That was the basic message offered by Timy Sullivan, a writer and animal-rights activist, when she was asked for her thoughts on the most important leadership qualities.

And paying attention, she says, is just step one in being a good leader.

See what else Sullivan had to say in the latest installment of "Leading Edge," an asap video series that's giving Americans the chance to sound off about leadership, just as they're weighing their options in the 2008 presidential race.

http://asap.ap.org/data/interactives/_news/ldedg/le05

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MORE LEADING EDGE

For the last installment of this series, go here: http://asap.ap.org/stories/1663522.s

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Amy Sancetta is an AP enterprise photographer based in Cleveland. Bernadette Tuazon is asap's photo editor, based in New York.

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Want to comment? Sound off at soundoffasap@ap.org.