The Nick Bare Podcast - 138: 5 Traits You'll Find in Exceptional Leaders

Episode Date: September 8, 2025

In this episode, we explore insights from various sources, including the Maxwell Daily Reader and personal anecdotes, to provide a comprehensive guide to exceptional leadership in various contexts, from business to family life. Additionally, we reflect on the importance of setting and maintaining high standards, fostering a positive and productive environment, and the need for continuous personal and professional growth.00:00 Introduction and Episode Overview01:38 The Importance of Leadership11:45 Three Essential Traits of Leaders13:53 Trait 125:08 Trait 231:40 Consistency and Accountability in Leadership34:10 Trait 341:59 Trait 449:58 Trait 554:59 Push, Pull, and Patience: Leadership TechniquesORDER MY BOOK HERE:https://www.amazon.com/Go-One-More-Intentional-Life-Changing/dp/1637746210FOLLOW:Become a BPN member FOR FREE - Unlock 20% off FOR LIFEhttps://bpn.team/memberIG: instagram.com/nickbarefitness/YT: youtube.com/@nickbarefitness

Hello, everyone, and welcome back to another episode of the podcast. Today's episode is titled Five Traits of Exceptional Leaders. So I have five things that I want to discuss, but some notes prior to going into those five things to really set us up for this conversation, this discussion, and just some things that I want to share. The book that I'm currently reading, I'm reading a few books right now, but the one that I'm really invested into, or I should say one of the books I'm really invested into right now. And I've shared this on my social media and there's been a great response. I actually came across this book because it was shared by so many people to me. And it's by John Tyson. It's called The Intentional Father. It's a shorter read. I'm probably

halfway through right now. I think, you know, I have. I have a daughter, I have a three-year-old daughter, I have a one-year-old son. I think the book is applicable to, can be applicable to all parents, all fathers, whether you have a son or a daughter. The book is more focused on raising sons, fathers raising sons, but I think the lessons shared. and the foundational principles are broadly applicable to all parents raising children. And one of the reasons I want to speak into the five traits of exceptional leaders, and this list could be hundreds of traits long. I mean, there could be a multi-part series to this episode, and maybe there will in the future,

but there's just five that I want to share in this episode. at this point in my life watching my children grow up and get older where it really feels real last week Charlie started school for the first time this morning I dropped Charlie off at school

for her second week that felt real that felt real I feel like she was just born and it happened so fast they grew up so fast it sounds so cliche and I've heard it from so many people, but when you're watching it happen right in front of you,

I want to slow it down. I want to slow down their aging because these years are so fun. They're very challenging. In all honesty, they're very challenging, but they're so much fun. You know, when I was driving Charlie to school today, the conversation we were having in the truck

was just blowing my mind. I was sitting there responding and having a conversation with my three-year-old daughter thinking, where did she learn some of this stuff? And in the first couple years of Charlie being born and growing up

and now Nico, he just turned one. In the beginning as a father, as a parent, your responsibility and job is to keep them alive. You're providing comfort, making sure they're fed, they drink water. If they get sick, you care for them, you put them to sleep at night, you wake them up in the morning.

You're just helping them survive in those first couple years. And now as Charlie is going to school when my kids are getting older, I am feeling this shift as a father, as a parent, and this big responsibility. Now it's not just keeping them alive, but it's leading them. And they're still young. And some of these things that I'm learning and hearing in the intentional father by John Tyson, I won't be able to implement for a few years, maybe even a decade. But it's learning these things early on and having a plan in realizing the responsibility that as parents, as a father, it is my job.

to lead my family and children. That is a mandatory responsibility. So that's a book I'm currently reading, or one of them, and I highly recommend The Intentional Father by John Tyson. A few other things I'm reading right now. I've been sharing these and been getting a lot of questions and responses. The Bible that I'm reading daily is the John Maxwell Leadership Bible. And I love it.

It has the scripture and the doctrine, the biblical doctrine, but it also has added elements within the scripture that applies the scripture and the lessons and the stories to leadership. And I shared this Bible on my Instagram a few nights ago, and I got this response from this gentleman, which I believe is valid, but I want to explain. And the response was not everything has to be about business and leadership, especially the Bible and scripture. And I recognize that and I agree.

