One lesson in leadership really resonated this week at the Senior Associate induction down at Clayton Utz Sydney.

There was a sheet of paper with examples of great leadership traits. One was refreshingly simple:

“Cares”

Cares about me, cares about juniors, cares about their family, their clients, their community… or not.

“That person cares” is just about the most lofty compliment that you can receive, particularly when it’s not accompanied by the specifics. To just generally “care” is a pretty remarkable achievement.

You might be able to divide your office into people that care and people that don’t. I know which side of the divide that I want to be on. It’s impossible to care about everything, but lonely and ugly to care about nothing. And somewhere in the middle, there is the manager that drops everything to have one of those “we need to talk” conversations after everything has gone to hell.

Those are the managers that you remember long after you’ve left and forgotten their name.