BP and Tony Hayward (now ex-CEO) have provided leaders everywhere with a valuable lesson on what NOT to do and the real economic impact of empathy in the workplace. www.doctordanielcrosby.com daniel@doctordanielcrosby.com @crosbypsych

1. Empathy, Leadership, and Oil
There is a gaping hole in the Gulf of Mexico that needs to be plugged
immediately. I’m speaking of course, of the hole in Tony Hayward’s heart.
The BP CEO’s recent comment that he’d “like his life back” is emblematic
of a larger concern among leaders of all stripes; empathy is seldom (ever?)
a requirement for being installed in a position of power. His moment in the
international media sun has been pocked with numerous examples of his
inability to walk a mile in another man’s oil-slick waders.
Mr. Hayward is his most self-absorbed when he is his most earnest. None
of his other comments have rung with the same childlike authenticity as his
plea for a return to personal normalcy. Observe too his walk along a ruined
Gulf beach; flanked by puddles of oil, and canary-suited cleanup workers,
his only act was to shoo the cameramen covering his survey of the damage.
These offenses notwithstanding, the most painfully ironic evidence of his
disconnectedness to the human impact of this disaster was his recent
attendance at a glitzy yacht race, featuring his $700,000 boat, “Bob.” Nice
try Tony, but not even a pedestrian name like “Bob” will fool the world into
thinking you’re a man of the people.
PR vs. AUTHENTICITY
I’m not saying that I wish Tony Hayward had acted differently because it
looks bad, or seems insensitive, or because it sends a bad message. Those
are public relations concerns and what I’m talking about is bigger than PR.
I don’t wish that Tony Hayward had acted differently, I wish that he were
different fundamentally. Simply put, empathy is the ability to feel deeply
what another person is feeling. You won’t see “empathetic” as a desired
characteristic on any job posting, and that reality has negative implications
for workplace outcomes tangible and intangible.
Consider for a moment what percentage of the 50% drop in BP’s stock
price owes to the gross insensitivity exhibited by BP executives and
spokespeople. Imagine the lost morale and subsequent loss of productivity
of the 80,300 BP employees that go to work every day for an organization
that has shown such disdain for “small people” (another gem by BP chief
Carl-Henric Svanberg). Through a series of experiments, renowned
psychologist Daniel Goleman has shown that emotional intelligence (EQ)

2. and intelligence quotient (IQ) have no correlation with one another.
Anecdotally, Dr. Tony Hayward, who holds a Ph.D. from Edinburgh
University has borne out this research before our very eyes. BP’s
privileging of IQ over EQ will cost them dearly, as it has so many
organizations that have erred similarly. After all, “Britain isn’t the only
place that has oil.”
Daniel@doctordanielcrosby.com
www.doctordanielcrosby.com
@crosbypsych