But I think as we go throughout this conversation about leadership, leadership is not a synonym for business. leadership is not a synonym for money. Leadership is not a synonym for power or authority. I believe we are all called to be leaders in our own way and own capacity. Well beyond the walls and boxes of business and organizational structure and hierarchy. As fathers, as mothers, as husbands, as wives, as spouses, as community, leaders within our work, within our entire lives. We are called to be leaders in our own way.

And we are called to be leaders in this world. I wrote this down here, especially when surrounded in a world of chaos in darkness. Because what leadership has the ability to do is to bring order to chaos in darkness. leadership, when done correctly, can be the light within darkness. And leadership is not always about leading and influencing a team or an organization or a group of people. It can be, but I believe that more specifically and more importantly, leadership is about individual people, leading individual people.

and the traits that I share throughout this discussion I would love for you to think of it in that context and lens when I'm sharing these traits don't think of it as one person in a leadership role standing in front of dozens,

hundreds, or thousands leading them and guiding them to where they want and need to go but imagine it and picture it as two people sitting across themselves at a table having a conversation, one person leading the other to help them get to where they want to go or to be who they want to be and experience what they want to experience,

achieve what they want to achieve, have impact, create legacy. Two people at a table having a conversation. Picture that as we walk through these five traits. second thing in terms of John C. Maxwell. I am also reading daily, I have my hands right now, the Maxwell daily reader, 365 days of insight to develop the leader within you and influence those around you. So there are 365 days to pull from and read from. And, you know, for example, today that I'm recording this is September 2nd.

So in the morning, I open up the book to the page titled September 2nd. I'll do that right now. And this one is called Allowing Problems, September 2nd. It's a page of text. And then it ends with a quote. and this one says learn to view your problems as temporary stumbling blocks. It's page 270. I've really been enjoying it.

I highly recommend it. John C. Maxwell's the Maxwell Daily Reader. It's a very quick and easy read. But I will be sharing one daily insight and I'll be reading the whole page per five traits that is applicable to that trait throughout this podcast. And the last thing I want to share before we get into to all the meat and potatoes of it. I was listening to a podcast this past week. It was Grace Hackett's podcast.

And it was a conversation between her and her father, Mike Marnick, who is currently battling ALS. And if you know anything about ALS, it's a brutal, unfortunate disease that unfortunately has no cure. He's battling ALS. It was a very vulnerable, real conversation.

And he's been in the financial world, a wealth manager for, I believe, over 30 years. And he was sharing the story that a mentor shared with him once. And it was, you know, how to foster a relationship, and the person that you want to be viewed as and perceived as, as you foster and build these relationships personally and professionally.

And you say there's three things that people want to know when they're considering if they want to work with you or not. Work with you, work for you, work alongside of you. Those three things are, and I believe these are very applicable to being respected as a leader. Do you care? Truthfully, do you care? Do you really care

about that person, about the mission, about the purpose, about what you are working towards? Do you really care? Are you trusted? And are you competent? I believe there's three traits

that if you want to be an exceptional leader, you have to adopt and embody. You have to care, you have to be trusted, you need integrity, and you need to be competent. You need to be able to do what you're being trusted to do. You have to be good at it.

If you're not good at it, you have to work to become competent. But I was listening to this conversation with or between Grace and her dad and he brought this up and I stopped mid-run as I was listening to this conversation and I wrote down on my phone because I think those are things that we can ask ourselves frequently as we are leaders. Again, this could be you leading a team in an organization

or this could be you leading your family. Do you care? Are you trusted? Are you competent? Okay, so trait number one. leaders serve others. This is servant leadership. I'm going to read from page 179 of the Maxwell Daily Reader.

This one is from June 11th. This is titled generosity. Nothing speaks to others more loudly or serves them better than generosity from a leader. True generosity isn't an occasional event. It comes from the heart and permeates every aspect of a leader's life, touching his time, money, talents, and possessions. Effective leaders, the kind that people want to follow, don't gather things just for themselves.

