My Empathy Quotient

Over the past few years I have been poked, prodded and jabbed by every test possible. Psychological tests that is, which are successful at analyzing my personality, discovering my strengths and weaknesses, zeroing in on my leadership style, and uncovering my true talents. One of my favorites of these tests is Strengthfinder 2.0, as assessment which helps you highlight what you do well and instead of prompting you to improve on your shortcomings, motivates you to further expand on your strengths. According to the test, my top five strengths are the following:

- Communication (shocking that I have a blog)

- Empathy (Most of us public health nerds have lots of compassion)

- Arranger (that’s why I always organize the parties)

- Winning Others Over or WOO (not to be confused with a WOO girl; HIMYM fans get it)

- Positivity (always new I was a glass half full kinda gal)

This week I read an article about empathy and naturally my empathetic self took special note. The feature touted the benefits of empathy, saying “the trick to being a persuasive leader and clutch teammate, not to mention having better relationships, more emotional energy, robust health and joy every day is empathy”. The article proceeded to offer the less empathetic readers ways to “ramp up their empathy”.

So, I got to thinking about my so-called strength. Just how does empathy play into my everyday life and make me a better professional and friend? I won’t bore you with the self-analysis but bottom line is that, despite the fact that I have a high empathy quotient, I can still step it up. Though I have a lot of compassion, I need to do a better job of walking the walk. I’ve been saying for ages that I want to volunteer for Habitat for Humanity. Why have I not just gone online and signed up? So often I find fabulous charities and I’ve preached the gospel about how even microdonoations can make a significant difference. Why am I not regularly donating, even just a little bit? To make myself feel like I am an active empathetic woman, I lean on the crutch of my work at a non-profit. After all, I spend most hours of my day working feverishly to help my fellow global citizens have access to healthcare and a qualified, supported health workforce.

I know the definition of empathy is more than compassion but the compassionate part of empathy is what is resonating with me the most these days. As we round the corner into December, the season of giving, I am going to do a bit more for others and I encourage anyone reading this blog to think about their empathy quotient and take 5 minutes to psychoanalyze themselves. I urge you to dig deep into what may really fulfill you this holiday season.

Note to readers: you do not have to feel bad about misplacing any empathy for Duke’s loss to Ohio State this week.

New Beginnings - Sort Of

This year I celebrated the eve of All Saint’s Day, aka Halloween, with a new job! I recently accepted a new position as Program Manager at IntraHealth. I am still working on the CapacityPlus program but in my new role I am transitioning to manage different result areas and a variety of our field programs including Nigeria, Ghana and our work with the LAC Bureau (Latin America and the Caribbean). Expect many exciting blog posts about HRH advocacy, work with HRH Observatories throughout Africa, human resource management, community health workers, cross-border studies, case studies, and Nigeria.

Switching gears, today’s headline on People.com screamed the news that the Duggar family is expecting 20^th child. A few hours after their announcement, there was a posting of the family defending their decision to have yet another Duggar baby. My MCH girls and I spent the lunch hour examine the inappropriate birth spacing practices of Michelle Duggar and counting her excessive number of C-sections.

On Yahoo, I read about Mississippi’s Initiative 26. This proposed amendment would not only make abortion illegal but, because of the wording of the amendment, could lead to an outlaw of birth control pills and IUDs. Reading this I was horrified and disappointed.

As much as I promote access to family planning in the developing world, I feel I may need to step up my advocacy efforts for family planning here at home. I am hoping tomorrow's "headlines" are a bit more promising.