Success Through Empathy: Caring Outperforms Self-Interest

Professional success isn’t just about individual achievement, but about understanding and supporting colleagues. A modern way of thinking would be that empathy and genuine consideration of others’ perspectives is more effective in career advancement than pure self-promotion. By prioritizing workplace relationships and seeing through others’ eyes, we can build more meaningful and successful careers.

The Self-Serving Bias: How We Rationalize Putting Ourselves First

Understanding Rationalization

Rationalization is a psychological defense mechanism, involves creating plausible justifications for behaviors driven by unconscious or socially unacceptable motives ¹. This process safeguards self-esteem and alleviates guilt when actions conflict with personal values ², thereby reconciling behavior with belief ^{3 4}.

Common Workplace Rationalizations

In professional environments, this mechanism manifests frequently as individuals justify prioritizing personal needs over collective goals. Examples include:

• Rationalizing tardiness by citing extended work hours ⁵
• Appropriating a colleague’s idea by claiming critical contribution ⁶
• Framing personal tasks during work time as necessary recuperation or earned perks ⁶
• Defending favoritism based on personal affinity or perceived competence ⁵
• Excusing the withholding of information due to a colleague’s perceived lack of initiative or one’s own heavy workload ⁵

While rationalizing personal viewpoints provides temporary comfort, true effectiveness lies in extending this understanding to the viewpoints of others.

Seeing the Bigger Picture: The Power of Rationalizing Multiple Perspectives

Shifting from an egocentric viewpoint necessitates a conscious effort to engage with others’ perspectives. This capacity yields significant psychological advantages, enhancing the quality and efficacy of decision-making ⁷.

Benefits of Perspective-Taking

• Expands cognitive horizons
• Challenges ingrained biases ⁷
• Stimulates creativity for innovative problem-solving ⁸
• Refines communication
• Reduces misunderstandings ⁹
• Facilitates discovery of mutually beneficial outcomes by considering all interests ⁹

Especially under uncertainty, embracing diverse perspectives and fostering an environment of open dialogue can significantly enhance decision-making quality ¹⁰, partly because it broadens our reference points.

The Role of Reference Dependence

The concept of reference dependence, a principle of behavioral economics, relates to how we frame choices. It suggests that our decisions are typically based on comparisons to a reference point (such as the status quo or past experiences), rather than on absolute values ^{11 12}.

Therefore, incorporating external viewpoints effectively helps us evaluate choices beyond our default reference points. This makes it anti-fragile, while fostering a more comprehensive and less erroneous assessment of available options and potential outcomes.

Professional Impact

• Enhances collaboration and results ⁸
• Cultivates empathy and trust
• Encourages authentic expression
• Leads to more practicable outcomes ⁸
• Enables pragmatic goal assessment
• Identifies common ground ⁹
• Contributes to cohesive team dynamics ⁹

The Empathy Factor

• Critical for valuing diverse perspectives ⁸
• Strengthens trust
• Appreciates unique contributions ^{8 9}
• Promotes inclusivity and psychological safety
• Enables open communication ⁸

This ability to understand and value different viewpoints isn’t merely a ‘soft skill’; research shows it’s a powerful driver of tangible achievement.

Evidence Linking Care to Achievement: A Success Multiplier

A growing body of research substantiates the connection between prosocial behavior and workplace achievement ¹³.

Organizational Benefits of Prosocial Leadership ¹³

• Lower attrition rate
• Enhanced employee policies
• Higher customer satisfaction
• Increased profitability
• Reduced risk

Impact of Prosocial Management

• Greater employee effort and motivation
• Enhanced long-term shareholder value
• Improved productivity and growth
• Better earnings ¹³
• Generates positive feedback loops, inspiring further altruism ¹⁴.

Individual Level Benefits

• Better performance evaluations
• Increased bonuses
• Higher engagement ¹³

Real-World Examples

• Empathetic CFO success stories ¹³
• Successful companies prioritizing employee well-being ¹⁵:
  • Google
  • Patagonia
  • Hilton
  • Salesforce

The Limits of “Me First”: Why a Sole Focus on Personal Gain Can Hinder Your Career

Conversely pursuing personal gain and a singular focus on self-interest can curtail long-term career prospects. Cultivating robust professional relationships grounded in mutual care and consideration offers substantial enduring advantages ¹⁶.

Focusing solely on self-interest often overlooks the necessity of authentic connections, leading to shallow relationships that lack deep trust ¹⁶ and miss out on valuable mentorship, support networks, and emergent opportunities, potentially resulting in poor career decisions ¹⁷ and emotional distress ¹⁸. Furthermore, this approach can erode organizational morale, stifle innovation ¹⁹, contribute to burnout, hinder career resilience ²⁰, and ultimately create a fragile career path ¹⁶.

Approach Comparison

Approach	Short-Term Result	Long-Term Impact
Taking all the credit	Quick recognition	Damaged relationships
Keeping information to yourself	Temporary advantage	Lost trust and opportunities
Helping others	Stronger connections	Career growth and support
Sharing credit	Team appreciation	Lasting trust and success

It is more so that successful people aren’t just skilled, they’re also approachable and have high openness ²¹.

