# The #1 thing leaders should focus on

- **Episode:** [179](https://agents.truthliesandwork.com/episodes/179.md) (2025-03-13)
- **Type:** interview
- **Tags:** leadership-focus, priority, key-focus
- **Time:** 38:57–41:54 (start 2337s)
- **Listen:** [https://truthliesandwork.com/179?t=2337](https://truthliesandwork.com/179?t=2337)

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[38:57] Al Elliott: Yeah
[38:59] Eric Stone: That he misses the emotional side of things. I think it can be dangerous. I do not recommend organizations do that because I think you can balance both and some are going to follow and some will not. And there will be continued shifts like there always is in leadership, though there are some timeless principles for sure
[39:18] Leanne Elliott: For leaders listening, and I know you've mentioned some really great aspects already, but what would you think are the the real skills or competencies they could invest in now to really level up their, their leadership over the next 12 months?
[39:31] Eric Stone: Oh, that's a big question. If I had to pick, uh, the biggest thing I think that is helpful is the leadership presence piece that we've talked about a few times, because that allows you to see you have this high standard, most likely. And high expectation. And you do want to have an ability to make sure there's some reality that goes behind it. And so I think one I would always challenge is that. I think I would really look at your hiring process in any organization. I find people don't even know how to interview the right way to find the right match. And there is a difference between fit and match. And so I think leaders need to make sure their teams have that hiring process going. I think leaders need to ensure that with their high standards, those 3 to 5 we talked about a lot today, that their training needs to ensure it supports the ability to have that high standard. I think those are really, really important. I think leaders need to reevaluate the, not just the values, but the behaviors that truly go behind those values. I'll take it one step further. They shouldn't even have the values and the 3 behaviors under each to continue to define who they are. They might want to consider anti-values, and these are those common sense limiters. So for example, with something like empathy, every company might have an empathetic type of value. If you are too empathetic, if you're actively listening and sharing resources, if you're too empathetic at times, you might be afraid to hold people accountable and have that difficult conversation. So I would tell leaders to, whether themselves, you know, understand that little bit of a roadmap. And I can't stress enough, not only their own training for behavioral training, but making sure their team has behavioral training tucked in throughout, not just how to grow your sales, but what most people struggle about. And it's not necessarily the leader. It's, it's your team might not know how to manage their time, have a difficult conversation, understand these hot buttons with different generational perspectives. So, there's a wide range of what leaders could do, what they should do within their own organization, what they should support them with their teams to continue to have those, as I phrased it, high character, high standard