This conversation wasn't planned — I was walking by the hotel bar the other day when a member of the clergy stopped me and asked, "What's your name?" I was caught completely off guard and assumed he was a bishop. "Hello, Bishop." He looked at me and corrected me: "Cardinal... Cardinal Dolan."

Cardinal Dolan is literally my favorite Catholic. I met my favorite cardinal and didn't even recognize who he was. Ha! He's spent years hosting one of my favorite traditions as Archbishop of New York: the Al Smith Dinner — a charity dinner held during presidential election years where the two major-party candidates traditionally come together and roast each other. It's my favorite part of a presidential election. We take ourselves — and especially politics — way too seriously. I love watching two people competing for the most powerful job in the country come to the same table, roast each other, and share a laugh.

In 2016, Donald Trump made one of my favorite jokes when he said Hillary Clinton had accidentally bumped into him before dinner and said, "Pardon me." Everyone, including Hillary, laughed out loud. And then Hillary got her turn.

Watch: Hillary Clinton roast Donald Trump at the 2016 Al Smith Dinner.

That's what I love about the whole thing. Come to the table. Share a laugh.

And while I'm trying to talk to Cardinal Dolan about the Al Smith Dinner, he's trying to get me interested in everybody else. “Colt, do you know Cardinal so-and-so?” Nope. “Cardinal, meet Colt!” Another bishop walked up. “Archbishop, this is Colt. Colt, this is the Archbishop of Minneapolis.”

I had no idea who any of these people were. I was just trying to keep up. What struck me wasn't who I was meeting. It was that Cardinal Dolan kept making the introductions. I was interested in him. He was interested in making sure I was interested in everybody else.

About ten minutes later, I went back to ask him for a photo. A priest was standing nearby. Cardinal Dolan looked at him and said, "Father, have you met Colt?" He remembered my name.

That's what got me. And it wasn't just how he treated me. I watched him do it with other people. He was constantly turning the attention away from himself and toward whoever was standing nearby. I aspire to be like that.

We tend to think charisma is walking into a room and making everybody notice you. Cardinal Dolan reminded me that it might be the opposite: walking into a room and making everybody else feel noticed.

Learn the name. Remember it. Make the introduction. Bring somebody into the circle. Make people feel seen.

Photo Credit: Cardinal Robert McElroy, Archbishop of Washington, D.C.