right, right? Yeah. I mean, I talk a lot with my clients about the business case of empathy and giving them the data and giving them the research that shows how it boosts innovation and engagement and performance and collaboration and then the external benefits of being an edge in the market. You know, the bar is so low when it comes to customer service that when you treat people with empathy, and you’re only able to treat your customers with empathy if your employees are being treated with empathy, otherwise, they’re operating in fear and anxiety and stress, and that’s never going to be a good experience that they’re going to share with your external customers. So I love that it’s about the business case. Yeah. So can you give us a little taste of some of the tips and some of the strategies that you share with your clients around how to communicate with empathy, especially if they’re struggling to tap into their own empathy, if they struggle with connection, if they struggle with you know? And it could be a struggle based on neurodiversity, right? It could be a struggle based on just their own upbringing or where they come from. How do you what are some tips that you give them on how to better communicate with empathy?
Sharon Steed 21:27
Yeah, for sure. You know, I always begin with sort of the foundational things, right and like, the foundation of everything that you know we are going to be doing as people. It begins sort of internally, right?
Maria Ross 21:45
Starts at home. Gotta get your house in order, right?
Sharon Steed 21:48
Absolutely, in order to do that, you you know first are going to have to be incredibly patient, right? And I think that we sort of view conversations especially as like, Okay, I’m coming into this conversation, I’m going to talk and then I’m going to wait for my turn to talk again, and then I’m going to talk again, right, right? And that is the that’s not helping anybody, right? Like, the entire point of communication and having a conversation is to, you know, get perspective on, you know, another person’s experiences or just another person’s opinion, right? And so, like, I like to say, you know, you can make your world larger by making another person’s world better, right? And so you create, you know, a good experience for another person, like by just listening to you know their stories and their vulnerabilities and the the things that you know, like they have experienced. And it’s impossible to do that if we don’t first focus on again, being patient. And so, how do we be patient, right? And so, you know, I have to break these things down in a way, like, where it’s you know, how do we turn these, like, really great concepts into like, yeah, into like, things that you can, you know, physically do right. And so like being patient just kind of comes down to stopping right. Like we live in a world where we are constantly being sort of bombarded with a ton of content all the time, right? There is social media, there are text messages, there’s a 24 hour news cycle. There are tons of things that we are like constantly consuming. And so it can be very difficult to just, like, stop and to give this person in front of you your entire attention, right? And so, yeah, I mean, like, we just focus on, like, okay, like, you know you are going to have to pause, and I know that it’s really hard, but pause and just focus on this person in front of you, and then another thing that I like to talk about in patients is the physical act of listening. You know, we are in these conversations a lot. Of times, if we are listening to another person, you know, we are sort of trying to, you know, hear what they like have to say, so we can sort of pass a little bit of judgment on it, and it isn’t on purpose, right? Just you know when we, you know, are talking to people and like, their words go into our brains. It sort of like, goes through a filter of, like, our own opinion. And so when we are listening people we should be focused on, you know, how do I keep my assumptions and my biases and my opinions as low as possible. And so like that could mean like, Hey, could you repeat what you said? So, like, I can get clarity. Or it could mean like, hey, so I heard you say, you know, like a, b and c, yeah.
Maria Ross 26:20
Yeah. Can I get that right? Reflective, listening is so key, and I love what you’re saying. Like, just to jump in here, I love what you’re saying because it’s this idea. I’m going to put a link in the show notes to another episode that I did with Dr Chris Johnson, where she talked about the power of the pause. I don’t know if you’re familiar with her work, but her work is great, and she talks about both, like physically and mentally, the things you can do to kind of make yourself take the pause like it’s deep breathing. It’s like clarifying what you you know, taking a second to reflect back what you heard before you launch into whatever you think you’re going to launch into. And it’s just that concept of listening to understand and build your own knowledge versus listening to talk to what you’re what you were describing earlier. And I know I, I struggle with it too, right? And I’m, I’m interviewing people all the time, and I’m talking all the time, but it’s amazing when you just get rid of the stuff in your own head and you’re able to say, like, right now, I am going to be present with this person, and I want, and my intention is to hear what they have to say so I can learn something from it, just even, like, out loud, setting that intention for yourself, maybe before you go into a meeting, or before you go into even a contentious conversation. Like, let me take some time to figure out what that other person’s perspective and context is before I go in guns blazing with you know, here’s why I’m right and you’re wrong, and we can just tell ourselves that I know someone who always tells me there’s power in saying it out loud, like it’s almost as a mantra. If you say it out loud and you hear yourself saying, like, I’m going to go into this conversation to understand, not just to talk about my opinion. Just saying that out loud is really powerful, because your ears hear it, and then you’re able to, sort of like, use that as a grounding for yourself. Of this is, you know, or I need to stay present in this conversation, and it’s okay to say it out loud. So, yeah. So, yeah, you know what?