They do it in order to give to others. Cultivate the quality of generosity in your life. Here's how. Give something away. Find out what kind of hold your, possessions have on you. Take something you truly value, think of someone you care about who could benefit from it and give it to him. If you can do it anonymously, even better. Put your money to work. If you know someone with a vision to do something really great, something that will positively

impact the lives of others, provide them resources to accomplish it. Put your money to work for something that will outlive you. Find someone a mental. tour. Once you reach a certain level in your leadership, the most valuable thing you can do is to give yourself. Find someone to pour your life into. Then give him time and resources to become a better leader. All that is not given is lost. What are you currently losing by holding onto it? leaders serve others. Servant leadership is not just about giving. I believe servant leadership,

part of servant leadership, is giving, but it's more about serving as opposed to giving. How are we serving others? If the goal of being in a leadership role or having the responsibilities of a leader is self-serving

for power, fame, authority, position, that is the wrong reason to want to be in a leadership role. You know, here at this business, people tell me, here at BPN, they want to be on the leadership team someday. And I always ask the question, why?

Why do you want to be on the leadership team? And many times, not all the time, they don't have a very clear answer of why, but it is the allure of being on the leadership team. Maybe it is a pay raise that is accompanied with that promotion. Maybe it is the access to information. Maybe it is the ability to make more impactful decisions. But I believe the answer should be.

be to serve everyone else. As a leader, the first thing I think of effective and exceptional leaders is it is not for them. They are in that role. They hold that responsibility. They value that responsibility because they get the opportunity to serve others. Being generous is part of being a servant leader. And this doesn't mean you have to offer things or money.

I actually think that's probably the last thing. You should be generous with as a leader in a role with people. And it's more so being generous with your time, your energy. Actually having conversations in being curious, in being interested, and wanting to know and learn more about the people. Their wants, their desires, their goals, their hardships, their struggles, their weaknesses, their strengths, all those things. But I mentioned before I kicked off this first trait, I want us to think of leadership, not in terms of leading dozens or hundreds or thousands of people, but one-on-one conversations.

And that forces you to put yourself in a servant leadership. role. Selfless service. That was one of the core values when I was in the Army. Selfless service. And I believe that there are a lot of exceptional leaders in the military who are there because of selfless service. In the military, you're not necessarily working towards a bonus or a pay raise or ridiculous amounts of money ever. But it's mission focused, it's service focused, it's people focused.

That's what I believe breeds such exceptional leaders in the United States military. Someone that I've been listening to a lot recently, Pastor Joby Martin, he has a church down in Florida, I believe it's the, the 1122 church.

That's what it's called. And he creates a lot of content on masculinity and manhood and what it means to be a man. And one of the things that he said that I thought was absolutely just gold, he said, true men of God surrender themselves before the cross, serve and lead their families,

put on the full armor of God, and stand guard against the lies that threaten to tear our churches and our culture apart. And I bolded and italicized, serve and lead their families. I was listening to a podcast that he was on a few months ago.

And he was talking about the difference between a boy and a man and what makes them different. And it's not what we oftentimes think of a man as, which is, you know, these are parts or components potentially, but not directly.

Muscles, guns, and loud, deep voices, and standing up in front of everyone and yelling, follow me, I'm the way.

But no, it is, it's being compassionate, it's showing, love and it's serving and leading people. It's serving and leading their families. Servant leadership is not a top-down approach to leading an organization or family. It levels the organization with a collaborative and a serving mindset.

I was reading this book a few months ago and it was talking about different ways to lead an organization. And there's, you know, the concepts are few, the methods are many when it comes to leadership. And leadership is a forever learning experience. Every year, every month at this point, I'm learning more about what it takes to be an exceptional leader. Some of it I apply to my business. Some of it I apply to my family. Some of it I apply to myself, leading myself.

And I really attached to this concept I heard in this book, like I said I was reading or listening to. And it was this concept and method you can apply to your business of fostering this environment where people don't think that they work for you. If you are the founder, you're the owner, you're the boss. And if you ask your employees, your team, who do you work for? If they say you, I work for you boss. Now I work for you.

