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Abilities-Qualities-Values.md

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Leadership Abilities, Qualities and Values

General

Conscientiousness

  • The Angel’s in the Details - by Andy Dunn. Takeaway: “If you ever meet someone who is obsessed with the little things, and it bothers you, take an introspective look inside. The person with the problem might be you. Only by being obsessed with little things do amazing things emerge. The culture of little things emerges from the top down, not only by what is celebrated, but by what is role modeled.”

Curiosity

Emotional Intelligence

Failure and Resilience

  • Don't Worry About Failure...Embrace It! - by James Hood. Takeaway: "Treat each failed attempt as a learning experience. What went wrong that time? What can I do differently next time? Being kind to yourself and treating setbacks as learning opportunities is key to getting ... onto a path of positive personal growth."

  • Failure as a Service - by Rich Armstrong. What it means to be a leader. Takeaways: Servant-leaders shouldn’t make decisions that should be made by the folks closest to the problem), unless they can’t be answered with readily-available or easily-collected data, and there’s no consensus on the solution. "When the people you manage bring you a tough call, and you choose right, they get the credit. When you choose wrong, you get the blame. And it’s OK, pookie. That’s what you’re here for."

  • Feelings of Failure - by Elad Gil. Takeaway: A post "meant to help with feelings of failure when things are actually going well (whether you as the CEO realize it or not)."

  • 5 Ways to Build Resilience Every Day - by Shamash Alidina. Takeaway: Nurture your relationships, find meaning in difficulty, stay optimistic, be decisive, and accept that change is a part of life.

Gratitude

  • Gratitude as a Company Value - by Anil Dash. Takeaway: Dash's first few months as CEO at Fog Creek Software revealed that the company's tradition of expressing genuine thanks to employees/coworkers has engaged him and others on an emotional level, which leads to a better culture. |[W]e should regularly take the time to show our colleagues, peers and collaborators that we’re thankful for their work."

Humility

  • How Real Leaders Melt the Iceberg of Ignorance with Humility - by Joost. Takeaway: A follow-up on the 1989 study by consultant Sidney Yoshida, who pointed out that front-line information awareness decreased the further up the management hierarchy he went. This article suggests that humility, via reaching out to front-line workers to understand issues and collect information, can resolve the problem.

Integrity

  • Put an End to Your Feedback Loop - by Jesse Sostrin. Takeaway: "If you’ve ever said the words 'I’ve gotten this feedback before,' chances are you’re playing with fire and undermining your own success by failing to address the issue."

Politeness

  • The Church of Interruption - by Sam Bleckley. Takeaway: a stylistic exploration of interrupting vs. not interrupting during conversations.

Self-Awareness

Transparency

  • How This Head of Engineering Boosted Transparency at Instagram - by FirstRound Capital. Takeaway: Focusing on James Everingham at Instagram. "Everingham soon realized that boosting Instagram’s straggling transparency scores meant figuring out what a common definition was. And that wasn’t all — he quickly recognized that shedding light on the decision-making process would also become a sizable component of their efforts to solve the transparency equation. The engineering group would need to identify who was making decisions, how those decisions were made and why they were being made."

Trust

  • A Trust Toolbox for Virtual Teams. Module 1: “The Prelude Game” - by Alexey Pikulev. Takeaway: A five-module framework for building trust, including sections on personal integrity and trust in action.

  • Building Trust Inside Your Team - by MindTools. Takeaway: Build trust inside teams via example-setting and clear communication.

  • Building Trust on Agile Teams - by Rachel Davies. Takeaway: Posits a trust equation—"T = C + R + I / S. The letters in this formula stands for, Trustworthiness = Credibility + Reliability + Intimacy all divided by Self-orientation, where: Credibility relates to expertise."

  • Building Trust Through Effective Communication - by Dvir Segal. Takeaway: Communicating positively, being patient and mentally present, gauging your audience's emotional state, being clear in saying "no," rejecting victim mentality and other skills will build trust.

  • The 5 Bottom-Line Benefits of Building Trust in the Workplace - by Claire Lew. Takeaway: "Building trust in our team is more than a 'feel-good' thing – here’s the data that show how trust affects our team’s performance and the company’s bottom line."

  • A Guide to Building Trust in Teams and Organizations - by Ron McFarland. McFarland's wide-ranging piece outlines various meanings of the term "trust," organizational factors that can influence it, and organizational dynamics that it, in turn, affects. The piece also includes descriptions of ways trust can operate at several interlocking "levels": personal, relational, organizational, and market.

  • Humans Hate Being Spun: How to Practice Radical Honesty — from the Woman Who Defined Netflix’s Culture - by FirstRound. Takeaway: "Too often, upper management thinks that sharing about problems confronting the business will heighten anxiety among staff, but what's more anxiety provoking is not knowing. You can't protect your people from hard truths anyway. And holding back the truth, or telling them half-truths, will only breed contempt. Trust is based on honest communication, and I find that employees become cynical when they hear half-truths."

  • The Neuroscience of Trust - by Paul J. Zak. Takeaway: "[B]uilding a culture of trust is what makes a meaningful difference. Employees in high-trust organizations are more productive, have more energy at work, collaborate better with their colleagues, and stay with their employers longer than people working at low-trust companies. They also suffer less chronic stress and are happier with their lives, and these factors fuel stronger performance."

  • Our 6 Must Reads For Creating and Accelerating Trust on Teams - by FirstRound. Takeaway: Leave a good last impression ("[e]nd every meeting or conversation with the feeling and optimism you’d like to have at the start of your next conversation with the person"); give your most recent performance review to your final round candidates; don’t miss the Day One opportunity; write and distribute your user guide; reference the Trust Equation by Steven Drozdeck and Lyn Fisher; work toward a shared consciousness.

  • Team Trust Canvas - by In Team We Trust. Takeaway: a one-page planning canvas to help your team build trust explicitly.

  • The 3 Most Effective Ways to Build Trust as a Leader - by Claire Lew. Takeaway: Show vulnerability, communicate the intent behind your actions, and follow through.

  • Trust Anti-Pattern Cards - by In Team We Trust. Takeaway: a set of cards that cover antipatterns like blame, broken schedules, conflict. You can use the cards in retrospective exercises to identiy issues and resolve them.

  • Who Should Own Your Engineering Team’s Skill Debt? - by Oren Ellenbogen. Takeaway: "Increasing skill debt is an outcome of an organization where trust is deteriorating." This is because lack of trust encourages people to stick to what they already know, instead of stretching their skills and knowledge and experimenting. This leads to stagnation. Watch out for lack of empathy, disinterest, blame and cynicism. Managers and team leads must work together to resolve.