A military leader asks generals and admirals what makes an outstanding leader. They keep saying the same three things: listening, humility, and empathy. One admiral stops to ask the lowest-ranked sailor on his ship how his day is going and actually waits for an answer.
I actually am brought into rooms where the people in the room are all generals and admirals. And that's my audience. And we have small one-on-one conversations. You ask the greatest generals and admirals in the world, what one trait do you need to be to be an amazing leader? What do you think they yell out? Yell out what you guess they say. Listener. I heard listener. What else? Humility. Humility. That's a great answer. What are others? Empathy. Empathy. Righty. That was it. Empathy. Is the trait of the greatest leaders. An admiral who walks up to a sailor who might be the lowest-ranked person on that ship and says, sailor, how's your day going today? And waits till that sailor answers and does not let them walk away till they answer because that sailor means too much to them. That's leadership.