That's one way I don't believe that's the right way to each their own. I think that we should serve one ultimate ruler and that is God. And I want my team to realize they don't work for me. They work with me. We work together. We are on this mission together. collaboratively to work and build and to accomplish the goals that we set forth through the vision that we've defined. The team here at BPN, they work with me, not for me. I learned that mindset shifts

in that book that I was reading a few months ago, and I can't remember the book off the top of my head where I would share it. But that small mindset shift, as irrelevant as it may seem or sound, is It's big. It's impactful. It's huge. The team doesn't work for me. They work with me. We work together. Trait number two. Leaders hold themselves and others accountable. This comes from page 380, December 14th of the Maxwell Daily Reader. This one's titled competency. The word competent sometimes is used to mean barely. adequate. When I talk about the quality of competence that is desirable in teammates,

I mean it in the sense of its most basic definition, which means to be well qualified and fit. Highly competent people have some things in common. They are committed to excellence. John Johnson and Christian excellence writes, success bases are worth one of comparison with others. Excellence gauges our value by measuring us against our own potential. Success grants its rewards to the few, but is the dream of the multitudes. Excellence is available to all living beings, but is accepted by the few. They never settle for average.

The word mediocre literally means halfway up a stony mountain. To be mediocre is to do a job halfway, to leave. Leave yourself far short of the summit. Competent people never settle for average. They pay attention to detail. Dale Carnegie said, Don't be afraid to give your best to what seemingly are small jobs. Every time you conquer one, it makes you that much stronger.

If you do little jobs well, the big ones tend to take care of themselves. They perform with consistency. Highly competent people perform with great consistency. They give their best all the time, and that's important. If 99.9% were good enough, then 22,000 checks would be deducted from the wrong bank accounts in the next 60 minutes, and 12 babies would be given to the wrong parents today alone. Perform with the highest level of competence and demand the same of all your teammates and team members. I was sharing earlier that through that conversation that I listened to Grace and her father, Mike, have, there are three questions. Do you care? Are you trusted? Are you competent?

Competency. Competency is consistently committed to excellence. Leaders hold themselves and others accountable to a standard. There's been a few things that I've said over these last years that have really resonated in. stuck with people. And one of those things, I guess a few of those things, is the way you do one thing is the way you do everything. I by no means came up with that quote, but it's been referenced for years and years and years and I love it. The way you do one thing is the way you do everything and that we have to choose the hard right over the easy wrong. I've seen those two things. We're really connected with people.

The way you do one thing is the way you do everything. And choosing the hard right over the easy wrong. Those two things contribute to achieving excellence. And if we want to be competent, if we want to be good at something, we have to be consistently committed to excellence. In order to lead others, we must be able and willing to first lead ourselves.

You know, it's do as I do, which is not do as I say. I want to follow someone. I want to be led by someone who's doing the thing, who has the ability and is willing, who sets the standard, and holds the standard time and time again consistently.

When I follow someone, I want to know that I can trust them. I watch them perform. I watch the way they speak to other people. I watch the way they respond in pure chaos. I watch the way they take care of their bodies. I listen to the words they say in which words they decide to choose to use. I want to know that I'm following someone when I do and being led by someone

that's doing the thing that I can truly trust. One of the things that I shared in my book going more that's relatable and relevant to this. You know, you get on an airplane, you're traveling, and the stewardess

always go through the briefings and the safety checks. And half the people in the flight are tuned in and half are tuned in half or tuned down or already asleep. But one of the things they always say when you get on this plane, in the case of an emergency,

any oxygen masks come from the ceiling down in front of you. Before you take that oxygen mask and put it on your children or your friends and your family, the people next to you, put on your own oxygen mask. But you're oxygen mask on first and then help somebody else. Why? Because if you can't take care of yourself,

you're not going to be able to take care of anyone else. If you can't lead yourself, you can't lead others. If you can't hold yourself accountable, you can't hold others accountable. True leaders that care that are trusted, that are competent, they do the right thing. They're doing the thing every single day consistently. They show up and they get it done. They care about the small stuff because the small stuff matters. They care about excellence because excellent matters. That's why they are trusted as leaders.