Understanding these limitations naturally leads to the question: how can we actively foster a more supportive and ultimately more successful environment?

Cultivating a Culture of Care: Practical Steps for a More Successful Workplace

Creating a workplace centered on care and multiple perspectives requires deliberate action from both individuals and the organization as a whole.

Individual Actions

• Practice active listening
• Understand diverse viewpoints ⁸
• Offer support to colleagues
• Acknowledge contributions
• Maintain awareness of personal impact ¹³
• Solicit feedback on collaboration
• Show openness to compromise ⁹
• Develop emotional awareness ⁵

Organizational Responsibilities

• Promote collaboration over competition ²²
• Implement mentorship programs ¹⁶
• Create cross-functional initiatives ⁸
• Provide training in:
  • Empathy
  • Communication
  • Conflict resolution ²³
• Strengthen community bonds ²⁴
• Recognize achievements ²⁵
• Model inclusive behavior ¹³
• Invest in employee well-being ¹⁵

Effective Communication Strategies

• Frame projects positively
  • Example: “opportunity to learn and grow together” vs. “challenging task with high risk” ²⁶
• Emphasize shared benefits
• Focus on collaborative outcomes ²⁷

Communication Don’ts

Conversely, underdeveloped communication styles can significantly undermine these efforts. Leaving dismissive or critical remarks like:

• “Why?” or
• “This is BS”

in collaborative documents damages team morale and productivity. Such comments diminish potential returns by creating a hostile environment that stifles contributions. Instead, feedback can be constructive while maintaining psychological safety.

Better Examples:

• “Could you elaborate on the reasoning behind this approach?”
• “I have some concerns about this section - could we discuss alternative approaches?”

Success Through Connection - A More Fulfilling Path

• Success extends beyond individual achievement
• Empathy and collaboration yield superior outcomes
• Prosocial behavior enhances performance
• Quality connections drive meaningful achievement
• Collective advancement ensures personal success

A career built on collective advancement paradoxically ensures more substantial personal success, it creates not merely achievement, but also significance and sustainability in one’s professional trajectory.

References

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2. Rationalization (psychology) - Wikipedia ↩︎

3. Rationalization: A Closer Look at the Defense Mechanism in Various Settings ↩︎

4. Understanding the Rationalization Defense Mechanism - Agents of … ↩︎

5. Using Rationalization as a Defense Mechanism - Verywell Mind ↩︎ ↩︎² ↩︎³ ↩︎⁴

6. Understanding Rationalization as a Defense Mechanism … ↩︎ ↩︎²

7. Embracing different perspectives on online.maryville.edu ↩︎ ↩︎²

8. The Value of Different Perspectives in Professional and Learning … ↩︎ ↩︎² ↩︎³ ↩︎⁴ ↩︎⁵ ↩︎⁶ ↩︎⁷ ↩︎⁸

9. The Importance of Taking the Perspective of Others | Psychology Today ↩︎ ↩︎² ↩︎³ ↩︎⁴ ↩︎⁵ ↩︎⁶

10. Make Better Decisions Under Uncertainty: Taking Charge of Chance - Wharton Executive Education ↩︎

11. Reference Dependence - The Behavioral Scientist ↩︎

12. Reference dependence - Wikipedia ↩︎

13. Why Kind Workplaces Are More Successful ↩︎ ↩︎² ↩︎³ ↩︎⁴ ↩︎⁵ ↩︎⁶ ↩︎⁷

14. Everyday Prosociality in the Workplace: The Reinforcing Benefits of Giving, Getting, and Glimpsing - Sonja Lyubomirsky ↩︎

15. 15+ successful examples of employee engagement in companies - CultureMonkey ↩︎ ↩︎²

16. Why strong relationships are key to a successful career - Cubo ↩︎ ↩︎² ↩︎³ ↩︎⁴

17. Career exploration and its influence on the relationship between self-efficacy and career choice: The moderating role of social support ↩︎

18. The Roles of Negative Career Thinking and Career Problem-Solving Self-Efficacy in Career Exploratory Behavior - The Professional Counselor ↩︎

19. Competition or Collaboration: What is the Future? | by Muhammad Sajwani - Medium ↩︎

20. It’s Time to Prioritize Your Work-Life Balance | Harvard Online ↩︎

21. The Benefits of Caring for Others - Halo Staffing ↩︎

22. Competitive vs collaborative team behavior: why you need both - Experience Dropbox ↩︎

23. IQ vs EQ for Career Success - Psi Chi ↩︎

24. Nurturing a Positive Work Environment for Collective Success - Axomo.com ↩︎

25. Top 8 Employee Engagement Companies Leading By Example - Double the Donation ↩︎

26. The Power of Framing as a Leader | Ambition In Motion ↩︎

27. The Power of Positive Reframing - Workplace Options - Ireland ↩︎