How To Take Someone Else’s Perspective & Practice Empathy

Jacob Morgan
2 min readMay 9, 2023

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The 5 Minute Leader is a series where I share a weekly leadership hack, tip, or strategy that one of the world’s top CEO or leaders shared with me.

Brad Jacobs is the former Chairman and CEO of United Rentals and also the former CEO of 38,000 person XPO (after the spin off) where he is now executive chairman. Brad has actually created 7 companies, 5 of which are publicly traded (including XPO, RXO, and GXO). During his career Brad was responsible for over 500 acquisitions and he is looked up to and admired by many top leaders around the world. He’s a serial entrepreneur and one of the smartest business people I’ve ever talked with.

https://greatleadership.substack.com/p/brad-jacobs-xpo-empathy

When we spoke, Brad said something to me that really resonated, I go into detail in the video, and share a quote from Brad, but what has really helped him embrace and practice this skill are his four daughters.

Often, we view things not as they are, but as WE are, so in today’s exercise, I want to give you a really eye-opening and interactive way to start seeing things from other people’s perspectives. This has really transformed Brad’s career and helped make him a better leader, and it will do the same for you.

If you want to get the rest of this newsletter along with access to the video, join the substack community where I share all my best ideas, latest thinking, and exclusive content.

https://greatleadership.substack.com/p/brad-jacobs-xpo-empathy

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Jacob Morgan

4x Best-Selling Author, Speaker, & Futurist. Founder of FutureOfWorkUniversity.com. Exploring Leadership, Employee Experience, & The Future of Work