Ep 118 – How To Harness Empathy In Business
Ep 118 - How To Harness Empathy In Business
It’s no secret that businesses spend thousands of dollars a year researching ways to better understand their audience but what about their people – the ones who work for them? Having personally seen the impact of exclusion, diversity and bullying in the workplace, Andra realised businesses need to look at their people, not their product line, to be the best they can be. With this empathy-centric vision in mind, Andra went on to create consultancy agency Empathy Global and more recently Hiboo, an emotion AI engine that solves work-related challenges and helps grow your career with tactical and strategic information. In this episode, Andra discusses imposter syndrome, the need for burning desire and why we need to stop using empathy as a buzzword and harness it for good.
Andra Vaduva
They say a lot goes on behind closed doors, but in Andra Vaduva’s case, what businesses tolerate in the open is far more taboo.
When we think about a business, we are taught to shift our thinking to a numerical date – profit and loss, sale and forecast. We are engrained to consider business within arbitrary confines and sadly, that is also extended to its people to operate within them. But people aren’t profit centres – they are finite, complex and delicate. And yet, businesses tend to ignore their needs, pouring more attention into the entity of their company not the empathy of their people.
Andra Vaduva knew this had to stop. While ‘empathy’ seemed to be having a vogue moment of late, thanks to the likes of Brené Brown, the business sector hasn’t really been leaning into the trend at all, merely procaliaming it. So, she got to work. In order to reduce the risks of workplace exclusion and racism, it was clear the emotion needed to be injected into the boardroom.
This hypothesis led to the creation of two businesses. Hiboo, an emotion AI engine that solves work-related challenges and helps grow your career with tactical and strategic information. And consultancy Empathy Global, which harnesses data with applied empathy to help entrepreneurs and companies.
In this episode, Andra unpacks what empathy should mean for businesses, why we need to consider emotions, not just margins and the strength in taking risks.
Street Cred:
Andra Vaduva is a multi-tech start-up founder who harnesses data to deepen human connections and scale brands with a focus on empathy. As the founder of consultancy agency Empathy Global, Andra helps entrepreneurs and companies ramp up their businesses with applied empathy and data. Andra is also currently launching Hiboo, an emotion AI engine that solves work-related challenges and helps grow your career with tactical and strategic information. She is a Forbes 30 Under 30 listee and a graduate of the University of Central Florida.
