Birkman Bytes 

Emotional Energy (formerly called Empathy) 

What does Birkman mean by Emotional Energy? 

Openness and Comfort with Expressing Emotions 
How you express or deal with feelings.  

Practical vs. Expressive 

EMOTIONAL ENERGY addresses comfort with emotional expression and involvement of feelings.  

• High scores reflect emotionally expressive, emotionally creative behaviors with a preference  for open expression of emotions and open involvement with emotional issues. Also, high  scores reflect a tendency to appear overly emotional when stressed by a perceived lack of attention to emotions or excessive demands for pragmatism and urgency of action.  

• Low scores reflect unemotional, optimistic behavior and a preference for practical tasks and  unemotional relationships. Also, low scores reflect a tendency to appear to be unfeeling or to  avoid emotional issues when stressed by encounters with emotional behavior or issues.  

Components - Four Possible Patterns 

In reviewing any of the Birkman Components, there are four possible patterns that might be  generated. We have listed the combinations here for Empathy with the approximate percentage  of the population that will show each pattern, as well as some narrative descriptions for how to  understand these patterns.