Lessons in Leadership: The 2025 Admired Leadership Community Conference

Note: The quotes and insights in this article are drawn from the 2025 Admired Leadership Community Conference video series. 

What do a former astronaut and Navy SEAL, a Hollywood casting director, and a financial advisory firm COO have in common? On the surface, it might not seem like a lot. But it turns out they have far more in common than you’d expect, especially when it comes to evaluating leadership talent. 

At the 2025 Admired Leadership Community Conference, I was one of four speakers in a virtual series on evaluating talent. The other three were Chris Cassidy (Navy SEAL, Former Chief Astronaut at NASA, CEO of National Medal of Honor Museum), Rob Kolodziej (Chief Operating Officer and Head of Talent Selection, Capstone Partners), and Seth Yanklewitz (previous Head of Casting and Talent for MGM & MGM+ who shared insights from vastly different worlds. 

Despite their varied backgrounds, I was struck by the universal lessons about leadership that transcended industry entirely. Here are three that stood out from the conference sessions: 

1. Character Starts with Self-Awareness

No matter the industry, everyone agreed that self-awareness is essential. 

Chris Cassidy shared a moment from early in his career. Walking onto the quarterdeck on his first day as a young officer, he thought to himself: “Am I ready for this? I’m more senior than Chiefs who’ve been in the Navy for 25 years, and I’m expected to lead them?” That awareness of his limitations, he explained, was crucial to his development as a leader. 

Rob Kolodziej reinforced this from a finance perspective. The best portfolio managers, he explained, constantly question themselves: “In an investment strategy world, you’re wrong a lot. We’re talking about people who are more right like 53, 54, 55 percent of the time. You have to have that quality to sit there and say, ‘Wait a second. If I had to do this again tomorrow, would I still hold the same position?’”  

That kind of humility is rare, and valuable. As he put it, “A .300 batting average is great in baseball. Here, 50-50 is generally what we’re looking at. So, you’re wrong a lot.” 

Seth Yanklewitz emphasized a related dimension: awareness of your impact on others. He watches for red flags in his meetings with actors: “If there’s a lot of I-statements or me, me, me… if you can’t realize that the lighting designer and the hair makeup person and the gaffer all have a part to play, it’s a red flag that there could be problems on set.” 

Being skilled may get you noticed, but self-awareness makes you a standout leader. It means knowing your limitations, questioning your assumptions, and recognizing your part role within the greater whole.  

2. Culture and Chemistry Trump Raw Talent 

A second theme became clear: individual talent means little without team integration. Collaboration matters more than solo brilliance. 

Chris Cassidy described what it looks like when teams truly gel, using nautical terminology: “the boat is up on step and now the boat is trimmed out and you’re cruising.” The signs: “people are doing things and helping each other without being told. There’s no I anymore. It’s we.” 

Rob Kolodziej emphasized protecting team dynamics. Before making any hire, he tells his team: “Get out to dinner with that person, get out to lunch with that person, put them in a team setting.” He recalled a critical hire during COVID, meeting a portfolio manager at outdoor picnic tables in lower Manhattan. The hire transformed the firm, not because they offered the most money, but because of the cultural fit. 

Seth Yanklewitz looks for this same quality in his hires. When building his team, he prioritizes people he can collaborate with closely: “I want to be in the trenches with this person, I want to fight the fight with them when it gets rough… we can stay there till 9 o’clock at night going through lists and finding the name. I have to get the feeling that I want to spend 10 hours a day with this person.” 

No matter how skilled someone is, they won’t succeed without team integration. Trust and collaboration build lasting success. 

3. True Leadership Is Revealed Under Pressure 

The third insight: stress reveals truths about a leader’s character that interviews never could. 

Chris Cassidy explained that SEAL training and astronaut selection deliberately push people to their limits: “We’ll get them a little tired… give them another task and then have them up early in the morning and do that a few days in a row… And now we put them in a game where they have to make decisions as a group.”  

Why this matters: “People can answer perfectly if they’re just sitting in a conference table…there is no fooling when you’re tired and hungry.” 

Rob Kolodziej echoed this, highlighting that market downturns reveal character. The best respond with humility: “The greatest quality is when people can say I don’t know, but let me try and fix it… work with the risk team. Work with my manager to help me understand what’s failing in my process so I could become a better investment professional.” But others blame external factors: “When people start pointing fingers, oh, it’s never happened before. It won’t happen again… that gets us pretty wary.” 

Seth Yanklewitz described how production reveals character: “When you’re working with people 17 hours a day, a lot of human emotion happens throughout a day… you have to be able to match people who will lift each other up, who will be there for each other, who will help each other.” 

Anyone can perform well in ideal conditions. But stress reveals the truth about judgment, resilience, and how people treat others when things get hard. 

What This Means for Hiring 

At JM Search, these insights shape how we evaluate leadership talent for our clients. When we’re assessing executive candidates, credentials and experience are just the starting point. The real questions go deeper: 

• Does this person have the self-awareness to recognize their limitations and question their assumptions?  

• Will they integrate well and elevate those around them?  

• How do they respond when stress strips away the veneer?  

These aren’t industry-specific questions. They’re human ones. Whether you’re selecting someone for space, for screen, for managing billions, or for leading your organization, the fundamentals remain the same. 

In our work placing executive leaders across industries, we’ve seen firsthand that great leadership isn’t just about expertise or pedigree. It’s about self-awareness, collaboration, and resilience under pressure. That’s what we look for. That’s what separates good hires from great ones.