Leadership to me means duty, honor, country. It means character, and it means listening from time to time.

The leader who changes their mind

The instinct to listen gets overshadowed in how we think about leadership—we focus on vision and decisiveness, the flashy parts. But Bush is pointing at something quieter and maybe harder: the willingness to actually absorb what other people are saying before acting. That matters whether you're managing a team, making decisions in a family, or just trying to influence anyone. The leaders people actually trust tend to have done something harder than just convincing everyone they're right. They've shown they can change their mind.

What's tricky about this is that listening has to mean something real, not just theater. Anyone can nod along while thinking about their next point. Actual listening requires suspending certainty for a moment, which is uncomfortable when you're the one expected to have answers. It's also why "from time to time" is an honest phrase—Bush isn't claiming perfection. He's saying the good leader returns to it, even when it feels inefficient.

The duty and honor part anchors it: listening isn't about being nice or democratic. It's about being serious enough with your responsibility to know you might be wrong. That's a practical insight. The person most convinced they already know everything is usually the one leading their group straight into a wall.