One of the best ways for a leader to endear people to them is to use empathy in their dealings with those they lead. Empathy is simply trying to understand others by putting yourself in their shoes. Henry Ford once said: “If there is any one secret to success, it lies in the ability to get the other person’s point of view and see things from his angle as well as your own.”

I found this very funny communication video the other day. Communicating effectively isn’t always that easy. And the sad thing is that you may not even know you are not communicating effectively until it’s too late. Word choice, tone, clarity and timeliness are all factors to communicating effectively. In this funny communication video gone bad you will see poor choices made around all four.

Stories can be drawn from many facets of life. All a leader has to do is start looking for them. Here are three suggestions:

Behind my house is a park with a sidewalk that winds around the inside perimeter. I have the blessing of working from home with a corner view of this beautiful park and our green and red rock mountains providing a spectacular backdrop.