 A leader is a leader is a leader. It doesn't matter if you're talking about the leader of a sports team, the leader of a Fortune 500 for-profit business, the leader of a nonprofit, or even the leader of your family, the leader of your church, a leader in a community organization. You know, leadership is about being able to develop other people. It's about pouring into others and caring about others and getting them to be able to accomplish things they most likely would not have been able to do without your leadership and your empowerment and so forth. It's about being able to have a positive impact and influence over other people. You know, that's kind of a collage of what leadership is and that knows no boundaries. So when it comes to leadership, I think it's really important that someone sits down and asks themself, you know, what type of leader would I like to be led by? You know, and really get the, I always would ask that of coaches, you know, are you the type of coach that you'd want to play for? Are you the type of teammate you'd want to play with? And these questions are really, really important. And, you know, if I'm the leader of a nonprofit and I'm sitting there thinking, all right, what type of leader would I want to work for and come up with a list of traits that I believe the most effective and influential leaders have, then I would start writing down those traits and you're gonna start to etch out a practice plan, if you will, of what the basics and the fundamentals are. You know, if you're listening to this and you think leaders should be A, B and C, then the next question is, how well are you doing A, B and C? And what are the basics and the fundamental building blocks of being good at A, B and C and make sure you're working on those? I'll give you one example and then, you know, listeners can certainly decide for themselves. I believe that in any area of life, one of the most important characteristics for a leader to have is they need to care. They need to care about the people they're leading. They need to care about their organization. They need to care about the mission and the vision and the purpose of the organization. So then the next question would be, if caring is an important trait of a leader, then what's a fundamental that you can work on to show folks that you care? I'm a big believer as well that the most important gift we have to offer another human being is our attention in the present moment. And I believe you show someone that you care about them by giving them your attention in the present moment. Something you're doing brilliantly right now, which is just actively listening. Just being present, fully focused, you know, be where your feet are. So you're not distracted by anything else and you're showing that other person through your eye contact, your body language, your facial expressions, your ability to ask insightful questions, you are showing them unconsciously, I care about you. You are important to me. I value what you have to say, so much so that I'm willing to invest my most valuable currency, which is my time with you right now. So if we kind of unpack this, being in the present moment, listening and asking insightful questions is how you show someone you care. And caring is an important fundamental of being a leader. So how can we practice the skill of being more present and of actively listening? I would equate listening to the footwork example that we used with Kobe. You know, footwork is to basketball as listening is to leadership. So there's one right there that we should all, who are aiming to be more influential and more impactful, we should all be practicing the skill of actively listening. Another thought when it comes to leadership, I do believe that each leader should have a philosophy, you know, a life philosophy, a leadership philosophy, and you should have some core principles and values and pillars that don't change. They are your convictions. Now, two things with that. One, I think we should all be open-minded to being flexible and being able to adapt. You know, 10 years ago at that time, I was the best leader that I could be at that time, but I'm not the same leader today that I was 10 years ago. And that's because I've learned new information. I've learned new ways of doing things. I've tweaked. So even if you have some incredibly tightly held beliefs, I still think we should be open to learning other ways. And I also think that we should be authentic enough to be chameleon-like in our leadership style that while your major pillars don't change, if right now, if you're leading 40 people in your nonprofit organization, I don't think you should lead each and every individual the exact same way. Now, the overarching foundation should most likely include the same principles. And these are more nuances, particularly from a communication standpoint. But if I'm leading 40 people in the nonprofit space, it's a pretty safe bet that all 40 people don't have the exact same strengths and weaknesses. All 40 people don't have the same needs. If you're on my team, you may require more of my time and attention than one of your teammates, which means I should be willing to devote more time and attention to you because that's what you need when maybe one of your teammates doesn't. And I think being chameleon-like enough that you don't lead every one the exact same way and you don't lead the exact same way in every scenario when it comes to these nuances is really, really important. This mindset of, I'm gonna do things the same way all of the time with everyone is just simply too rigid. I mean, Tom Brady has been playing professional football now for two decades. I think it's a pretty safe bet that his needs from the head coach or a position coach would be different than someone who's a rookie or a first year player. Tom knows the ropes pretty well by now. So the head coach of the Buccaneers will have a different relationship and a different communication style with Tom Brady than maybe he would with a rookie defensive back or someone else and that part's okay. And I love that you hit that the foundational pillars being respectful, building trust, caring, those things are gonna be the same regardless. I mean, that is the foundation of you as a leader but now let's make sure that the nuances, we can tweak and we can customize and personalize for every single person on the team. And if anyone listening, if your nonprofit is really scaled and you're a large organization, I don't expect the leader to have a personal relationship with all 642 members of the team but can you create a system where you've got managers or directors or supervisors that report to you and you have that relationship with them and then they have that relationship with their direct reports. So now we've still kind of created this web, if you will, of everyone feeling that they have a leader that they can go to, that they've built trust and respect with, that that person will communicate to them in a style that they prefer. That's the other thing about leadership. We have to remember it's not about me, it's about you. I mean, I even said that one of my hesitations to coming on the show was I wasn't sure that what I had was gonna be a value to the other, to your audience and that's all that matters to me. The only thing that matters to me right now is that I'm adding value to your life personally because you're investing your time with me and that collectively we're adding value to your listeners because they are investing their time with us and we've already said that time is the most valuable currency so I wanna make sure they feel like it was a wise investment. Of course, I can go on any podcast and talk about what I wanna talk about. That's easy, just turn the mics on. I'm never short for words but I only wanna go on shows where I'm confident that I have something to add value to the other person because it's not about me, it's about you. And I think that's the leadership mantra 101. Every single morning when you wake up, you make sure you show up and then today's day and age showing up might mean showing up virtually. You show up with a mindset of it's not about me, it's about you. I care about you, I care about your goals, I care about your dreams, I care about your development, I care about your happiness and if we can lead with that type of mindset, we'll get more buy in and believe in and we'll become incredibly magnetic and attractive leaders. People will want to be on our teams because of how much we care about them.