Good Leadership Cheat Sheet

Behavior Expectations

Do

Attract, nurture, coach, and retain talent.
Communicate what the next most important challenge the company/team is facing.
Set goals, not tasks.
Be the tiebreaker when your team can't reach a consensus.
Be the information hub. Know what everyone is working on, and connect the dots that wouldn't otherwise get connected.
Create a feedback-safe environment where people feel heard and celebrate critical feedback. Lead by example.
Keep an eye on your team's health and happiness.
Hire the right people to succeed at the team's goals and ensure everyone's strengths match their roles.
Give your team a clear path to progress in their careers.
Enable your team first and ship your projects second.
Walk the talk.
More with less.
Earn authority by repeatedly making good decisions.
Determine how much buy-in a decision needs. Delegate accordingly.
Make decisions when it's necessary. Few things are as demoralizing as a stalled team.
When making decisions, summarize all points of view so clearly that people say, “Thanks, I wish I'd thought of putting it that way.” List any points of agreement with each view and state what you've learned from everyone. Then make your decision.
Set the expectation that everyone gets on board once a decision has been made.
Reopen the discussion if there is significant new information.
Believe in yourself. You can't lead a cavalry charge if you think you look funny on a horse.
Collaboratively discuss expectations to include verifiable tasks and deadlines.

Don't

Micromanage your team's work or daily output (creative work isn't an assembly line). If you supervise too often, you've hired the wrong people.
Publicly shame (ever).
Accept gossip (ever) or intra-team politics.
Judge too quickly; you're right less often than you think. Even if you're sure you're right in any given case, wait until everyone's opinion is heard. Remember that you are the loudest voice in the room.
Let people pressure you into decisions you don't believe in. They'll hold you responsible for them later and be right. Decisions are your responsibility.
Shoot down ideas until it's necessary. Create an environment where everyone feels safe to share and explore ideas.
Make decisions unless you have to. Whenever possible, allow the team to explore ideas and make decisions independently.

Etiquette

Ensure that those you manage to experience a sense of progress in their work to aid their motivation.
Help our people understand why we're doing what we are, work together on what to do, and then let them own the how.
Never begin without the end in sight—pick a metric before starting something.
Not everything will work out, and that's okay because we'll learn from it.
People will not be given a raise or a title because they threaten to quit.
Praise and credit the work of your team members to the rest of the company; don't steal it.
Promptly and responsibly reporting bad news is essential to preserving trust.
The ratio should be around seven per manager to ensure time for personalized one-on-ones and getting your responsibilities met.
Remove barriers by helping people overcome them.
Set appropriate goals upfront to keep mutual expectations clear and address underperformance immediately.
There are different ways to achieve the same goal; therefore, discuss rather than argue over the different perspectives.
Watch for results, not articulate answers.
When something is done well, shout about it. When correcting someone, keep it quiet and private.
When times are great, be a voice of moderation. When times are bad, be a voice of hope.

People

People matter significantly because they reflect the success your domain will have.

Hire great people, and then trust them completely. Default to trust, and then let anyone go who doesn't live up to that trust.
You're the one who makes final hiring and firing decisions. Everything that happens on your team is your responsibility.
If you feel something's wrong, you're probably right. Trust your gut.
If you find yourself blaming someone, you're probably wrong. Nobody wakes up and tries to do a lousy job. 95% of the time, you can resolve your feelings by running a respectful clearing session.
People make emotional decisions 90% - 100% of the time — including you. All intellectual arguments have solid emotional undercurrents. You'll be dramatically more efficient once you determine what those are.
Most people don't readily share their emotions. It's your job to pull them out and set an example by sharing your own.
Have the courage to say what everyone knows to be accurate but isn't saying.
Discover and fix cultural problems your team may not be aware of. Have the courage to say what everyone should know but doesn't.
Unless you're a sociopath, firing people is so hard you'll invent excuses not to do it. If you're consistently wondering if someone's a good fit for too long, dare to do what you know is right.
When adding someone, ask yourself if someone:
- Is each individual so productive that they raise the average productivity of your team? OR
- Acts as a multiplier to everyone else on the team?
- When the answer to both questions is no, please don't add them to your team.

Conflict

It becomes a conflict when disagreement gets personal or people don't accept well-reasoned decisions.
Most conflict happens because people don't feel heard or don't feel like they have an agency to control their world.
Sit down with each person and ask them how they feel. Listen carefully. Then ask again. And again. Then, summarize what they said back to them. Most of the time, that will solve the problem.
If the conflict persists after you've gone to reasonable lengths to hear everyone out and fix problems, it's time for a clearing conversation.

Clearing Conversations, AKA Hard Conversations

Clearing conversations is about getting through difficult situations successfully.

Run your clearing as soon as possible.
Try not to assume or jump to conclusions before the clearing.
Understand where you are in the drama triangle: Villain, Victim, Hero
Before starting, ask, "Am I above or below the line?"
Use the template — seriously. The formula works.
Have the courage to state how you feel and what you need. People are drawn to each other's vulnerability but repelled by their own. Vulnerability isn't a weakness.
Expect people to extend you the same courtesy. If someone makes you feel bad for stating your needs and feelings, then they don't belong at Axelerant.

Set Boundaries

Boundaries surprisingly enable greater freedom and innovation.

People will push and prod to discover your boundaries.
Occasionally, someone will push too far. When they do, you must show a rough edge, or you'll lose authority with your team.
A firm “That's not okay here” or "I'm not okay about that" is usually enough.
If you must firmly say "I'm not okokayith tokayt” too often to the same person, it's your job to let them go.
Don't laugh things off if you don't like laughing them off. Have the courage to show your genuine emotions.

Zone of Genius

Where are people most successful themselves? Being kind means pointing them in a direction that they might not actively consider.

People's performance consists of skills, strengths, and talents.
- A strength is anything that gives you energy.
- A talent is an innate ability that can't be taught.
- A skill is a competency that can be taught.
- When all three are aligned, we are in our zone of genius.
It's often apparent when talent isn't present. Strengths are less clear. Beware the zone of competence, where someone is good at doing a function but doesn't get energy from it — it will ultimately lead to burnout.
- Every person is unique.
- You can't turn weaknesses into strengths or create talent where there is none. (It's tough.)
- All you can teach is skills. Direct your feedback there.
- Focus on doubling down on someone's existing zone of genius.
- Align people's work with what they're already good at.
- There's no such thing as an A player in isolation. There is an A team, where each team member brings distinct value.
Ask yourself whether this person can do the work you want them to do if their life depended on it. Is it a question of motivation or a question of capability?
- If their life depended on it and they could do it, then it's on you as a leader to not provide the proper motivation.
- If, however, they would be unable to do it even if their life depended on it, then that is your mistake as a leader for expecting them to be able to.

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