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When you think of objectivity, what do you picture? Seeing all the views? Or being truly detached from everyone? Many professionals fall into the trap of detaching from others. It doesn’t make their advice objective. It makes it out-of-touch and risky.

Objectivity vs. Detached Coldness. Image by Thomas Hawk via Flickr.

Image by Thoomas Hawk via Flickr Creative Commons License.

Objectivity Is Not Detached Coldness

Objectivity doesn’t mean lack of empathy. In fact, without empathy you can’t understand the challenge others are having. So how will you give sound advice? You must understand what they are going through to do that. It also means you must be caring to earn their trust so they will tap your objectivity.

You can’t be objective & accurate from the sidelines. The sidelines skew your view. You might step back momentarily to see different views. Yet if you completely detach, your objectivity will not be accurate.

Objectivity is not judgmental. It’s quite the opposite. It offers everyone a more complete view of the issues and options for solving problems.

Projecting your preferences does not make you objective. This drives some people to believe you must be really disengaged to be objective. Not true. You must engage and still keep your preferences quiet.

Objectivity vs. Detached Coldness: Does It Matter?

Well ask yourself, would you like …

• Remote detached leaders vs. emotionally intelligent leaders who can engage and be objective at the same time?

• A cold detached friend? Or an engaged warm objective friend?

• A detached parent? Or a deeply caring parent who can also be objective?

• An indifferent spouse or partner? Or one who knows you, gets you, and is helpfully objective?

• A doctor or dentist with no empathy? Or an empathetic professional who is also objective?

Engage With Emotional Intelligence to Be Objective & Valuable

In truth, for others to accept your objectivity, you must deliver it with loads of emotional intelligence. Ironic isn’t it? Most people see objectivity as the absence of emotion. Yet you need emotional intelligence and empathy to be objective. It prevents you from dumping your bias, prejudice, disdain, and preachy “you shoulds” on others while calling it objectivity.

Your emotional intelligence will give your objective view with true understanding of their feelings and challenges. Moreover, it helps you deliver your views with respect. This builds and sustains trust and honors other’s dignity.

From my professional experience to your success,
Kate Nasser, The People Skills Coach™

Related Post:
Leaders: Are You Helpfully Objective or Actually Indifferent?

©2018-2023 Kate Nasser, CAS, Inc. Somerville, NJ. I appreciate your sharing the link to this post on your social streams. However, if you want to re-post or republish the content of this post, please email info@katenasser.com for permission and guidelines. Thank you for respecting intellectual capital.

Kate Nasser, The People Skills Coach™, delivers coaching, consulting, training, and keynotes on leading change, employee engagement, teamwork, and delivering the ultimate customer service. She turns interaction obstacles into interpersonal success. See this site for workshop outlines, keynote footage, and customer results.

Tags: coldness, connection, customer engagement, emotional intelligence, empathy, employee engagement, Feelings, humane, interaction, interpersonal skills, Leadership, leading morale, morale, objectivity, people skills, relationships, Soft Skills, Teamwork, unfeeling