Leaders are recognized and praised in public for what they have practiced in private for years and years and years. I heard this a long time ago and I, loved it. Leaders are praised in public, praised and respected in public for what they have practiced in private. This is how you gain and build trust as a leader. As I've shared, I personally can't trust a leader who doesn't take care of themselves or honors their own commitments. I don't want to work alongside somebody who I know doesn't take care of their home life, who doesn't lead and care for their spouse, their kids, their family, their responsibilities.

I want people working alongside me in this business here at BPN that honor their other life responsibilities. I don't want someone who kicks butt here at BPN and is an all star and a stud and is helping the business grow, but simultaneously is letting their home life fall apart. I don't want that. That's not the leader that I want. Because they can't hold themselves accountable, therefore they can't hold other people accountable.

They are one and the same thing. The way you do one thing is the way you do everything. Trade number three, leaders have a vision and think big picture. This comes from page 124 of the Maxwell Daily Reader. April 22nd. titled lead, don't manage with vision. An important part of leadership involves casting vision.

Some leaders forget to cast vision because they get called up in managing. True leaders recognize a difference between leaders and managers. Managers are maintainers, tending to rely on systems and controls. Leaders are innovators and creators who rely on people. creative ideas become reality when people who are in a position do act catch the vision of their innovative leader and effective vision provides guidance it gives direction for an organization direction that cannot effectively result from rules and regulations policy manuals or

organizational charts true direction for an organization is born with a vision It begins when the leader accepts it. It gains acceptance when the leader models it. And it becomes reality when the people respond to it. Are you leading your team or merely managing them? What I love here is the difference between managers and leaders. Managers are maintainers tending to rely on systems and controls. Leaders are innovators and creators who are

rely on people. The difference is between people and systems and controls. That's why vision is a living, breathing thing. Vision can't be created by AI. Vision can't be produced by rules and regulations in documents. Vision is a living, breathing, moving, always evolving thing. People will try to replicate vision, artificially stimulate and discover vision. And it doesn't work that way. You either have it or you don't. The best leaders are visionaries. They have a vision and they think big picture. A few years ago, we started implementing EOS in the business. EOS stands for the entrepreneurial operating system. And if you're not familiar, there's,

There's two books that I recommend reading. One is called traction. The other one is called rocket fuel. These are authored by Gino Wickman. It's this structure in which you set up a business, manage and lead a business, set up organizational structure, meeting cadence, goal setting.

There's multiple facets and components of EOS, the entrepreneurial operating system. one of the key takeaways, and we still run parts of EOS in the business, but not fully. One of the biggest things that took away from learning about EOS is that there's two important individuals within a business. Everyone's important, but there's two that are critically important. The visionary and the integrator. The way rocket fuel, based off their website, breaks these down.

There are two distinct types of leaders in entrepreneurial businesses. visionaries and integrators. Visionaries are big picture thinkers always imagining what's next. Integrators make it happen. They bring clarity, accountability, and execution. When those two rules work together in harmony, it creates rocket fuel. That's what propels great businesses and people to the next level. Visionary is all about people.

integrator is all about systems. Visionaries are the spark of a business. Now I'm talking business right now, but it's applicable, I'm telling you, to all parts of life. Visionaries are the spark of business. They are the spark of family.

They are the spark of community. They are the spark of innovation and change and transformation. They're the passionate idea generators. relationship builders and forward thinkers who bring energy, vision, and creativity. Integrators make it real. They lead with logic, drive, accountability, and turn ideas and action. They create clarity, align teams, and remove barriers to execution.

Leaders are visionaries. They see into the future. They forward think and they backwards plan. to get the team, to get your family, to get the community, to get the people there. As I was thinking on this one

and planning for this one, this quote came to mind. You can't make decisions today if you don't know where you are trying to go tomorrow. That's a vision. If you're leading your family with me and my wife and our two kids right now,

I have to know where we're trying to be tomorrow. I have to have an idea, or at least be following someone and being guided with the vision of where I'm trying to get my family to, the purpose, what's guiding us? And then from there, we can make decisions today that align with that vision, that purpose, and those values.

but if you don't have a vision, if you don't have core values, if you don't have purpose, if you don't have goals, how are you making decisions today if you don't know where you're going or trying to get to tomorrow? It's really challenging.

