In a fast-moving, stressful corporate environment, empathy in leadership can sound like an abstract concept, not an actionable skill. However, without empathetic leadership, teams struggle with miscommunication, disengagement, and conflict. The result? A lack of team cohesion causes organizations to suffer from lower productivity and higher turnover, which impacts their bottom line.
Are there benefits to empathy in the workplace? Research shows that a culture of empathy promotes innovation, employee engagement, retention, and better work-life balance. That’s because empathy isn’t only about being kind—it’s a skill that must be practiced. Without structured empathy activities, workplace relationships suffer, decision-making feels disconnected, and ultimately, leadership falls flat.
This guide highlights the best empathy exercises for team building to equip leaders and teams with tools that drive genuine results. You’ll discover the following:
- Impactful empathy activities to strengthen communication and trust.
- Leadership training strategies to improve decision-making and emotional intelligence.
- Proven professional development tools like Enneagram, DISC, and Myers-Briggs.
Additionally, you’ll learn how FullTilt Team Development’s top-rated team building exercises turn empathy into action. If you want a more connected, high-performing workplace, these empathy activities will help you get there.
Definition of Empathy in Leadership & Team Building
Empathy among team members and leaders is the ability to understand, relate to, and respond to the emotions and perspectives of others. It’s a way to feel what the other person is feeling. It goes beyond sympathetic listening. Empathy is about active engagement, emotional intelligence, and adapting communication styles to foster cooperative teamwork.
Teaching empathy activities is valuable in the workplace because it helps create a supportive environment. Individual team members experience less conflict, and teamwork skills like problem-solving, critical thinking, effective communication, active listening skills, and trust improve.
The Business Case for Empathy: Why It Matters for Teams & Leaders
Some business leaders hesitate, believing that empathy slows decision-making and compromises authority. After all, leadership is about driving results, making tough calls, and maintaining efficiency—not getting lost in a quagmire of emotions. Taking time to consider different perspectives seems like putting the brakes on, slowing momentum, and weakening authority.
The reality is the opposite. Research into neuroscience shows that companies with empathetic leaders have more engaged teams, higher retention rates, and greater productivity.
For example, a 2022 study, “Empathy in Leadership,” examined the importance of empathetic skills. Rather than slow down innovation, empathic leaders create a culture of trust, psychological safety, and open communication. Research shows the following benefits:
- Employee retention and engagement: Companies with an empathetic work culture experience retention rates up to 40% higher and increased job satisfaction. This leads to lower turnover and reduced hiring costs.
- Improved decision-making: Leaders who practice empathetic decision-making are 25% more likely to resolve conflicts effectively and enhance team collaboration.
- Organizational innovation: Workplaces that foster a culture of empathy report a 30% increase in creative problem-solving and adaptability, directly contributing to business innovation.
- Higher productivity: Teams led by empathetic managers show a 17% increase in productivity, as employees feel more valued and motivated to contribute.
- Stronger leadership effectiveness: Leaders who actively develop empathetic listening and mentoring skills are 60% more effective at building trust and team alignment.
These findings prove that measuring empathy in the workplace isn’t just about employee satisfaction—it’s a key driver of business success. Some of the world’s most successful know the importance of creating an empathetic environment in the workplace.
Companies Leading in Empathy-Driven Leadership
Some of the world’s most successful recognize the importance of creating an empathetic environment in the workplace. Here are two case studies:
Microsoft
When Satya Nadella became CEO in 2014, he reshaped Microsoft’s culture with empathy at its core, replacing internal competition with collaboration. He said, “approach is to lead with a sense of purpose and pride in what we do, not envy or combativeness.” His leadership drove a 500% increase in market value, proving that empathy fuels innovation, engagement, and long-term business success.
Google’s Project Aristotle found that the highest-performing teams shared one key trait: psychological safety—the freedom to speak up without fear. Empathy-driven leadership helped Google teams improve collaboration, decision-making, and innovation, reinforcing that trust and emotional intelligence are business imperatives.
Common Barriers to Empathy in Leadership
Showing empathy within teams can seem inefficient or counterproductive in high-pressure environments. Think about it—when deadlines loom, and decisions must be made quickly, it’s easy to think that focusing on feelings and emotions slows progress. Here are common barriers to organizing empathy training exercises.