Sharon Steed 28:25
I think that, like, you know, it’s so easy to just, like, go into conversations with this whole like, you know, one I want to get my point across. And, like, I want to make sure that this other person, like, really gets everything that I’m trying to say right and how, but I mean, like, that’s sort of how we view effective communication, is how we speak, how we present, and I think that a part of The reason why a lot of people resonate with this sort of talks that I give is because I sort of, like, turn that on its head, right? Like, I talk about how, like, I spent a lot of time, you know, being so concerned about how I sound and how I feel and how uncomfortable I was, but I really didn’t get to, like, properly and sincerely connect with a lot of people that I was having conversations with. And so, yeah, you know, it is so important to sort of go into these conversations from a, you know, you and me perspective, and not a perspective.
Maria Ross 29:47
I love that. Okay, let’s switch gears a little bit, because I know this has been a hot topic. I’ve been out talking about, you’ve been out talking about, and that is empathy and AI, and I know you have a LinkedIn course. I. Not only do you have a LinkedIn course about, you know, communicating with empathy, but one about empathy in the age of AI, and I’ve waxed poetic on that, but I would love to hear your perspective on the role of empathy in the age of AI. And do we need it? Do we not is it more important? Is it less important? Talk to us about your perspectives on that?
Sharon Steed 30:21
Well, one, it is more important. So like, let’s get back that was
Maria Ross 30:25
a leading question. Yeah,
Sharon Steed 30:28
empathy in this very highly, highly technical age, and I have had a ton of conversations about this with people from a lot of different industries and the over what overwhelming sort of feeling is that, like you know, these technologies, these programs, these softwares, are only going to get better, right? And so you know, a lot of the things that you know we, you know, have had to do in in the past, you know, we aren’t going to have to do those things anymore. And yes, you know, AI is going to take a lot of things away. However, it’s also going to give us a lot more space and a lot more capacity to really connect with other people, you know. And so when I’m having these conversations, I’m always sort of blown away by how, you know, almost every single person is like, no, no. We need to focus on, you know, being human centered in this, you know, tech obsessed world, and, you know, AI is going to give us an incredible opportunity to just focus on, how can we, you know, build stronger, re relationships. How can we get more perspective? How can you know, hear more stories? You know, I think that you know, there is, for sure, a place of poor empathy. Age of AI has everything that you know we are doing, you know, is going to continue to be, you know, done and used and created and scaled by people. So as long as we as people are involved in all of these processes, we’re going to have to really focus on being empathetic. Yeah, I always know what you think about this.
Maria Ross 32:43
Well, yeah. I mean, I love this, because my feeling is, when AI takes over the tasks that many leaders have relied on to keep themselves relevant and busy, all we’re left with is leaders that are really good at their human connection skills. That’s where they’re going to add the most value. And those leaders that have hidden behind the doing and not the leading, and not the people, part of the leading will have nowhere to hide, yeah, because we’re taking away the thing that keeps them, you know, behind their desk and not interacting with their people. And so I, in my view, and maybe, you know, I know it’s a little biased because of the work I do, but that emotional intelligence and that empathy as a skill for a leader is going to be even more important, because that’s the thing it can’t replicate. And if you’ve been hiding behind the doing as a leader and not the being as a leader and the connecting as a leader, you’re going to need to upskill like now.
