Owning outcomes, not just activity. Honoring commitments and being transparent when they slip.
Behaviors
- Names a clear owner for every decision
- Reports status before being asked
- Acknowledges misses and proposes a fix
Anti-patterns
- Blaming process or other teams
- Vague 'we' instead of 'I'
- Quiet missed deadlines
Reinforce it with
- • Public commitment tracking
- • Weekly DRI updates
- • Retrospectives that name owners, not just causes
Accountability is the soil trust grows in. Without it, every other value softens.
Sharing context, data, and reasoning by default — so people can make great decisions without you.
Behaviors
- Defaults to open documents
- Shares the 'why' behind decisions
- Tells the hard truth early
Anti-patterns
- Need-to-know hoarding
- Polished updates that hide reality
- Backchannel decision making
Reinforce it with
- • Open metrics dashboards
- • Public meeting notes
- • Leadership AMAs
Transparency turns information from a power tool into a shared resource.
Starting with the customer and working backwards. Letting their reality outweigh internal politics.
Behaviors
- Talks to real customers weekly
- Reads support tickets unprompted
- Prioritizes customer pain over internal preference
Anti-patterns
- Designing for the org chart
- Treating NPS as a vanity metric
- 'The customer doesn't know what they want'
Reinforce it with
- • Customer call rotations
- • Voice-of-customer in every review
- • Empty chair for the customer in meetings
Keeps strategy honest and prevents inward-facing drift.
Treating every person as a full human being whose time, ideas, and dignity matter.
Behaviors
- Listens before responding
- Credits ideas to their source
- Disagrees with the idea, not the person
Anti-patterns
- Interrupting and steamrolling
- Sarcasm framed as 'just kidding'
- Status-based listening
Reinforce it with
- • Meeting norms
- • Anonymous feedback channels
- • Calling in, not calling out
Respect is the floor. Without it, no other value is safe.
Improving how things work by trying things that might not. Treating new ideas as cheap and easy to test.
Behaviors
- Runs small experiments
- Steals shamelessly from other industries
- Kills its own ideas when the data says so
Anti-patterns
- Innovation theater (hackathons, no follow-up)
- Punishing useful failure
- Defending legacy because it's legacy
Reinforce it with
- • Time-boxed experiment budget
- • Demo days with real users
- • Post-mortems that celebrate learning
Innovation is a habit, not a department.
Acting like a founder of the part of the company you can touch.
Behaviors
- Picks up the work no one owns
- Thinks past their job description
- Closes the loop
Anti-patterns
- 'Not my job'
- Escalating instead of solving
- Polished handoffs with no follow-through
Reinforce it with
- • Operating cadences
- • Founder stories
- • Public recognition for cross-team saves
Ownership compounds — every owned moment makes the next one easier.
Holding strong opinions loosely. Believing you can be wrong, and acting on it.
Behaviors
- Asks 'what am I missing?'
- Credits the team in public, takes blame in private
- Updates beliefs when evidence shifts
Anti-patterns
- Defending ego over outcomes
- Performative humility
- Quiet credit-taking
Reinforce it with
- • Pre-mortems
- • Red-team reviews
- • Promotion criteria that reward learning, not certainty
Humility is the doorway through which feedback walks.
Caring how the work is done, not just whether it ships.
Behaviors
- Sweats the second draft
- Refuses to ship known broken things
- Defines 'done' before starting
Anti-patterns
- 'Good enough' as a permanent setting
- Hero culture covering for poor process
- Quality only when leadership is watching
Reinforce it with
- • Quality bars and definitions of done
- • Craft reviews
- • Time budgeted for polish, not just delivery
Excellence is contagious — and so is its absence.
Saying the thing, doing the hard thing, even when it costs you something.
Behaviors
- Surfaces problems early
- Disagrees with senior people respectfully
- Makes the unpopular call when needed
Anti-patterns
- Polite silence in meetings, complaints in DMs
- Waiting for permission to do obvious things
- Avoiding hard feedback
Reinforce it with
- • Norms that reward dissent
- • Leaders modeling vulnerability
- • Protected channels for hard truths
Courage is what turns values from posters into practice.
Treating today's process as a draft. Small, regular changes over big, rare ones.
Behaviors
- Runs retros that lead to action
- Measures, then improves
- Looks for the next 1% every week
Anti-patterns
- 'This is how we've always done it'
- Retros without owners
- Annual reorgs as a substitute for daily learning
Reinforce it with
- • Kaizen boards
- • Time set aside for improvement work
- • Tracking improvements like features
Compounds quietly into a system that gets better while no one is looking.
