Empathy as an essential skill for talent development consultants

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to present empathy as an ideal characteristic of consultants for talent development (CTD). It provides a contextualized look at how empathy manifests in CTD practice and offers practical guidance for improving CTD empathy skills, and thus their performance in the corporate classroom.

Design/methodology/approach

In total, 34 interviews with talent development professionals were analyzed using a qualitative coding process.

Findings

Apart from functional and industry knowledge, a collection of soft skill themes emerged from the analysis, including active listening, perspective taking, audience adaptation and communication style. These themes coalesced around the construct of empathy and provided a framework with which to understand how empathy is expressed and leveraged in talent development consulting.

Originality/value

While business research has explored the importance of empathy in some workplaces, to the knowledge, this is the first study focusing on the empathy of CTDs. In addition, literature paints a fractured and anecdotal picture of soft skills for the ideal consultant. This research helps CTDs, those who hire them and business educators target essential skills for facilitating workplace learning.

Citation

Helens-Hart, R. and Engstrom, C. (2021), "Empathy as an essential skill for talent development consultants", Journal of Workplace Learning, Vol. 33 No. 4, pp. 245-258. https://doi.org/10.1108/JWL-06-2020-0098