Good leaders are those who listen well, prioritize relationships and grow through failure, said Lt. Gen. Jonathan Stubbs, director of the Army National Guard.

In a recent interview on the Three Tenets podcast hosted by the National Guard Strength Maintenance Training Battalion in Little Rock, Arkansas, Stubbs discussed the characteristics he believes are imperative to good leadership.

At the top of his list is paying attention to and nurturing strong relationships with people. Without prioritizing solid relationships, he said, “there is a hollowness.”

“The experience of combat really hammered home the idea that, first and foremost, [leadership is] about building relationships with those that you serve with, those that you lead, creating an environment where there's trust,” Stubb said.

He emphasized the importance of trust between leaders and those they lead, as well as trust between units that are operating together. “Relationships are everything,” said Stubbs, who admits to being an introvert who would be just as happy to “fold up … and just be within myself.”

But Stubbs explained that, even as an introvert, over the course of his decadeslong career, he has developed the skills he needs to conduct meaningful interactions. Strong relationships mean being able to talk, work through problems and face adversity together, he said.

“It's just about people, engaging people, being approachable,” he said. “I want folks to be able to walk up to me and just ask me a question, to come to me and say, ‘Hey, sir, I hear what you're saying, but have you thought about this?’”

Stubbs, who has been director of the Army National Guard since August, said that leaders can develop strong relationships through humility and by observing and listening to what people have to say.

Another one of Stubbs’s leadership tenets is “leading on offense,” which means being proactive and not waiting for something to happen.

“Lean into your leadership, then move into friction,” he said. “We're humans, we're all fallible, small teams, it's not always going to go as planned, people are going to make mistakes, people are going to do the wrong thing, people are going to offend each other, there's going to be friction.”

Acknowledging that he has “failed more than I’ve succeeded in my career,” Stubbs pointed out that there is much to be gained from learning to accept that falling is a normal part of being human.

“My challenge is, hey, you're not always going to meet the standard,” he said. “I've been a redo, a no go, a try again. I've been lost, I've got my platoon lost, I've done that time and time again in my career, at all levels of leadership, but I learned something from it.”