Doing what you said you'd do, especially when it's inconvenient.
Behaviors
- Honors small commitments
- Tells the same story in every room
- Acts the same when no one is watching
Anti-patterns
- Different message to different audiences
- Quiet exceptions for senior people
- Spin disguised as positioning
Reinforce it with
- • Promise tracking
- • Clear escalation paths
- • Consequences that apply to everyone
Integrity is the value that makes every other value believable.
Understanding what it's like to be the other person before designing for them.
Behaviors
- Asks how a change will land for the team affected
- Listens for what isn't said
- Designs for the worst day, not the best
Anti-patterns
- Logic without care
- 'Tough love' that is mostly tough
- Empathy only for people like us
Reinforce it with
- • Shadowing customers and teammates
- • Inclusive design reviews
- • Manager training on listening
Empathy is what keeps performance human.
Choosing the team's outcome over personal credit. Making others better as part of the job.
Behaviors
- Writes things down so others can build on them
- Offers help before it's asked for
- Defaults to 'we'
Anti-patterns
- Hero solos
- Information hoarding
- Meetings as performance
Reinforce it with
- • Shared OKRs across teams
- • Pair work and reviews
- • Recognition for assists, not just goals
Collaboration is what turns a group of talented people into a team.
Asking "why" one more time than feels comfortable. Treating not-knowing as a starting point, not a weakness.
Behaviors
- Asks follow-up questions before proposing solutions
- Reads outside their own discipline
- Treats surprises as data, not annoyances
Anti-patterns
- Assuming the first answer is the right one
- Punishing "I don't know" instead of rewarding it
- Confusing confidence with correctness
Reinforce it with
- • Show-and-tell sessions across teams
- • Budget for exploratory research time
- • Leaders asking questions in public they don't know the answer to
Curiosity is what keeps excellence from calcifying into habit.
Preferring a reversible decision made today over a perfect one made next month.
Behaviors
- Ships small and learns fast
- Distinguishes one-way doors from two-way doors
- Defaults to trying, not debating
Anti-patterns
- Analysis paralysis dressed up as rigor
- Waiting for consensus that will never fully arrive
- Punishing fast decisions that turned out wrong
Reinforce it with
- • Explicit "reversible vs. irreversible" decision framing
- • Time-boxed decision deadlines
- • Celebrating speed, not just outcomes
Bias for action turns strategy into motion.
Making it safe to say the awkward thing, ask the basic question, or admit the mistake — before it becomes a crisis.
Behaviors
- Responds to bad news with curiosity, not blame
- Admits their own mistakes first
- Separates the person from the failure
Anti-patterns
- Public blame for honest mistakes
- Punishing the messenger
- Silence in meetings, real opinions in hallways
Reinforce it with
- • Blameless post-mortems
- • Leaders modeling visible failure
- • Norms that protect dissent in the room it happens
Psychological safety is the precondition every other value depends on.
Choosing the solution that's easiest to understand and maintain, not the one that's most impressive to build.
Behaviors
- Removes steps before adding them
- Explains decisions in plain language
- Questions complexity that "just grew that way"
Anti-patterns
- Complexity as a status symbol
- Process added but never retired
- Jargon used to obscure, not clarify
Reinforce it with
- • Regular process/tooling audits
- • "What can we remove?" as a standing retro question
- • Rewarding subtraction, not just addition
Simplicity is a discipline, not an accident.
Making decisions the future version of the company will thank you for, even when it costs something now.
Behaviors
- Weighs second-order effects before deciding
- Invests in things that pay off past this quarter
- Says no to short-term wins that create long-term debt
Anti-patterns
- Optimizing for the next demo or review cycle
- Treating technical/culture debt as someone else's problem
- Decisions that look good in the deck, not in year two
Reinforce it with
- • Multi-year planning alongside quarterly OKRs
- • Rewarding decisions retroactively, once outcomes are known
- • Leaders explicitly naming trade-offs out loud
Long-term thinking is what protects the company from its own short-term wins.
Actively seeking out perspectives that disagree with the room, because agreement is a warning sign, not a milestone.