The “Time-Efficiency” Myth: Why Leaders Hesitate to Be Empathetic
Many leaders believe empathy takes too much time, assuming that direct, no-nonsense leadership is more efficient. However, studies show that empathetic leaders build trust faster, prevent costly miscommunications, and reduce turnover—ultimately saving time and boosting productivity.
Bias & Decision Fatigue: How Cognitive Overload Blocks Empathy
Leaders make hundreds of decisions daily, and under stress, they often default to logic over emotional awareness. Cognitive overload and unconscious bias can make it harder to recognize employee struggles, leading to disengagement and missed growth opportunities.
Remote Work Challenges: How Digital Tools Can Either Help or Hinder
Without in-person interaction, emotional cues get lost, making it difficult for leaders to sense frustration, burnout, or team morale shifts. While digital tools enable constant communication, relying too heavily on virtual interactions without personal check-ins can weaken team trust.
The Three Levels of Empathy in the Workplace
A team or leader’s capacity for empathy goes beyond a simple “I know how you’re feeling.” It requires processing, feeling, and responding effectively. It also requires emotional intelligence to know what to say, when to say it, and how to say it.
Strong leaders balance three key levels of empathy to build trust, improve communication, and drive team success.
- Cognitive empathy: The ability to understand emotions without absorbing them. It’s about seeing the situation through another’s perspective, recognizing their feelings, and processing them logically. Cognitive empathy is helpful for customer service teams to show empathy to clients.
- Emotional empathy: Feeling what others feel, not just recognizing it. This level connects on a deeper, personal level, allowing leaders to resonate with their team’s emotions.
- Compassionate empathy: Turning understanding into action. It’s not about absorbing emotions but proactively offering support to uplift and improve a colleague’s well-being.
Strong teams don’t just understand emotions—they act on them. That’s what great leadership is about. The result? A workplace where trust, collaboration, and emotional intelligence drive success.
Some of the best ways to develop deeper levels of empathy within teams are self-assessment tools.
How Professional Development Tools Improve Workplace Empathy
Team building events should include empathy training exercises that build self-awareness. They help people recognize biases, adapt to different perspectives, and build stronger, more empathetic connections.
At FullTilt, we recognize the importance of integrating self-assessments into professional development training. These help create a foundation for emotional intelligence, conflict resolution, and effective collaboration—key traits of high-performing teams.
Enneagram Assessment Tests
The Enneagram identifies nine personality types, revealing core motivations, fears, and emotional triggers. Employees learn their strengths and areas of personal growth. A deeper understanding of their own and others’ behaviors improves communication and reduces workplace disputes.
How it promotes an empathetic work culture:
- Enhances emotional intelligence by recognizing different perspectives.
- Encourages self-awareness in leadership and teamwork.
- Helps teams navigate conflict by understanding emotional triggers.
Learn more: Enneagram Assessment Test.
Myers-Briggs Personality Test
The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) categorizes personalities based on how people process information and interact with others. It helps leaders and teams adjust communication styles for better collaboration.
How it improves empathy within teams:
- Improves interpersonal dynamics by recognizing thinking vs. feeling preferences.
- Builds stronger teams by leveraging diverse work styles.
- Encourages adaptability by understanding how others process emotions.
Learn More: Myers-Briggs Personality Test.
DISC Personality Test
The DISC test measures four behavioral styles—Dominance, Influence, Steadiness, and Conscientiousness—to help teams navigate different work approaches. It fosters awareness of communication preferences and emotional responses.
How it develops empathetic individuals:
- Encourages leaders to adapt their approach to different personalities.
- Improves team collaboration by reducing misunderstandings.
- Strengthens empathy by highlighting how different styles handle stress.
Learn More: DISC Personality Test.
High-Impact Empathy Team Building Activities for Employees
Empathy isn’t just learned—it’s experienced. FullTilt’s hands-on team building activities challenge employees to step into new perspectives, improve communication, and build trust. These activities turn the capacity for empathy into action.
Helping Hands Program
The Helping Hand Program is designed to foster a better understanding of empathy in the workplace. The engaging, meaningful, hands-on activity gets participants earning tools and equipment to build prosthetic hands for people in need. By working together for a greater cause, teams develop compassion, collaboration, and a deeper sense of purpose.
