Sean: From your experiences meeting different leaders, what are the qualities all leaders need to have? Wow, big question.

Edwin: I think I've interviewed almost 200 business leaders on my podcast called the Business Leadership Podcast and everything from super excited tech founders. But what I find is that they are visionary in the sense that they know what they want to achieve, but they are also humble, and empathetic that they don't know everything. So they want to build a super team around them, and they want to have them and treat them like, you know, with respect and want to empower them and get them out of the way.

Edwin: But that's what I find, really quickly in terms of what is like - to get out of your own ego. And you know, we all love the title CEO-Founder. Ultimately, we're at the bottom and we're trying to raise everyone else up. We're there to make everyone successful, and there's no job, no role that we can't do to help them. You know, at the end of the day as the founder and the entrepreneur. If everyone fails, it comes to you, and you gotta do it. And that sort of comes with the job description. It may not be written anywhere.

Edwin: Because it's not your people's, you know after they quit, you know, you can't expect them, you need them to have a life. So that's also the empathy and life balance that you want to give your people. But I think my answer is 100 percent visionary, empathetic, and humble.

Sean: Really good qualities. I run a lot of - pre-pandemic, I do run leadership conferences, and I ask people this question: What is your idea of a leader? And then I proceed to write it on the glass board or whiteboard. And you know, some of the most common things that people would say - humility, it's there. Empathy, initiative, execution, diligence, integrity, the list goes on. It's an amazing list, that is what I could say, it doesn't run out, right?

Sean: People expect all of those qualities, right? Kind takes care of people, thinks about their people. Generous, honest. There are just so many qualities of a leader that people look for. And these are people who are team members, their employees, their team members, team players. They look for so many things with a leader that it is hard for even me to say, what are the qualities all leaders need to have? If I'm going to have to say the top three, top four, it doesn't encapsulate what kind of leader you and I should be. Because people expect it to be all of those things. And whenever you and I are not all those things, we're failing as a leader in their eyes, it's that they hold us to very high standards. That's really the job of a leader.

Sean: I would just add integrity to the mix, be a one-man person. When you know how I am here in Leadership Stack, talking to you guys who are tuned in. This is how I am with my team. This is how I talk with them. I'm a one-man person, who I am at home, when I talk with my kids and my wife, I'm a one-man person. It's the same way I talk with them. And I treat everyone the same.

Sean: When you have a private life, and public life, and a different persona at work, it's tough for people to see you as a good leader because you're two-faced and it's hard for people to also trust you, and you're also unpredictable. And when you're unpredictable, that means you're inconsistent. And when you're inconsistent, that means you're not accountable. People can count on you. So integrity is one of the biggest things that I think a leader should have. Otherwise the foundation of people trusting you and allowing themselves to be influenced and led by you. It's not going to happen. So I hope that helps.

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