Leaders who genuinely care about their soldiers and take the time to develop them are the ones who build the Army’s most cohesive teams, Sgt. Maj. of the Army Michael Weimer said.

“The defining factor of a phenomenal leader versus somebody that can just drive to mission success all the time, I think there’s a caring factor,” said Weimer, who became the 17th sergeant major of the Army on Aug. 4.

Before becoming the Army’s top enlisted soldier, Weimer was command sergeant major of U.S. Army Special Operations Command. Over the course of his career in special operations, he said, he had the opportunity to study the “human space” and talk with operational psychologists about the defining characteristics of strong leadership.

Empathy is important, he said, but there’s an authentic caring factor with top leaders that shines through.

“It’s really hard to fake that stuff if you legitimately don’t care about building leaders,” or about cultivating a healthy culture with follow-through that shows genuine care for soldiers and their families, Weimer said during a conversation with Lt. Col. Joe Byerly on Byerly’s From the Green Notebook podcast.

Soldiers receive most of the same professional military education, and many conduct their own studies, whether its policy or national strategic studies, Weimer said. But the caring piece is the mark of an authentic leader whose soldiers’ well-being and that of their families truly matters. It becomes the defining factor that sets apart top leaders from average ones.

“This, to me, is the difference between that cohesive team we never want to [leave] and the OK team that, yeah, I’m good with leaving,” Weimer said.

Top leaders also show personal courage by engaging in “uncomfortable conversations,” a trait that builds credibility, he said. “The art behind the uncomfortable conversation, when it’s done well, is because somebody actually cared,” Weimer said. “It’s squishy, right? That personal courage comes with time. It doesn’t always come through [professional military education], it usually comes through life and model behavior from senior leaders.”

Weimer noted that knowing how to have those difficult conversations is not limited to building credibility with soldiers. It also can apply to family life.

“The longer you avoid the uncomfortable, the harder it gets,” he said.