Bring this life-changing experience to your team—explore the Helping Hands Program today to include it in your next team building session.
Wheelchair Build Challenge
The Wheelchair Build Challenge is an effective empathy-building exercise to give employees a deeper understanding of people who live with challenges. The immersive indoor event involves fun events to assemble wheelchairs, which are then donated to local charities. Beyond teamwork and trust, participants gain and develop compassionate empathy in the workplace.
Give your team a purpose-driven experience by booking the Wheelchair Build Challenge for your next corporate team building event.
Broken Bear
FullTilt designed Broken Bear as an effective empathy team building activity. It involves employees repairing stuffed animals based on the Japanese art of Kintsugi—using gold and silver to ‘celebrate’ imperfections. The stuffed toys have similar challenges to the kids—maybe missing a limb or an eye patch.
The stuffed animals are donated to local children’s charities that care for kids with disabilities. It also helps strengthen empathy in children.
Ready to transform your team’s dynamics and strengthen an empathetic work culture? Discover more about the Broken Bear Challenge and make a lasting impact on your next corporate team event.
The Great Mandala Leadership Project
The Great Mandala Leadership Project helps teams understand diverse perspectives and encourages cognitive empathy. Inspired by Tibetan Buddhist rituals of creating sand mandalas, the hands-on event gets individuals decorating wooden panels that come together to form a cohesive, inspiring message. It’s an excellent way to strengthen team spirit and align employees with organizational vision and goals.
Ready to unify your team through creativity, mindfulness, and empathy? Secure the Great Mandala Leadership Project and inspire collaboration today.
The Elevated Raceway
The Elevated Raceway indoor team activity is ideal for helping employees understand different perspectives while working toward common goals. They must use communication skills to design and create a complex raceway from cardboard and standard office equipment. The finale is an exhilarating race with remote-controlled cars.
To add an element of compassionate empathy, FullTilt can adapt the activity as a charitable event where nonperishable food items are donated to food banks.
Ready to accelerate your team’s cohesion and create a positive work environment based on empathy? Book the Elevated Raceway for your next team-building event.
The Best Empathy Training for Leaders and Executives
Effective leadership starts with empathy-driven decision-making—a crucial skill for anyone in charge. FullTilt has a wide range of leadership training activities designed to help executives and managers develop emotional intelligence, strengthen team trust, and enhance communication.
360-Degree Behavioral Matrix
The 360-Degree Behavioral Matrix is one of the most powerful team building activities to boost cognitive empathy. It’s designed as an experimental activity that blends elements of Myers-Briggs, DISC Assessments, and StrengthsFinder. Executives use the modules to enhance self-awareness, emotional intelligence, and team communication.
Participants build deeper connections as they understand their unique behavioral styles and those of their colleagues.
Book the 360-Degree Behavioral Matrix as a practical empathy workshop to create a more positive working environment and boost employee morale.
Authentic Leadership Workshop
We all know it—the best leaders earn trust and lead with integrity. But that doesn’t happen by accident. The Authentic Leadership Workshop is a hands-on, high-impact training that pushes leaders to connect, self-reflect, and grow. Through engaging, interactive challenges, participants develop emotional empathy, self-awareness, and real leadership presence.
Through real-world scenarios and self-reflection, leaders learn to align their actions with core values, building a foundation of trust and respect within their teams.
Want to build a culture of emotional understanding in the workplace? If so, secure the Authentic Leadership Workshop for your next professional development training day.
Clear and Productive Feedback Module
Improved communication only occurs with empathic listening and a strong culture of understanding. That’s why successful organizations use FullTilt’s Clear and Productive Feedback Module to create a culture of continuous improvement and effective communication. And the best way to do this is to strengthen cognitive empathy.
Here’s why CAP Feedback is an essential professional development module to develop critical skills:
- Clear: Employees learn effective communication skills to maintain clarity in feedback.
- Authentic: Training modules teach how to be honest but show respect and trust at the same time.
- Productive: The feedback clearly shows how to improve and what its benefits are.
Use your next leadership development event to elevate your team’s communication skills and book the Clear and Productive Feedback Module.
