27 MAGAZINE perspective to reinforce positive emotions, and, most importantly, allow myself more empathy. This provides a nice segue to the matter of empathy. This skill is a key element of emotional intelligence. It benefits every aspect of our lives, allowing us to put ourselves in another’s shoes, understand their reactions, and actively listen without judgement. In a leader, this ability is essential for creating psychologically and emotionally safe spaces where creativity and connection are encouraged through common purpose. I recommend two books that have helped me develop the power of empathy and more deeply understand the implications of its presence (or absence): Far from the Tree and Wired to Care. In 2017, my colleagues in Human Resources and I were inspired to promote an empathy-development experience geared toward engendering success in our field by the book Give and Take. We decided the project should be as hands-on as possible, so with help from Make-A-Wish, our program allowed all our team members to receive training to become “fairies” and “genies.” The goal was to foster understanding and help realize the dreams of children living with life-threatening illnesses. The process required discovering these children’s dreams and gaining a deep understanding of their desires without projecting our own wishes or those of the children’s families. This undertaking took us well outside our comfort zones, but ultimately taught us what true empathy looks like. The experience was transformative on so many levels. Due to the intense nature of the experience, the process of connecting it back to our usual work was challenging, but it led to significant positive shifts across all working environment metrics. Empathy naturally drives us to become agents of change. At Citi, many of our leaders make exemplary use of empathy to foster societal change, acting with clear convictions and a firm stance. Following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, our CFO, Mark Mason, put out a statement that made me extremely proud. In a working environment, racism is a talent-neutralizing factor and a worrying barrier to human, professional, and economic growth. It is essential that we continually assert the host of benefits offered by diversity, while adopting an actively anti-racist position to encourage change. Our President, Jane Fraser, provided another example in the form of an education and awareness panel about unconscious bias for all our employees, given by Dr. Mahzarin R. Banaji. Dr. Banaji helped us recognize the insidious nature of unconscious prejudice and its propensity for creating inequalities large and small. The first step toward addressing this prejudice is recognizing that it exists within us all and making active efforts to prevent it from steering our decisions. These examples inspire me to use our company’s foundational principles to raise awareness, both internal and external, about the value of diverse and inclusive environments that allow every single individual to be the best possible version of themselves. This is the privilege afforded to me by new leadership. It is essential that we continually assert the host of benefits offered by diversity, while adopting an actively anti-racist position to encourage change