Once you have access to key people in an organization, if you go into a meeting with enemy images of those people - then you are not going to connect.

Focusing on the unmet need (not the judgment) is more likely to get the need met.

With empathy we don't direct, we follow. Don't just do something, be there.

Empathy gives you the ability to enjoy another person's pain.

Once you can clearly describe what you are reacting to, free of your interpretation or evaluation of it, other people are less likely to be defensive when they hear it.

In these long-standing conflicts, I find that most cases it gets resolved in about twenty minutes after each side can tell me the needs of the other.

Don't get addicted to your requests. Your objective is needs, not requests. Because then it becomes a demand.