Sharon Steed 33:40
Oh, yeah, for sure. And then I think that also, you know, this is going to force companies to really, you know, like, put their people first. I was talking to one of my tech friends who is a software developer, and he was saying, like, you know, I don’t want AI to, like, have me be 10x productive. I want AI to give me, like, a four day work week. I want AI to, like, do a lot of the works so, like, I can, like, go home at 5pm right? And take my kids to soccer, right? And so, you know, as we get, like, just, like, incredibly, you know, like, tech obsessed, and, yeah, automating things away. You know, I think that a lot of companies are going to have to figure out, like, okay, like, what is the balance of I want you to be as productive as possible. However you are a person, and like, all of the top talent is like, Look, I know what AI can do, so you’re going to have to give me a little bit more here. Yeah, I can just go to another company, like, that’s going to respect like that. Yeah, you know, I. I know exactly what AI is capable of. I know what I’m capable of, and kind of have to give us a little bit more, right,
Maria Ross 35:07
right? Well, and they, you know, they’re finding that the sweet spot blend of really maximizing AI is AI combined with human intervention. And you’re still going to need domain experts. You’re still going to need people to populate the learning models you’re still going to need. And even when we’re talking, you know, I speak to a lot of founders on the show of empathic AI, or people that are in the field of empathic AI, and you can’t outsource something, you can’t program something that you yourself don’t understand, yeah, and you yourself haven’t mastered. So, you know, it’s about, and I’ll put a link to Michelle zhao’s interview. She’s the founder of Juji, which is a empathic AI solution. And she said, You know, it’s about having those people that can actually populate the technology and populate the learning models, and then there’s always still going to be a need for a human element. It can’t effectively. We’re not going to get all the efficiencies and all the benefits of it by just sort of outsourcing everything we’re not good at to it because it won’t know what to do with that. It’s sort of like outsourcing a process that you haven’t optimized yourself and now you’ve just put something that you’re not good at on somebody else. Yeah, it’s the same thing. So, so we need that ability to build our own capacity for empathy and our own capacity for connection in order to continue to refine and tailor AI to be the partner, the thought partner, the process partner, that we need. But it doesn’t give us an excuse to sort of check out 100% Yeah.
Sharon Steed 36:43
As long as people are at the center of, like, creating these products, which we probably are going to be for a while, at least, I would hope you know, we’re always going to have to, you know, have some capacity for that understanding and that perspective taking in order to continue to create these products, because consumers are people, and they are using your products as well. Absolutely, absolutely.
Maria Ross 37:09
So this has been such a great conversation. Sharon, thank you so much for your insights and for being with us today. I want to remind people that you’ve got your two LinkedIn courses communicating with empathy and the the one about empathy in the age of AI. So people can go check that out. We’ll put links to those in the show notes. We’ll have all your links in the show notes. But for people that are on the go, where’s the best place they can find out more about your work, you can definitely
Sharon Steed 37:35
just go head over to my LinkedIn. It’s just my name, I feel like I’m probably the first one that’s going to come to come in the search, yeah, yeah. And so yeah, I have a newsletter on there that I update one to two times a month, depending on how things are going. Yeah. On vulnerability in the workplace, and then I also do a LinkedIn live on empathy in automation, where we Wow talk about empathy in this very like tech Hocus worlds, and I usually do that three times a month. So yeah, all of that information is on there. Wonderful. Yeah, I would love to connect with all of the people and meet you. I
Maria Ross 38:33
love it. And as I always do with my PSAs is, if you connect with Sharon on LinkedIn, make sure you put a note that says you heard her on the podcast so she doesn’t think you’re trying to sell her something. Sharon, thank you so much for your time and for the work that you’re doing in the world. We so appreciate you.
Sharon Steed 38:49
Oh, thank you. I had an incredible time, and I loved our conversation.
Maria Ross 38:56
And thank you everyone for listening to another episode of the empathy edge podcast. If you like what you heard, you know what to do. Please rate, review and share it with a friend or a colleague, and until next time, please remember that cash flow, creativity and compassion are not mutually exclusive. Take care and be kind For more on how to achieve radical success through empathy. Visit the empathy edge calm. There. You can listen to past episodes, access show notes and free resources. Book me for a Keynote or workshop and sign up for our email list to get new episodes, insights, news and events. Please follow me on Instagram at Red slice. Maria, never forget, empathy is your superpower. Use it to make your work and the world a better place.
