Leading with Empathy: Understanding Human Behavior in a Technology World
Great engineering leadership requires more than understanding the work. It requires understanding the people doing it.
At its core, empathy is about understanding. Understanding human behavior, what drives individual and team performance, and what's holding people back.
Both leaders and teams are faced with the reality that AI is moving faster than anyone can keep up with. When you see team members resisting, going quiet, or disengaging, what are your initial reactions and assumptions about their performance? Often, something else is beneath the surface, and this is where empathy becomes a powerful leadership tool: understanding what's driving behavior so you can address the real barriers to performance.
In this session, we will:
Unpack common disengaging behaviors that emerge under stress and uncertainty.
Identify what's driving these behaviors and how they impact individual and team performance.
Practice brief, practical interventions to help your team navigate ambiguity, embrace learning, and perform through change.
This is an interactive working session grounded in your real leadership experiences. You'll be asked to complete a short pre-session exercise reflecting on a time you faced a performance challenge with an individual or team.
Together, we'll unpack these real-world situations and explore practical approaches you can apply immediately.
— About our Speaker—
Dr. Doug Gardner is a nationally recognized leader in applied performance psychology and leadership development, with nearly three decades building human performance systems in professional sport, enterprise, esports, and technology. For the Boston Red Sox he built one of the first comprehensive performance psychology programs in Major League Baseball, during which 51 players reached the Majors. At the NFL Players Association he built NFLPA MATTERS, serving approximately 1,900 players on all 32 teams. In North American professional esports he built the first coaching and player development department, leading to four North American and two international championships. He co-founded an external leadership development program for Deloitte serving more than 2,000 Partners, Principals, and Managing Directors, and was co-founder, Chief Performance Officer, and go-to-market lead of a sports technology company acquired by Adidas. He advises AI and technology founders, venture capital firms, and enterprise leaders on the behavioral side of adoption.