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Jody Zarn on Why Empathy Is the Most Underrated Leadership Skill You Have
Most of us have been taught to lead with answers. To fix things. To stay ahead of the conversation. But what if the most powerful thing you could offer your team isn't your expertise, but your full attention?
In this conversation, writer and corporate trainer Jody Zarn shares how an unlikely friendship with a man named Leroy reshaped how she sees people, leadership, and workplace culture. From listening without an agenda to creating space for the hard stuff, this episode is a quiet reminder that connection isn't soft. It's the foundation everything else gets built on.
About the Guest:
Jody Zarn is a writer, speaker, philanthropist, and corporate trainer based in Winnipeg, Canada. She is the author of Higher Power Betty and the Homeless Man Who Changed My Life, a memoir about her friendship with Leroy Adams. Her CBC First Person essay on that journey received a Radio Television Digital News Association (RTDNA) Canada award.
Key Takeaways:
- Empathy isn't passive. It's a practice you choose, again and again, especially on days when listening feels harder than speaking.
- People don't need you to fix them. They need you to see them. That's a different kind of work, and it costs you less than you think.
- Leadership isn't being everyone's friend. It's reading the room, asking better questions, and getting to what's actually driving someone.
- Listen without agenda. The moment your team feels you're listening to correct them, the trust quietly closes.
- Create space for the hard stuff. A team that can't say what's wrong is a team that's already shutting down.
- The smallest gestures, a coffee, a real good morning, a moment of attention, often land the deepest. You don't need a big platform to leave a real mark.
Connect With the Guest:
- Website: https://jodyzarn.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jodyzarn/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jodyzarn/
- Book on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GJ5V1MGP
Episode Chapters
- [00:00] Cold Open — The moment a colleague stops being a role and becomes a person.
- [02:30] Meet Jody Zarn — Writer, speaker, and philanthropist on the friendship that changed how she sees people.
- [05:00] Meeting Leroy — A cold November morning in Winnipeg, a coffee, a muffin, and the start of an unlikely friendship.
- [12:00] What Leroy Taught Her — Why we dehumanise the people we don't take the time to see.
- [19:00] Empathy at the Business Table — The quiet myth that caring too much makes leaders weak.
- [25:00] Holding Space for the Hard Stuff — Why teams shut down when there's no room to say what's wrong.
- [32:00] Small Gestures, Big Ripples — Why a single cup of coffee can travel further than you think.
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