Why Your Manager Comes Off Cold — and Why That’s a Good Thing

Editor’s Note: This story originally appeared on Zety.com.

While empathy is widely celebrated as a hallmark of good leadership, managers may benefit from keeping some emotional distance. New research from Zety and SIGMA Assessment Systems suggests that in environments where difficult calls are routine, emotional detachment can be an asset.

Analyzing nearly two decades of SIGMA’s proprietary Jackson Personality Inventory – Revised (JPI-R) assessments across more than 4,000 managers, the Empathy in Management Report reveals that managers score lower than the general population across the emotional cluster, which measures emotional sensitivity through empathy, anxiety, and cooperativeness subscales.

Although industry differences exist, even the highest-scoring manager groups are still below the population average, with construction and wholesale/retail trade ranking lowest.

Lower Emotional Sensitivity Is Common in Leadership

Among JPI-R’s five clusters, the emotional cluster stood out as the only area where managers scored below the general population (50th percentile) across all traits. These include:

• Empathy: 27th–39th percentile
• Anxiety: 21st–29th percentile
• Cooperativeness: 33rd–47th percentile

“Our research draws on thousands of assessments to identify patterns in how managers score across key personality dimensions. The results show distinct trends, especially within the emotional domain.” — Ted Jackson, CEO of SIGMA Assessment Systems

Industry Differences: Lowest and Highest-Scoring Managers

Men tend to score lower than women on measures of emotional sensitivity, and some sectors are more male-dominated. While managers in the most people-oriented industries scored the highest in emotional sensitivity, even after accounting for gender, they still remained below the population average.

Sectors with the highest emotional sensitivity:

• Health/Medicine
• Human Resources

Sectors with the lowest emotional sensitivity:

• Wholesale/Retail Trade
• Construction

These differences suggest that the interpersonal and operational demands of each industry may influence the level of emotional responsiveness required in leadership roles.

Are Managers Less Empathetic or More Decisive?

While the findings may sound counterintuitive, the pattern reflects the realities of management, where leaders are regularly required to make difficult, high-stakes decisions.

Managers’ lower scores on the JPI-R emotional cluster point to a leadership style characterized by composure, independence, and lower stress reactivity, rather than traditional models of empathetic leadership. In fast-paced environments, these traits support decisive action and reduce the need for broad consensus when quick judgment is required.

That said, the same qualities that enable tough decisions can also create distance. Leaders with lower emotional sensitivity may appear less approachable or miss early signs of team concerns, making it important to balance decisiveness with active listening and regular engagement.

Methodology

SIGMA analyzed assessment data from 4,000+ managers between June 2006 and April 2025 using a validated personality tool (JPI-R).

Managers represented various industries across North America, including administration, advertising/marketing/PR, construction, education, electrical/utilities, engineering, health/medicine, human resources, IT, manufacturing, public safety, transportation and logistics, and wholesale and retail trade.

Mean scores on personality traits and clusters were analyzed for industries for which there were at least 100 data points. The findings were compiled and co-presented by Zety, who authored the accompanying report and career insights.