Peak newsletter 🧠 | This is an excerpt from The Athletic’s weekly newsletter covering the mental side of sports. Sign up here to receive the Peak newsletter directly in your inbox.I’ve come to the conclusion that leadership is both subjective in how it is experienced and applied and objective in the goals it seeks to achieve.The approaches may differ, the personalities may differ and the environments definitely differ. But if the goals are ultimately the same – developing people, improving skills, success – then it made me wonder: What is the single most important trait a leader should have?I asked current and former professional athletes across different sports that question. Here are my 11 favorite answers:Work ethicJayden Daniels, Washington Commanders quarterback: As a leader, you can’t have guys follow you if you’re not going out there and putting the work in yourself.I feel like I can’t ask anybody personally to do stuff that I’m not doing myself. I can’t expect people to come up here and do a walk-through at 6 in the morning if I’m not doing it myself.AdaptabilityChelsea Gray, Las Vegas Aces guard: Adapting to circumstances. Injuries happen. How can you adapt and make others better?Adapting within a game when our energy is down, our belief, how do you change people’s perspective and adapt in that way?(Aces coach) Becky (Hammon) has been great in that regard. Just adapting to the situation. Whether it’s to know to yell, whether to know to give us love, to wrap her arms around us, to give us a break and not see each other, or whether to change the circumstances in certain moments.Positive characterCharlie Davies, former MLS and USMNT player: The coaches who can remain positive and find positives even when things are going bad, those are the coaches everyone wants to fight for and play for.Plays to their strengthsJack Drury, Nashville Predators center: A good leader bases the way they lead on their personality and who they are and what the team needs.The good leaders I’ve been around have been unique. I’d say the two captains I’ve played under in the NHL, Jordan Staal and Gabriel Landeskog, were both incredible captains and I think are — around the league — looked at as two of the best.There are certainly some similarities in that they lead by example, they practice what they preach, things of that nature, but I also think they’re two very different people. And that manifested itself in the way each of them led.Landy is a very outgoing guy, very friendly, very positive, and he could be more of a vocal leader at times when it was necessary for the team.Staal could be a little bit more reserved, but when he did say something, it carried a ton of weight, because you knew how much he meant it and how much he felt the team needed to hear it.Three pro athletes have the same favorite mental adviceElise DevlinConsistency of who they areJeff Francoeur, former MLB player: When I played for Bobby Cox with the Atlanta Braves, you could walk in his office and you could not tell if we won five games in a row or lost five games in a row. He was the same dude every day.