How important is empathy as a leadership trait? Explain why in the comments.

We are in the business of creating solutions for people. Its hard to get in the shoes of others and to design effective solutions and deploy them if you don't have keen people skills that are more outward emotional intelligence. 

Empathy is one important soft-skill, leader should be able to understand the staff needs or emotional status.
If a day someone comes at work sad or has issues to achieve a job, instead to evaluate him/her a leader should listen.

Empathy is a leadership superpower and is often misunderstood as feeling sorry for someone or a “soft” skill - it is a hard skill in the modern workplace. Empathy is about meeting people where they are and connecting to what others are feeling. Empathy creates trust, communication, belonging and a sense of being valued. This leads to improved employee engagement and inclusion.

As a leader you need to feel more (for the employees, for the customer, for the company) than to execute. Empathy is the key to success

Empathy is an important quality for any leader who wants to inspire, motivate and support their team to achieve success if it is right on target and not excessive so that it turns subordinates into spoiled babies which happens in Gen Z.