It's nearly impossible. It's almost completely impossible. You can only respond as opposed to react if you are thinking ahead, if you have vision. to be a leader and whatever capacity and role

and responsibility you have to lead, vision is absolutely critical. The most exceptional leaders have a strong vision and they share it with everyone and they clearly define it and they work towards it. Number four,

leaders facilitate a healthy environment. This is page 96 of the Maxwell Daily reader March 28th, titled, Leaders Must Be Environmental Change Agents. The leaders in any organization must be the environmental change agents. They must be more like thermostats than thermometers. At first glance, a person could confuse these instruments. Both are capable of measuring heat.

However, they are really quite different. A thermometer is passive. It records the temperature of its environment but can do nothing to change that environment. A thermostat is an active instrument. It determines what the environment will be. It affects change in order to create a climate. The attitude of the leader, coupled with a positive atmosphere

in the organization, can encourage people to accomplish great things. And consistent accomplishment generates momentum Many times momentum is the only difference between a winning positive growth climate and a losing negative growth climate. Momentum. The next time you find it difficult to adjust the environment in your company, keep in mind this simple fact from the law of physics. Water boils at 212 degrees, but at 211 degrees, it is still just hot water. one extra degree, an increase of less than one half of one percent can make the difference between a bot of languishing liquid in a bubbling cauldron of power. One degree can create a full head of steam, enough power to move a train weighing tons.

That one degree is usually momentum. Be a thermostat, not a thermometer. I think leadership is like gardening. You think of a garden. You have to prune it. You have to plant seeds. You have to water it. You have to feed it.

You got to weed it. You got to maintain it. That garden as a leader is our environment. It is our responsibility to control that garden. We have to do all of those things. We have to, you know, in business, you have to hire and fire as needed. In family, you have to establish those core values to set boundaries. You have to enforce discipline.

You have to verbalize the vision and the mission and the purpose. Leadership is like gardening. Right now, Steph has these two flower beds in the back of the yard. next to Charlie's playhouse. And her kind of project, the last year, since we've moved into this new house, has been to garden. And she's incorporated Charlie along for this journey.

And they planted the seeds together, and they water it every day. And they go and check on the plants, and they prune, and they maintain, And after a few months, it started growing and producing vegetables and fruit. And we'll go back there and there's peppers and there's jalapenos and there's basil and there's strawberries and there's cilantro and chives and arugula and all this stuff. Carrots and Charlie can never let things grow fully. She picks it off as soon as it's producing fruit and she starts eating it.

She'll go outside. She'll come back in. she eating a green bell pepper or a jalapeno or she'll take basil and she calls it her pizza plant and she's eating basil all the time spicy basil but leadership is like gardening raising a family is like gardening and the goal is to maintain a healthy environment so that in the gardens case the plants can thrive and survive. And in a leader's context, it is so that the people can thrive,

not just survive, but thrive and be productive and have energy and feel good and want to be there. And a healthy environment is conducive to so many things. But the opposite of a healthy environment is a toxic environment. And as much as it is a leader's responsibility

to facilitate a healthy environment, part of that is also ensuring that anything that is toxic is removed. And even if a leader doesn't participate in the toxicity, if they allow it to happen, they are promoting it. They are encouraging it. They are allowing it.

This could be closed door conversations. This could be, gossip, this could be clicks, this could be resentment, this could be jealousy, this could be playing favorites, this could be so many things that are happening within the environment, within the workplace, within a family, within a community. They are all problems. And if a leader doesn't step in and course correct and work really hard tirelessly to ensure that environment is healthy, it will become toxic. Healthy environments encourage candor.

They encourage dialogue. They encourage confrontation. Healthy environments don't ignore failures or mistakes or problems. They address them head on and early on. I believe that the most healthy leaders, those exceptional leaders are, there's an aura around them. There's an energy around them.

there's a mood. They are positive, they are optimistic, and they don't allow others to experience, feel, or where the stress that they are currently experiencing. An unhealthy leader is one who experiences stress, and when they're stressed or upset or angry, the energy of the entire environment shifts with them. they can bring it up, they can bring it down.

