In a keynote address that felt less like a lecture and more like an urgent intervention, global empathy expert and leadership strategist Mimi Nicklin on 4th June challenged a room full of Sri Lanka’s most influential leaders to fundamentally rethink their approach to business, leadership, and national recovery.
Her message, delivered to a packed hall of professionals, executives, and change-makers in the field of Human Resources at the National HR Conference 2025 ogranised by CIPM at Monarch Imperial, was both simple and profound: stop treating empathy as a discretionary soft skill and start wielding it as a strategic necessity for growth.
“Empathy is not soft. It is not sentimental. It’s science. And in the world we live in today, it’s survival,” she declared, her voice resonating with conviction. Nicklin, the internationally bestselling author of Softening the Edge and a globally recognized voice for workplace well-being, argued that many of Sri Lanka’s most pressing challenges from productivity slumps to talent drain are symptoms of a deeper, more pervasive issue: a critical and growing “empathy deficit.”
The Staggering Cost of a Disconnected Workforce
To ground her argument in stark reality, Nicklin presented a sobering diagnosis of the nation’s human capital, drawing from the latest Gallup data. “The numbers are not just concerning; they are a call to action,” she asserted. “Only 10% of Sri Lankans report that they are thriving. A staggering seventy-five percent of employees are actively disengaged at work. This isn’t a minor human resources issue to be delegated away it is a national productivity and innovation crisis.”
She urged the audience to look beyond the percentages and consider the human reality behind them. At the heart of this widespread disengagement, she explained, is a silent epidemic of loneliness. “We have to understand that loneliness isn’t the physical absence of people it’s the emotional absence of connection,” Nicklin stated. “It’s the feeling of being unseen and unheard in a crowded office or a bustling city.”
This epidemic, she warned, carries a devastatingly high price. Citing extensive research, she noted that chronic loneliness has the same negative health impact as smoking 15 cigarettes a day and is more dangerous to long-term health than obesity. For businesses, it translates into higher absenteeism, lower performance, and a corrosive effect on team cohesion.
Her proposed solution is a radical reframing of the skills needed to lead in the 21st century. “For decades, we have relegated empathy, emotional intelligence, and communication to the bucket of ‘soft skills.’ It’s a term that diminishes their power. I urge you to stop calling them that,” she pleaded. “These are not soft. These are fundamental survival skills. In a volatile world, they are the skills that lead to innovation, that foster true belonging, that drive profit, and that ultimately build stronger, more resilient nations.”
The Neuroscience of Trust: Your Brain on Fear vs. Your Brain on Safety
Diving deeper, Nicklin unpacked the hard science that underpins her philosophy. “This is not just a theory; it’s biology,” she explained, asking the audience to visualize the human brain’s response to threats. “When our brain perceives a threat and it doesn’t distinguish between a predator in the jungle and a toxic, unpredictable manager in the boardroom it triggers a primal survival response.”
She described how, under stress, the body is flooded with cortisol, and blood flow is diverted away from the prefrontal cortex the sophisticated, uniquely human part of the brain responsible for rational thought, complex decision-making, and empathy. Instead, resources are channeled to the amygdala, the brain’s ancient fear center.
“When your team members feel psychologically unsafe, they are, in a very real, biological sense, physically incapable of their best work,” Nicklin elaborated. “They cannot innovate, they cannot collaborate effectively, and they cannot solve complex problems, because the part of their brain required for those tasks is offline. They are in survival mode: fight, flight, or freeze.”
The key to unlocking human potential, she argued, is the deliberate cultivation of psychologically safe environments. This means creating a culture where employees feel secure enough to take risks, to voice dissenting opinions, and to show up as their authentic selves without fear of punishment or humiliation. It is only in this state of safety that the prefrontal cortex can fully engage, allowing for the creativity, collaboration, and higher-order thinking that drives organisations forward.
Listening: The Forgotten Superpower of Modern Leadership
To make her point tangible, Nicklin shared both global research and deeply personal anecdotes. She emphasized that at its core, empathy is built on the foundation of listening. She recounted a poignant lesson from her seven-year-old daughter, who once told her, “Mummy, when you don’t listen to me, I think you don’t care. And then I think you don’t want to be my friend.”
That simple, powerful truth, she noted, is a universal human experience that applies as much to the boardroom as it does to the home. “To be listened to is to be valued. To be ignored is to be invalidated,” she said.
She drew a compelling parallel from an unexpected field: high-stakes hostage negotiations. “The FBI’s Behavioural Change Stairway Model, used to de-escalate the most volatile situations imaginable, has five steps. The first and most important step is active listening,” she revealed. “They listen to understand, not to respond. They build a rapport of trust before they ever try to influence. If this is the most effective tool for connecting with a hostage-taker, imagine its power when applied to your team, your clients, or your stakeholders.”
A New Formula for Success in the Age of AI
Addressing the anxieties surrounding automation and artificial intelligence, Nicklin proposed a new, forward-thinking leadership formula: AI (Artificial Intelligence) + HI (Human Intelligence) = ROI (Return on Investment)
Her point was a powerful counter-narrative to the idea that technology will make human skills obsolete. “The more technology we integrate into our lives, the more we will crave authentic human connection. We don’t need less tech; we need more touch,” she argued. “AI can handle data, logistics, and repetitive tasks with incredible efficiency. But it cannot replicate empathy, it cannot build trust, and it cannot create a sense of belonging. Those are, and will remain, the domain of human intelligence.”
The true ROI in the future of work, she contended, will be found in the seamless integration of technological efficiency and deep human connection. “Empathy must be intentionally designed into our systems, our leadership models, and our organisational cultures if we are to thrive in this new era.”
Rebuilding Sri Lanka, One Empathetic Conversation at a Time
Having lived in Sri Lanka during the profound economic and social upheaval between 2021 and 2022, Nicklin spoke with a palpable sense of admiration for the nation’s spirit. “I have witnessed your resilience,” she said. “You have faced the darkest of days with a fortitude that the world can learn from. There is a spirit here of having a cup of tea and saying, ‘It’s okay, we will carry on.’ That is a powerful starting point.”
However, she gently challenged leaders to move from passive resilience to active rebuilding. She called for a conscious investment in what she terms “organisational empathy” the deliberate implementation of structures, language, and behaviours that systematically foster a sense of belonging and unlock collective performance.
“Motivation is, and always will be, relational,” she explained. “Think about the most motivated you’ve ever been. You were doing it for someone or for something bigger than yourself. If you want people to follow you at work, at home, or in your country you must first connect with them. You must listen.”
The central message of her speech was clear and unmistakable: Sri Lanka’s road to a prosperous and stable future will not be paved by economic policies and infrastructure projects alone. It will be rebuilt from the inside out one conversation, one act of genuine listening, and one empathetic leader at a time.
Nicklin left the audience with a final, resonant challenge. “Listening is not a luxury. It is not an add-on. For every single leader in this room, it is your most urgent imperative.”
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