Behaviors
- Invites the dissenting voice before finalizing a decision
- Builds teams with different backgrounds and default assumptions
- Treats "we all agree" as a prompt to look harder
Anti-patterns
- Hiring for culture "fit" instead of culture "add"
- Groupthink mistaken for alignment
- Token inclusion without real influence
Reinforce it with
- • Structured devil's-advocate roles in key decisions
- • Diverse hiring panels
- • Tracking whose ideas actually get adopted
Diversity of thought is what keeps a confident team from being a wrong one.
Absorbing setbacks without absorbing despair. Treating hard periods as temporary, not identity-defining.
Behaviors
- Separates the setback from self-worth
- Recovers focus quickly after a bad outcome
- Names what was learned, not just what was lost
Anti-patterns
- Spiraling into blame after failure
- Burnout treated as a badge of honor
- Avoiding hard projects to avoid the risk of failing
Reinforce it with
- • Post-failure retros focused on learning, not fault
- • Visible recovery stories from leadership
- • Sustainable pacing, not constant crunch
Resilience is what lets ambition survive contact with reality.
Telling the truth even when a softer version would be easier, especially when the truth reflects on you.
Behaviors
- Says "I don't know" instead of guessing confidently
- Delivers bad news directly instead of burying it in a longer update
- Admits a mistake before being asked about it
Anti-patterns
- Softening feedback until it loses its meaning
- Withholding bad news to protect the moment
- Technically true statements designed to mislead
Reinforce it with
- • Leaders sharing their own failures first
- • Rewarding early bad-news delivery over late good news
- • Feedback training that practices directness
Honesty is the version of the truth that costs you something.
Staying committed to the team and mission through the hard, unglamorous stretch — not just the easy parts.
Behaviors
- Defends the team's reputation when they're not in the room
- Stays through a hard project instead of jumping ship at the first sign of trouble
- Raises concerns privately before airing them publicly
Anti-patterns
- Talking badly about the company to outsiders while staying silent internally
- Loyalty that evaporates the moment it's inconvenient
- Treating every setback as a reason to disengage
Reinforce it with
- • Leaders staying visibly committed during hard quarters
- • Recognizing tenure through hard periods, not just wins
- • Clear channels for raising concerns without disloyalty
Loyalty is commitment that survives the hard chapter, not just the good one.
Designing systems and spaces where people who are different can contribute, grow, and belong at full strength.
Behaviors
- Asks whose voice is missing before finalizing
- Removes unnecessary barriers to participation
- Uses flexible norms instead of single-style defaults
Anti-patterns
- Treating diversity as a hiring finish line
- Ignoring accessibility or caregiving needs
- Confusing comfort with belonging
Reinforce it with
- • Inclusive meeting rituals
- • Accessible documentation and events
- • Regular listening sessions with underrepresented groups
Inclusion is the bridge between diversity and performance.
Adjusting quickly to new information, markets, and constraints without losing direction or trust.
Behaviors
- Revises plans when the facts change
- Helps teammates navigate uncertainty
- Protects the goal while changing the method
Anti-patterns
- Stubborn adherence to a plan that no longer fits
- Changing direction every Monday
- Using ambiguity as an excuse for delay
Reinforce it with
- • Scenario planning sessions
- • Rapid decision loops
- • Stories of productive pivots
Adaptability is the discipline of changing the plan without losing the people.
Noticing and expressing appreciation for effort, impact, and small wins that usually go unseen.
Behaviors
- Says thank you specifically and publicly
- Credits behind-the-scenes contributors
- Celebrates progress, not just outcomes
Anti-patterns
- Entitlement disguised as high standards
- Taking steady work for granted
- Recognition reserved for big wins only
Reinforce it with
- • Peer recognition channels
- • Friday win shares
- • Manager habits of specific praise
Gratitude makes contribution feel seen — and seen contribution compounds.
Believing that people will do what they say, act with good intent, and have each other's backs.
Behaviors
- Gives real responsibility without hovering
- Shares information without a million approvals
- Assumes good intent until proven otherwise
Anti-patterns
- Micromanagement as a default
- Building systems for the worst actor
- Punishing people for the first mistake
Reinforce it with
- • Clear delegation with authority
- • Transparent decision logs
- • Accountability that matches the trust given
Trust is the shortcut that makes every other value move faster.
Applying consistent standards, distributing opportunities equitably, and explaining the rules clearly.
