Most employees believe that when leaders and organizations genuinely practice empathy, it drives better outcomes across the board; more efficiency, more creativity, more innovation. And yet, more than half of employees say their company's efforts to show empathy feel dishonest (EY, 2023).
That gap is not new. But it is widening. Somewhere between AI investments, budget pressure, and the push to perform, human-centered leadership slipped down the priority list. Executives know empathy matters. The research is unambiguous. Translating that knowledge into consistent leadership behavior is where most organizations are falling short.
Key Takeaways
- Knowing empathy matters is not the same as practicing it. Most leaders agree empathy is critical. Few have the time, structure, or support to act on it consistently, especially under pressure.
- Empathetic leaders get measurably better results.
- Disengagement is expensive. Engagement is an opportunity.
- Empathy did not disappear from the workplace. It got deprioritized. What leaders deprioritize today tends to become a retention and culture problem tomorrow.
The empathy deficit is real
In 2024, Deloitte surveyed more than 14,000 business and HR leaders across 95 countries. Executives consistently ranked human capabilities like empathy, curiosity, and connection last among their organizational priorities, behind digital transformation and performance metrics (Deloitte, 2024a). Employees, meanwhile, pointed to the absence of empathy and psychological safety as among the most damaging things a leader can do to their engagement and performance (Deloitte, 2024b).
That is not a values problem. It is a priorities problem.
Leaders are not failing because they lack intelligence or ambition. They are navigating more complexity, faster, with fewer resources than any previous generation of managers. Empathy did not disappear. It got squeezed out. What gets deprioritized today becomes a talent and culture crisis tomorrow.
What research says
The business case for empathetic leadership is not new. But it is stronger than most executives realize. Empathetic leadership is not a “nice to have.” It is a measurable driver of the outcomes organizations care most about.
61%
of U.S. employees with highly empathetic leaders reported being innovative at work compared to 13% under less empathetic leaders (Catalyst, 2021).
76%
of employees with empathetic leaders felt engaged at work (Catalyst, 2021).
76%
of leaders say human-centered practices are critically important (Deloitte, 2024a).
3%
of organizations are actually capturing the full value their people create (Deloitte, 2024a).
23%
more profitable: that's the difference between highly engaged teams and disengaged ones (Gallup).
18%
more productive: engaged teams outpace their disengaged counterparts by nearly a fifth. (Gallup).
Why it keeps getting deprioritized
Remote and hybrid work stretched the boundaries of team connection, AI adoption is reshaping roles faster than development programs can keep up, and conomic uncertainty shortened planning horizons.
In that environment, empathy is often the first thing to go. Not because leaders do not value it, but because it requires time, presence, and attention. Three things that feel perpetually scarce.
Empathy requires time, presence and attention.
What Empathy actually looks like
Empathy in leadership is not about bringing feelings to every meeting. It is about the habits and behaviors that let people do their best work.
It is a manager who notices a shift in someone's engagement before it becomes a performance issue, and makes space to address it. A senior leader who communicates organizational changes with transparency. A team where people raise problems early because they know they will not be penalized for it.
In their 2024 book The Journey of Leadership, four McKinsey senior partners make a similar point: the most effective leaders combine a human-centric approach rooted in humility, empathy, and genuine vulnerability with disciplined accountability and clear direction (Maor et al., 2024). Not one or the other.
What development needs to do differently
Most organizations do not have an empathy awareness problem. They have an implementation problem.
Leaders know why it matters. What they are missing is the structure and support to translate that knowledge into consistent behavior, especially under pressure. That is where leadership development has to step up.
Effective programs do not just introduce concepts. They create space for leaders to practice empathetic behaviors in real contexts, reflect on their own patterns, hear honest feedback from peers, and build the psychological safety within their teams that drives performance.
The cost of getting this wrong
What does it cost an organization to keep deprioritizing empathy in leadership?
Lower engagement, higher turnover, reduced innovation, declining psychological safety. A workforce that shows up but is not really there. None of it appears as a single line item. It accumulates in missed opportunities, quiet departures, and teams that meet expectations but never exceed them.
Gallup estimates that if organizations worldwide reached high engagement benchmarks, $9.6 trillion in productivity could be added to the global economy (Gallup, 2025). Catalyst's research shows the path there: organizations with empathetic senior leaders see measurably stronger innovation, inclusion, and retention (Catalyst, 2021).
Catalyst's research shows the inverse is equally true: organizations with empathetic senior leaders see measurably stronger innovation, inclusion, and retention (Catalyst, 2021).
The organizations that take this seriously are not just building better cultures. They are building competitive advantage.
References
Catalyst. (2021). The power of empathy in times of crisis and beyond. Catalyst. https://www.catalyst.org/insights/2025/empathy-work-strategy-crisis
Deloitte. (2024a). 2024 global human capital trends: Thriving beyond boundaries. Deloitte Insights. https://www.deloitte.com/us/en/insights/topics/talent/human-capital-trends/2024.html
Deloitte. (2024b). Evolving leadership to drive human performance. Deloitte Insights. https://www.deloitte.com/us/en/insights/topics/talent/human-capital-trends/2024/human-performance-new-ways-of-working.html
Ernst & Young. (2023). 2023 EY empathy in business survey. EY US. https://www.ey.com/en_us/newsroom/2023/03/new-ey-us-consulting-study
Gallup. (2024). State of the global workplace: 2024 report. Gallup. https://www.gallup.com/workplace/349484/state-of-the-global-workplace.aspx
Gallup. (2025). State of the global workplace: 2025 report. Gallup. https://www.gallup.com/workplace/349484/state-of-the-global-workplace.aspx
Gallup. (n.d.). The benefits of employee engagement. Gallup. https://www.gallup.com/workplace/236927/employee-engagement-drives-growth.aspx
Maor, D., Kaas, H.-W., Strovink, K., & Srinivasan, R. (2024). The journey of leadership: How CEOs learn to lead from the inside out. Portfolio/Penguin.
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