The Role of Empathy in Leadership with Chris Jarvis

**SPEAKER_1** (0:03)
The Bliss Business Podcast, the show about empathy, connection, and consciousness in business. Today's episode is brought to you by Zero Company, your paid search, social media, and programmatic ad experts.

**Stephen Zagash** (0:18)
Chris, we've got Mike and I hair goals, and how long was the awkward stage for you of growing out your hair? Because you're going to be our role model here.

**Chris Jarvis** (0:26)
Yeah, I think, you know, I had it short. I was in the Paris airport, looked at the magazine with this beautiful guy on it, and he was older, and I thought, oh, I could do that. But it was in 2015, so I'm too late to be doing this kind of thing, so I don't know why I did it. And then I still had to do a presentation. So it was about 18 months of looking like a televangelist in some form or another.

**Stephen Zagash** (0:52)
I got 18 months to avoid people, I guess.

**Mike Lusky** (0:56)
Yes.

**Chris Jarvis** (0:59)
I guess I just sort of squashed that part of my sensibilities down for a while.

**Stephen Zagash** (1:06)
My daughter did the opposite during the pandemic. She shaved everything. And I shaved her for her, and I'm like, you know what, if you want to do it, now's the perfect time. And she's, all right, I'll do it.

**Chris Jarvis** (1:18)
Stephen, what possessed her? Just like, see what it was like?

**Stephen Zagash** (1:23)
Yeah, pretty much. Okay. Me too.

**Chris Jarvis** (1:26)
That was it. Same thing.

**Stephen Zagash** (1:28)
That was it. Yeah. Hey, everyone. Welcome to the show. I'm Stephen Zagash, joined by Mike Lusky. Did you know that individuals, when they rise to power, it can impair neurological abilities related to empathy? This is a great topic this week. This is just a great topic this week. That's all I'm going to say about that.
But these neurological changes have profound implications for how leaders can connect, and inspire, and drive impact. So we're going to dive into empathy and leadership from some unique perspectives today and cover some of that. Mike, why don't you tell us a little more about our guests and the incredible work they're doing?

**Mike Lusky** (2:08)
Steven, thank you, and super excited. I know our audience today is going to be in for a great, great show. So our guest today is none other than Chris Jarvis. He's the co-founder of Realized Worth. It's a company that specializes in designing corporate volunteering strategies, training employee volunteer leaders, and implementing company-wide programs to drive social movements. Chris has dedicated his career to helping companies like Microsoft and SAP connect their employees to meaningful causes that then create a real powerful social movement through their CSRs or their corporate social responsibility program. So in today's episode, we'll explore, as Stephen mentioned, the role of empathy and leadership, including some real fascinating research on the effects of power on the brain and how leaders can maintain their capacity to connect and show compassion. So Chris, welcome to the show. We are super excited to have you.

**Chris Jarvis** (3:12)
Thank you so much. Good to be here with you all.

**Mike Lusky** (3:15)
Likewise, likewise. Chris, maybe to kick things off, we want to talk a little bit about empathy. Can you share how empathy has shaped your approach to leadership and the mission that you have at Realized Worth?

**Chris Jarvis** (3:30)
Absolutely. Okay, so the whole premise of the name, everything that we do is based on the, in some way or another, on empathy. And I should let everybody know, I have a condition called Tourette's. It doesn't always show up. But every once in a while, you know, when there's an audience of what? I, Steven, I assume 10,000 or so. I get a little, it comes out a little bit. So if I, if I make a weird, if I stutter, make a weird facial thing, that's what's happening. And that's important for me, for the audience, because Mike, they might think that I'm responding negatively to a joke or I don't get something or something like that. So there, that's out of the way. And my journey, oh yeah, yeah, no, my pleasure. And my journey began, you know, I was, I was pretty young. I grew up pretty conservative. And I was involved in the launch of a drop in Center for Youth in a small town outside of Toronto, Milton. It's a suburb.
And the idea was to make connections with youth before they went in the city. Well, I found a couple, I didn't know anything about drop in. So I found a couple of guys who did, and they took me on a tour downtown Toronto, and they're walking me all around, and they're introducing me to people they know. One guy was, had been the executive director of Young Street Mission. In the 1800s, there was a mission movement. It was one of the five in North America, or seven or something. It got established. Or no, sorry, the turn of the century. And then, yeah, we were just walking around. They were telling me, we were being introduced, and they were, of course, they were trying to acclimate me to the scene. So after about a couple of hours of this, they said, we've been talking, can we ask you a question? And I said, yeah, sure. They said, well, you have a little church in Milton. And how many families you have? I said, I don't know, maybe 20 different families. It was a huge church. Do you have any of them have, because I know you both have kids who are getting older and going to university, and you have that situation. And I said, yeah, we have some people like that. Okay, so there's this girl, and she's been working on the streets, a working girl, she's in prostitution, and she's 21, she has a couple of little kids. She needs to get her high school education, she wants to get off the street, but she needs a place to live, and she needs somebody to sort of help her with the kids. Now, we'll provide the support, but do you have anybody, any of those families have an empty room, take her in for a few months? I thought about it. You know, at that point, do you ever get a question that you're not expecting, and you can literally feel your heart coming right up into your throat? That's like, guys, I don't think so. So Mike steps in and he says, really? Think hard, and he pokes me in the chest. I said, Mike, I don't think anybody's ready for that. That's pretty extreme. And so he said, then what the blank good is your religion to anybody?