Behaviors
- Uses clear criteria for rewards and opportunities
- Gives candid feedback to everyone, not just favorites
- Owns when a process disadvantaged someone
Anti-patterns
- Quiet exceptions for senior people
- Opaque promotion decisions
- Treating consistency as the enemy of context
Reinforce it with
- • Published rubrics for growth decisions
- • Calibration sessions
- • Anonymous channels to surface unfairness
Fairness is what makes people believe the game is worth playing.
Moving fast as a team, learning in small loops, and keeping decisions reversible until they matter.
Behaviors
- Ships minimum viable versions
- Breaks big work into weekly learning milestones
- Reviews and adjusts rituals regularly
Anti-patterns
- Waiting for perfect specs before starting
- Big-bang releases with no feedback
- Changing process faster than people can adapt
Reinforce it with
- • Sprint reviews with real users
- • Experiment boards
- • Retros that focus on cycle time and learning
Agility is the habit of learning faster than the market changes.
Connecting daily work to a meaningful outcome that people can name and feel proud of.
Behaviors
- Explains why a project matters to customers or the team
- Ties goals to human outcomes, not just metrics
- Revisits purpose when the work gets hard
Anti-patterns
- Mission statements that never appear in decisions
- Celebrating numbers without stories
- Asking for hustle without a reason
Reinforce it with
- • Customer impact stories in all-hands
- • OKRs that include 'so that' purpose
- • Onboarding that connects roles to mission
Purpose is the energy source that carries people through mundane work.
Giving people the freedom to choose how they do their best work, paired with clear accountability for the result.
Behaviors
- Sets outcomes, not methods
- Supports decisions made without approval when reversible
- Invests in judgment, not just compliance
Anti-patterns
- Freedom without clarity on expectations
- Approval theater for low-stakes choices
- Blaming people for choices they were forced to make
Reinforce it with
- • Outcome-based goals
- • Decision rights matrices
- • Coaching on judgment instead of rule-following
Autonomy is the trust that turns employees into owners.
Speaking directly, kindly, and usefully — especially when silence would be easier.
Behaviors
- Gives feedback in the moment, not during reviews
- Asks the question everyone is thinking
- Separates the problem from the person
Anti-patterns
- Brutal honesty that is mostly brutal
- Avoiding hard truths until they explode
- Using 'being nice' to dodge real feedback
Reinforce it with
- • Regular 1:1s with feedback rituals
- • Anonymous upward feedback
- • Leadership modeling of public self-correction
Candor is the speed of trust in a conversation.
Investing in other people's growth as a regular part of the job, not a side project.
Behaviors
- Shares the 'why' behind decisions
- Creates stretch opportunities for others
- Gives feedback that is actionable and caring
Anti-patterns
- Hoarding expertise to stay valuable
- Mentorship only for high-potential labels
- Giving advice without listening first
Reinforce it with
- • Formal mentorship pairings
- • Growth conversations in 1:1s
- • Recognizing people who develop others
Mentorship is how a culture passes down what it values most.
Making expectations, priorities, and reasoning so clear that people can act without asking for permission.
Behaviors
- States the goal and the constraints in the same sentence
- Writes decisions down so they don't drift
- Checks for understanding, not just agreement
Anti-patterns
- Assuming silence means alignment
- Moving targets disguised as flexibility
- Jargon that hides uncertainty
Reinforce it with
- • Decision logs and written rationales
- • Role charters with clear decision rights
- • Meeting summaries with named next steps
Clarity is the respect you pay someone's time and judgment.
Sharing information in a way that creates alignment, reduces anxiety, and invites contribution.
Behaviors
- Defaults to public channels over DMs
- Repeats key messages in different formats
- Listens as much as broadcasts
Anti-patterns
- Information hoarded as leverage
- Over-communicating without a point
- Using meetings to replace writing
Reinforce it with
- • Async updates with clear owners
- • Communication charters by team
- • Feedback loops on message clarity
Communication is the circulatory system of culture.
Noticing and celebrating contributions that reinforce what the organization values most.
Behaviors
- Praises specific behavior, not just outcomes
- Recognizes effort that usually goes unseen
- Makes appreciation timely and public
Anti-patterns
- Recognition reserved for big wins
- Generic praise that could apply to anyone
- Playing favorites consistently
Reinforce it with
- • Peer recognition channels
- • Weekly win shares
- • Manager training on specific praise
Recognition tells people: this is what we want more of.
Creating the conditions where people feel accepted as themselves and safe to contribute fully.
