Something that helps with empathy is understanding that almost all behavior is pushed by fear rather than pulled by greed. A slightly greedy overstep often pushes you off balance and you end up scrambling and flailing for the rest of forever if you refuse to crash.
The most common overstep is wanting and getting a promotion of some sort. The higher-order effects of the Peter Principle make for 99% of the crap people have to deal with every day.