The most valuable leadership traits:

  1. Listens effectively and coaches others
  2. Encourages others to take measured risk
  3. Takes blame of the subordinates when they take risk but attributes credit to the subordinates
  4. Explain the why, gives a clear expectation of the result along with the timeline, provides resources to achieve the result
  5. Shows empathy
  6. Communicates well and often

The traits of ineffective leaders:

  1. Unfair to others when expectation is not met
  2. Takes decision without much clarity
  3. Does not communicate well

Making the mental leap to managing others:

Managing people is significantly different from working as an individual contributor.

  1. Achieve through others instead of doing all by yourself. You need to build your team’s capability to achieve something together. So there is a little opportunity for you to achieve something by your individual effort. This still takes a lot of energy and work. Effective management can enable you to achieve a synergy by collaboration.
  2. Set up the objectives and key results: OKR’s can be an effective way to set your team up for success. You can set some qualitative and also quantitative measure of success. The OKR’s need to be consistent with intra-team, inter-team, and personal goals and objectives.
  3. Know-your-people: This is extremely important since only through knowing people you can help them make their individual lives better and help them feel accomplished. Your people are humans too with their own set of unique aspirations and issues. If you help them overcome their challenges, you get a friend for life. A loyal employee can be a true asset. So set regular 1 on 1 meetings with them, know their problems and aspirations, let them speak, coach them in order to help them identify their own solutions, and identify how to help them reach their goals.
  4. Communicate using a well-chosen vocabulary: Give frequent positive feedback frequently, tell them that you noticed their good work, give them a little bit more challenge and help them progress.
  5. Ask for feedback and learn from mistakes: Seek feedback from your peers, levels above, and direct reports. The earlier you get the genuine feedback and correct your way, the more chances of success for you.
  6. Stay resilient: Your action, behavior, verbal, and non-verbal gestures convey to others whether you are confident or anxious about a situation. Do not get too optimistic or pessimistic for a situation unless you have a strong vision.
  7. Spend your energy as if it is a precious resource: Prioritize what matters most: health, exercise, eating, and sleep. Work may creep up to occupy your weekends. Working long-hours are not sustainable. Try out the Eisenhower Matrix to help prioritize for your long term success.

Build a relationship with manager and a network across the organization

You need to to understand the skills, weakness, leadership style, goals of your manager.

Below are copied text from Franklin Covey resources for notes:

1. Make a list of colleagues whose work links to yours, and focus on building or strengthening key relationships.

2. Spend 15 minutes brainstorming and writing down a list of colleagues whose work could impact yours.

3. Consider which relationships to build

4. Be proactive in sharing mutually beneficial information.

5. Actively seek feedback about 7your ideas and projects — but only if you genuinely want the input.