The Empathy Key Chain

Why would having a strong empathy card in your personal arsenal allow you to be a better guide? Empathy is defined as, the ability to understand and share the feelings of one another. The way I view someone that is empathetic is someone that has the ability to flex and relate to anyone in a group, being able to view a situation as walking a mile in someone else’s shoes. When guiding no matter, the activity you will run into numerous different scenarios where clients will be defeated, troubled or un motivated. Being able to adapt and fix this situation to the best of your ability can be a valuable tool to have.  

            In the book Lead Like A Guide by Christopher Maxwell he points to how important the use of empathy is in the guiding industry, in this case specifically mountain guiding. One quote brought up in the book states “Leadership requires empathy. On a superficial level this means that the leader should have the ability to connect with all team members quickly and meaning fully.” (Maxwell 43). http://www.leadlikeaguide.com This statement from Maxwell makes a strong point here when he says that you have to be able to empathize with each person in the group and quickly. I was really hooked when he said quickly, in so many situations in the profession guides have to react to so many situations that are constantly changing such as weather patterns avalanche patterns and overall how the clients are doing. Each of these changes drastically effects the clients which in return the guides also have to adapt to. It takes a solid amount of empathy from a guide to be able to do this day in and day out. Another quote that really stood out to me when skimming through the book was “Empathy and communication are at the core of expedition behavior” (Maxwell 42). This quote also stood out because of the fact that that it seems he included empathy with communication which are also the essentials for building a strong team; putting these two in the same category goes to show how crucial empathy is.

            Another article I found was on the topic of reflective empathy. This was titled “The moral importance of reflective empathy”, by Ingmar Persson and Julian Savulescu. I included this piece of work because of the quote “Such a reflective empathy would motivate a correspondingly more reflective and justifiable altruistic concern, as well as greater, more rational prudential concern for our future selves.” https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12152-017-9350-7

 I thought that this really related to guiding as reflection seems to be a very crucial piece of the industry. In general, this empathetic self-reflection is an important aspect of life. Adding in empathy to this self-reflection piece is crucial in the guiding industry as well. Not sitting too hard on the past and moving forward with a positive and eager to learn mindset is crucial during long expeditions or even after the fact when reflecting on a situation that may have just occurred.

Works Cited

Christopher I. Maxwell. (n.d.). Retrieved February 7, 2021, from http://www.leadlikeaguide.com/

Persson, I., & Savulescu, J. (2017, December 15). The Moral Importance of Reflective Empathy. Retrieved February 7, 2021, from https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12152-017-9350-7

When describing how people act and re-act on a day to day basis we can look at peoples behavioral and personality inventories. Although both words personality and behavioral are similar, when looking at personality inventories compared to behavioral they are actually much different. When looking at textbook definitions of both words, Personality is said to be related to an individuals personal characteristics compared to behavior which has more to do with ones emphasis on behavior.

 On the behavioral side of things we have been looking at Boltons work "People styles at work", In this work by Bolton he refers to a behavioral inventory as a way to group people, each of these groups describes peoples  actions and reactions on a day to day basis, these categories include analytical, amiable, driver and expression. (Bolton 19)  Each of the titles shown have backup and normal characteristics that go along with them, each of these characteristics are important to learn in a business setting as each business or program will have all different types of potential and current employees and knowing these different titles and characteristics will help solve conflicts and issues in programs and businesses. This is a good way to depict how people will act and react in different situations, this can be a beneficial way to analyze people for business and career situations.

On the differing side, personal inventories are are also a prominent way to analyze an individuals personal characteristics. There are many different models in analyzing this, one that I found really interesting and decided to analyze was the Sigma Neo-PI-3. This personal invetory is specifically designed by a five factor model which the five factors analyzed in this inventory are neuroticism, extraversion, opens to experience, agreeableness and conscientiousness. These different parts of the model are usually used to analyze people in an industrial or recreational setting.

On both sides of the spectrum both of these tests can be used to improve ones performance and being whether it is in a work or personal setting. I am excited to be diving deeper into each of these inventories as they will allow me to be able to solve conflict  whether it is in the workplace or in a personal setting. Along with the Neo-PI-3 test there a re numerous other tests and sources to discover on the topic which can help me to better myself and tactic in social settings.

Works Cited 

Bolton, Robert, and Dorothy Grover. Bolton. People Styles at Work: Making Bad Relationships Good and Good Relationships Better. AMACOM, 1996.

“The Difference between Personality and Behavioral Assessments.”