Behaviors
- Invites quieter voices into the conversation
- Remembers and uses people's names and pronouns
- Celebrates differences rather than tolerating them
Anti-patterns
- Forcing assimilation to an unwritten norm
- Exclusion disguised as 'culture fit'
- Ignoring microaggressions
Reinforce it with
- • Onboarding that builds relationships
- • Employee resource groups
- • Regular belonging surveys with action
Belonging is the feeling that makes contribution sustainable.
Giving people authority, resources, and support to act with confidence in their judgment.
Behaviors
- Delegates real decisions, not just tasks
- Makes resources available without a fight
- Coaches instead of rescuing
Anti-patterns
- Fake autonomy with hidden veto power
- Withholding information people need to decide
- Blaming people for decisions you forced
Reinforce it with
- • Decision rights matrices
- • Budget ownership at the team level
- • Leadership asking 'what do you think?' before answering
Empowerment is trust with the tools to back it up.
Caring for the organization, its people, and its resources as if they were entrusted to you by the people who come next.
Behaviors
- Makes decisions that protect long-term health
- Invests in people even when the ROI isn't immediate
- Leaves things better than found
Anti-patterns
- Extracting value for today's metrics
- Burning people out for a deadline
- Ignoring technical or culture debt
Reinforce it with
- • Long-term impact reviews
- • Sustainability metrics in goals
- • Stories of people who protected the future
Stewardship is ownership measured in decades, not quarters.
Doing what needs to be done, especially when motivation, mood, or attention want to pull you elsewhere.
Behaviors
- Shows up prepared for meetings
- Follows through on small commitments
- Protects deep work from distraction
Anti-patterns
- Relying on inspiration to strike
- Chasing shiny priorities every week
- Letting standards slip when no one is watching
Reinforce it with
- • Calendars that protect focus time
- • Rituals and checklists for recurring work
- • Accountability partners for goals
Discipline is the bridge between intention and impact.
Saying no to good opportunities so the great ones get the energy, time, and talent they deserve.
Behaviors
- Names the one or two priorities that matter most
- Kills projects that no longer deserve resources
- Protects the team's attention from random work
Anti-patterns
- Pretending everything is a priority
- Starting more than finishing
- Context-switching as a badge of honor
Reinforce it with
- • Quarterly stop-doing lists
- • Protected focus blocks
- • Leadership visibly saying no to distractions
Focus is the courage to disappoint in order to deliver.
Treating every outcome — success or failure — as data, and every person as a potential teacher.
Behaviors
- Asks 'what did we learn?' before 'who is to blame?'
- Shares mistakes as case studies
- Invests time in skills just outside the current role
Anti-patterns
- Repeating the same failure without review
- Punishing people for admitting gaps
- Training treated as a checkbox
Reinforce it with
- • Learning budgets and protected study time
- • Post-project retrospectives
- • Internal talks and knowledge shares
Learning is the value that makes every other value evolve.
Orienting work around the needs of others — customers, teammates, and the communities you touch.
Behaviors
- Asks 'how can I help?' before assigning blame
- Designs for the user's worst day
- Treats internal requests with the same care as external ones
Anti-patterns
- Service theater without real follow-through
- Helping as a way to feel superior
- Ignoring internal customers
Reinforce it with
- • Customer and teammate shadowing
- • Service standards for internal teams
- • Recognition for acts of help
Service is the habit of making the next person's job easier.
Caring about how the work is made, not just that it shipped — because quality compounds.
Behaviors
- Sweats the details users feel
- Refactors instead of stacking hacks
- Takes pride in unglamorous work
Anti-patterns
- Shipping to hit a date and never returning
- Treating polish as optional
- 'Good enough' as a reflex
Reinforce it with
- • Peer review with real standards
- • Time budgeted for cleanup
- • Showcases of well-made work
Craftsmanship is what keeps speed from turning into debt.
Treating time, money, and attention as borrowed resources that must earn their return.
Behaviors
- Finds the cheap experiment before the big bet
- Questions recurring spend
- Solves with constraints instead of headcount
Anti-patterns
- Budget as a status symbol
- Cheapness that burns people out
- Spending to look serious
Reinforce it with
- • Spend reviewed with outcomes attached
- • Small-bet experiment norms
- • Recognition for resourceful wins
Frugality forces creativity and keeps the company honest about value.
Protecting the sustainable capacity of people so performance isn't paid for with health.
