No Takers for Spurious Empathy ...
The Midas velvet touch of a leader is deeply ensconced in the womb of 'Empathy'.
However, unless one is authentic, pretentious empathy gets rejected. Do not under estimate the segacity & instinctive power of the human system to detect spurious empathy. Human systems are nature designed to detect spurious empathy.
Underprepared leaders dole-out templatised responses to portray empathy, under the belief that it would be passed off. Unfortunately, it only pisses-off.
Underprepared leaders neither invest time to understand the differences in perception of the other person ( Cognitive Empathy) nor do they care to understand why the other person feels differently (Emotional Empathy).
In their desire to position & be seen as 'People Leaders', they fake templatised responses to sound empathetical.Fake drama of the under prepared leader however collapses in the final stage, when he is tested for display of his ability to invest and do what the other person expects out of him (Empathic Concern).
A leader actually stretches to help out based on the real empathy he feels for the distressed person. His earlier fake & templatised responses now get called out.
This is where Spurious Empathy gets detected & rejected. The pretentious leader fails.
Your post on Empathy is very true. Throughout my corporate career I have experienced spurious empathy without any followup action. Women normally face that from their bosses.