We need heroes. Icons. Legends. Something to hold up above all others. And if we still need that aspirational archetype, then we need to defend that level of excellence with vigor. If everyone is great, no one is great. If everything is important, nothing is important. We need things to be important. So let’s honor those who are appropriately, and exclusively.

Fred Rogers led what amounts to a cultural revolution among parents and kids not by asserting his by power or authority, but rather by leaning in with empathy and authenticity.

Look, technology is wonderful. So many of our daily tasks have become automated. Advancements in the field have made our lives exponentially easier in countless ways. But has it made things too easy? Are we conditioning ourselves for short attention spans, poor memories, and an inability to relate to each other?

We like to fight. We like to feel part of a team. We love to commiserate with those who think like us and debate with those that don’t, so conflict is inevitable. We are so reliably drawn to conflict that marketers even base entire campaigns on it, real or contrived: Tastes Great or Less Filling? Chic Fil-A chicken sandwich or Popeye's? Left Twix or Right Twix? (spoiler alert: they’re the same and both delicious).

…there can be (and often is) a distinction between "success" and leadership. They can be mutually exclusive, depending on your definition of each. Profit margins can grow without leadership. Games can be won without leadership. We can absolutely prioritize results over process. But leadership is rooted in process. It's the how and the why that define leaders.

Thanks to the realities of living during a pandemic, many parts of our daily lives have turned from automatic to deliberate. Our thinking should follow suit.