Cognitive empathy may sound like a soft skill, but Christine Barton calls it one of the hardest to master. The Boston Consulting Group managing director and senior partner defines it not as feeling someone else’s emotions but as understanding their perspective: seeing the context, pressures, and biases that shape how others interpret the world. “It’s active curiosity,” she says. “You recognize their point of view without having to mirror their feelings.”

Leadership styles swing between command-and-control and more humanistic approaches, but Barton argues today’s volatility—geopolitical shocks, rapid technological change, and “wild-card uncertainties” like pandemics or climate crises—makes cognitive empathy essential. Once executives reach the top, she notes, they often operate in a bubb

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