The most exceptional leaders, they don't allow their emotions to dictate the energy of the environment. They maintain that health, they maintain that positivity, they maintain that optimism. It's critical. It's absolutely critical.

Leaders facilitate a healthy environment. And the fifth trait is that leaders adapt well. This comes from page 3.3. 335 of the Maxwell Daily Reader. This is November 1st, adaptability. Teamwork and personal rigidity just don't mix. If you want to work well with others and be a good team player, you have to be willing to adapt yourself to your team. Team players who exhibit adaptability have certain characteristics. Adaptable people are teachable. Diana Nide said, I am willing to to put myself through anything. Temporary pain or discomfort means nothing to me as long as I can

see that the experience will take me to a new level. I am interested in the unknown, and the only path to the unknown is through breaking barriers. Adaptable people always place a high priority on breaking new ground. They are highly teachable. Emotionally secure. People who are not emotionally secure see almost everything as a challenge or a threat. They meet with rigidity or suspicion the addition of another talented person to the team and alteration in their position or title or a change in the way things are done. But secure people aren't made nervous by change itself. They evaluate a new situation or a change in their responsibilities based on its merit. creative. When difficult times come, creative people find a way. Creativity fosters adaptability.

Service-minded. People who are focused on themselves are less likely to make changes for the team than people focus on serving others. There's that servant leadership again. If your goal is to serve the team, adapting to accomplish that goal isn't difficult. The first key to being a team player is being willing to adapt yourself to the team. not an exception that the team will adapt to you. Are you willing to adapt to your team in order to succeed? Leaders adapt well, but they adapt correctly. Here's what I was thinking in terms of adaptability. What it is versus what it's not. Think of a chameleon. A chameleon doesn't necessarily adapt, a chameleon conform.

You know, a chameleon is this reptile that its defense mechanism is that when it's out in the wild and it feels like it is in danger, it will camouflage itself. It blends into its environment where you can't see it. It's incredible. The absolutely incredible defense mechanism. Camilians adapt to their environment to conform to the things around them. They want to blend in, camouflage, and hide. But leaders don't want that. leaders adapt

leaders are firm on their values but loose on position why I say loose on position is because they are teachable and open open to change the reason that's not to conform but it is to adapt is

what I'm not saying a trait of a exceptional leader is that they conform to their environment they give in to anything and everything now leaders know what they stand for they have their values they have their beliefs

they have their vision they have their mission they have their purpose they're firm on those things but they are loose on the position in the way that you potentially get to those things leaders are firm on values

but potentially loose on position. They adapt, but not necessarily conform. They're not a chameleon. Emotional regulation, I think that is a critical component of exceptional leaders. When the leaders are put in a position where they have to adapt, they have to pivot, they have to change, they have to find a new way,

it can be very stressful, it can be very challenging, it can be very hard. but part of that adaptation is regulating your emotions. Again, going back to the previous trait, if you can regulate your emotions correctly, you can maintain a healthy environment. I was listening to a John Maxwell podcast this morning, actually, and it was talking about different styles of leadership

in the way that you approach individuals and leading and developing individuals. and there's three things to take away from this podcast I listened to this morning. There's the push, there's the pull, and there's patience. When it comes to leading people, and while leading people to help them grow and develop and adapt over time, you might have to push them, push them, and pushing people requires candor, hard conversations,

and telling people what to do. what to do and why they're doing it. You realize they have the ability, they're just not doing it. So you push them. You can also pull them. When you pull them, you have compassion

and you are encouraging people what to do and where to go and why. And the last is through all this, you have patience. You can push and you can pull, but you need to have patience in the process.

that allows them to develop and adapt over time. From the John Maxwell podcast, push, pull, and patience as traits of leaders. And I think this is tied very closely to adapting. We as leaders have to adapt the way that we are leading people based off of the person that we are attempting and trying to lead. They might need pushed. They might need pulled.

they definitely need some patience. So those are five traits of truly exceptional leaders that you can start working on and incorporating and just being more mindful of and aware as you lead your team, your business, your family, your children, your community, whatever it is you're being called to lead, these are five traits that I believe exceptional leaders and body.

So with that being said, we'll see you guys in the next episode.