Behaviors
- Models real time off
- Watches workload, not just output
- Normalizes asking for help early
Anti-patterns
- Hustle worn as identity
- Perks instead of workload fixes
- Rewarding always-on availability
Reinforce it with
- • Coverage plans for vacations
- • Workload check-ins in 1:1s
- • Leaders logging off visibly
Wellbeing is how a team stays good for years, not quarters.
Keeping room for humor and experimentation so serious work stays human.
Behaviors
- Laughs at its own mistakes
- Makes space for side experiments
- Celebrates weird ideas before judging them
Anti-patterns
- Forced fun events
- Humor at someone's expense
- Seriousness as a status marker
Reinforce it with
- • Demo days for odd ideas
- • Team rituals people actually enjoy
- • Leaders who show personality
Playfulness lowers the cost of trying something new.
Behaving the same way on the good days and the hard ones, so people can predict you.
Behaviors
- Applies standards evenly
- Keeps small commitments
- Reacts to bad news the same way twice
Anti-patterns
- Rules that bend for favorites
- Mood-driven leadership
- Policies rewritten to fit a case
Reinforce it with
- • Documented decision criteria
- • Calibration across managers
- • Follow-through tracked publicly
Consistency is what makes trust cheap to maintain.
Being the person or team whose word can be planned around without a backup plan.
Behaviors
- Renegotiates early instead of failing quietly
- Delivers boring, dependable quality
- Closes loops without reminders
Anti-patterns
- Heroics covering chronic slippage
- Overcommitting to look eager
- Silence when things go sideways
Reinforce it with
- • Commitment tracking in reviews
- • Escalation norms that reward early flags
- • Praise for quiet dependability
Reliability turns coordination from negotiation into assumption.
Treating critique as information rather than threat — and making it easy to give you.
Behaviors
- Asks for specifics after praise
- Thanks people for hard input
- Changes something visible after feedback
Anti-patterns
- Defending before understanding
- Feedback only flowing downward
- Punishing the messenger later
Reinforce it with
- • Upward feedback in 1:1s
- • Leaders sharing their own critiques
- • Follow-up on what changed
Openness to feedback is the fastest cheap way an org gets smarter.
Making choices that still look right in three years, for the business and the planet you operate in.
Behaviors
- Weighs long-run cost of shortcuts
- Considers external impact in decisions
- Builds systems others can maintain
Anti-patterns
- Green claims without measurement
- Growth that mortgages the future
- Systems only one person understands
Reinforce it with
- • Long-horizon metrics in reviews
- • Impact criteria in decision docs
- • Handoff and documentation standards
Sustainability is stewardship with a time horizon attached.
Moving on obvious problems without waiting for permission or a perfect brief.
Behaviors
- Fixes the small broken thing it finds
- Proposes solutions with the problem
- Starts the draft nobody assigned
Anti-patterns
- 'Not my job' as a default
- Waiting for a meeting to act
- Initiative that skips alignment entirely
Reinforce it with
- • Clear guardrails for autonomous action
- • Recognition for unassigned fixes
- • Low-friction paths to propose work
Initiative is what fills the gaps no process anticipated.
Sharing credit, context, and time freely because the team's win is the real scoreboard.
Behaviors
- Names contributors specifically
- Shares knowledge instead of hoarding it
- Gives time to people with nothing to trade
Anti-patterns
- Credit routed upward only
- Information as leverage
- Helping only when it's visible
Reinforce it with
- • Peer recognition programs
- • Shared documentation norms
- • Promotion criteria that include lifting others
Generosity is how knowledge and goodwill circulate instead of pooling.
Showing up as the same person in every room — honest about what you think, what you know, and what you don't.
Behaviors
- Names real constraints instead of performing optimism
- Shares the reasoning behind changed positions
- Matches private conversation to public message
Anti-patterns
- Performing a version of yourself for leadership
- Saying what gets applause instead of what is true
- Hiding misalignment behind polished updates
Reinforce it with
- • Leadership vulnerability stories
- • No-spin town halls
- • Recognition for dissenting with respect
Authenticity is the trust that makes feedback and disagreement safe.
Being willing to risk exposure — admitting mistakes, asking for help, and naming uncertainty before you have a clean answer.
Behaviors
- Says 'I don't know' and invites others in
- Shares failures as learning material
- Asks for help from people at any level
Anti-patterns
- Vulnerability theater that extracts sympathy without change
- Leaders who confess but never act
- Punishing people for admitting gaps
Reinforce it with
- • Leader failure logs
- • Blameless post-mortems
- • Hiring panels that reward honest self-assessment
Vulnerability is the signal that turns a hierarchy into a team.
