I think you need to pair empathy with its counterpart, "willingness to be disliked." Empathy is great for building relationships but, taken alone, can make you a slave to doing whatever people want. Which stops working as soon as there are conflicting needs.
I've been thinking lately a lot about this. What is it I do when I want to convince someone of something (i.e. "creating alignment" in corporate speak)? I listen to them, am empathic, ask meaningful questions etc. Afterwards, that opens a space for me to make a proposal that is well-received.