Optimal Time Management
Optimal Time Management skills have numerous benefits in exhibiting various forms of empathy. For example, managing time effectively reduces stress and allows team members to be more attentive to each other’s needs. The modules use business simulations that challenge participants to prioritize tasks, delegate effectively, and manage multiple responsibilities.
These activities highlight the importance of collaboration and understanding individual strengths within the team.
Want to transform your team’s productivity while helping employees manage individual challenges? Include the Optimal Time Management program at your next professional development event. You’ll discover that mastering the art of efficiency is not a difficult skill.
8 Productive Practices
FullTilt’s 8 Productive Practices is a practical empathy training module for team building. A series of immersive workshops help participants gain the skills to enhance compassionate empathy. They do this by engaging in fun activities that teach vital habits that encourage understanding, collaboration, and mutual respect within teams.
Here are the eight habits empathetic leaders and teams prioritize:
- Proactive action
- Planning
- Prioritizing
- Sharing success
- Communicating
- Cooperating
- Practicing success
- Trusting
Want to elevate your team’s performance and help them develop strong relationships and become more empathetic? Secure the 8 Productive Practices for your next team building event.
How Leaders Can Practice Empathy in High-Stakes Situations
Empathy matters most when the stakes are high. But in moments of conflict, delegation, layoffs, and negotiations, it often takes a backseat to pressure and efficiency. The best leaders, however, know how to balance empathy with decisiveness—because ignoring emotions doesn’t make them disappear.
- Conflict resolution: Listen first. Acknowledge concerns without rushing to fix them. A well-placed “I see why this is frustrating” can diffuse tension faster than a defensive response.
- Delegation: Assign tasks based on capabilities and aspirations, not just convenience. An empathetic leader asks, “How does this project fit your growth goals?”
- Layoffs: Be transparent and human. Acknowledge the impact, offer support, and ensure those affected feel valued, even as they exit. Cold, transactional layoffs erode trust company-wide.
- Negotiations: The best deals come from mutual understanding. Empathetic leaders focus on what both sides need to feel satisfied, not just what they want to win.
Empathy in high-pressure moments isn’t a weakness—it’s a leadership advantage.
How to Build an Empathetic Workplace: A Step-by-Step Strategy
A culture of empathy doesn’t happen by chance. It needs to be woven into daily operations, not just mentioned in leadership memos.
- Make empathy training part of leadership development: Teach managers how to listen, communicate, and adapt their approach based on team needs.
- Embed empathy in feedback and performance reviews: Evaluate not just results but how leaders handle communication, conflict, and team morale.
- Encourage psychological safety: Employees should feel safe expressing concerns without fear of backlash. Open dialogue builds stronger teams.
A truly empathetic workplace is one where people feel heard, valued, and motivated to give their best.
How to Measure & Scale Empathy in the Workplace
What gets measured gets improved. The challenge? Empathy isn’t a number on a spreadsheet. But it can be tracked—here are a few ideas.
- Employee engagement surveys: Add empathy-related questions: “Do you feel heard by leadership?” “Do you trust your manager to support you?”
- 360-degree feedback: Assess leaders on how well they listen, communicate, and resolve conflicts.
- Sentiment analysis tools: AI-driven insights can reveal shifts in morale, stress, and emotional engagement over time.
Tracking these metrics turns empathy from an abstract value into a tangible leadership skill. It will also be easier for upper management to buy into leadership development programs.
Empathy in Action: Transform Your Team with FullTilt Training
Empathy isn’t just a leadership trait—it’s a game-changer for team performance, trust, and retention. Companies that embed empathy into their culture see stronger collaboration, sharper decision-making, and happier, more engaged employees. But here’s the thing—talking about empathy isn’t enough. You must train it.
That’s where FullTilt Team Development comes in. Our high-impact, hands-on team building programs turn empathy from a buzzword into a real, measurable skill. Whether it’s through purpose-driven challenges like Helping Hands, trust-building workshops, or leadership coaching that reshapes communication, we create experiences that stick.
Want a team that listens, collaborates, and drives real results? Don’t just talk about empathy—train it. Contact FullTilt today today and start building a workplace where trust, innovation, and performance thrive.