Meaning what you say and saying what you mean, without hidden agendas or manipulation.
Behaviors
- Gives praise that names the specific behavior
- Declines requests directly instead of ghosting
- Communicates intent, not just outcome
Anti-patterns
- Backhanded compliments
- Strategic ambiguity to preserve options
- Praise used to soften criticism without clarity
Reinforce it with
- • Direct request norms
- • Communication charters
- • Feedback training on separating intent from impact
Sincerity is the quiet reliability that makes every word count.
Giving support, trust, and effort in a way that invites the same back — building relationships of mutual exchange.
Behaviors
- Helps before being asked
- Acknowledges favors and follow-through
- Returns feedback with equal care
Anti-patterns
- Keeping score of every favor
- Extracting help without returning it
- One-way relationships with senior people
Reinforce it with
- • Peer support systems
- • Cross-functional rotation
- • Public thanks that name the giver and the receiver
Reciprocity is the social contract that makes generosity repeatable.
Staying aligned with the mission and the people in it, especially when the work gets harder or more ambiguous.
Behaviors
- Renegotiates scope before abandoning it
- Finishes the hard project others started
- Shows up prepared even when motivation is low
Anti-patterns
- Enthusiasm that disappears at friction
- Quietly deprioritizing promises
- Jumping to the next shiny thing
Reinforce it with
- • Public commitments with owners
- • Completion rituals
- • Stories of people who stayed through the hard part
Commitment is the promise people can plan around.
Measuring success by the outcomes created, not the hours spent or the effort displayed.
Behaviors
- Defines success before starting
- Kills work that doesn't produce value
- Reports outcomes, not just activity
Anti-patterns
- Busyness as a badge of honor
- Celebrating output without impact
- Defending process because it feels productive
Reinforce it with
- • Outcome-based OKRs
- • Impact reviews
- • Kill lists for low-value work
Results-orientation keeps the scoreboard honest.
Achieving the desired outcome with the least waste of time, energy, and resources.
Behaviors
- Questions recurring meetings
- Automates repeated work
- Removes steps before adding them
Anti-patterns
- Motions without progress
- Tool proliferation
- Complexity mistaken for rigor
Reinforce it with
- • Regular process audits
- • Meeting-free blocks
- • Automation and template libraries
Efficiency is respect for people's time and attention.
Holding the work to a standard users and teammates can feel, not just one a checklist can prove.
Behaviors
- Reviews the work as a user would experience it
- Fixes the small flaw no one asked about
- Refuses to ship known broken things
Anti-patterns
- Shipping to a date and never returning
- Quality as a separate team's job
- Testing only what is easy to measure
Reinforce it with
- • Peer reviews with real standards
- • Definition of done that includes user experience
- • Time budgeted for polish
Quality is the reputation the work builds every time it is touched.
Turning decisions into shipped reality, reliably and without drama.
Behaviors
- Breaks big goals into weekly milestones
- Removes blockers before they stall the team
- Closes the loop on every commitment
Anti-patterns
- Brilliant strategy with no delivery
- Planning as a substitute for action
- Handoffs without follow-through
Reinforce it with
- • Weekly execution reviews
- • Clear DRI assignments
- • Public dashboards on progress
Execution is the habit of finishing what was started.
Getting the details right where they matter, because small errors compound into big trust problems.
Behaviors
- Double-checks high-stakes numbers and names
- Writes decisions down so they don't drift
- Catches errors before they leave the team
Anti-patterns
- Rushing past details that affect others
- Sloppy communication that creates confusion
- Treating accuracy as someone else's job
Reinforce it with
- • Checklists for repeated work
- • Review buddies for high-stakes output
- • Error logs that lead to process fixes
Precision is the respect that shows up in the details.
Solving problems with what is available, rather than waiting for perfect conditions or more budget.
Behaviors
- Finds a workaround when the ideal path is blocked
- Reuses existing tools before buying new ones
- Brings options, not just problems
Anti-patterns
- Waiting for permission to act
- Blaming missing resources for inaction
- Defaulting to new spend
Reinforce it with
- • Hack days and low-budget experiments
- • Cross-functional problem solving
- • Recognition for creative constraint navigation
Resourcefulness turns scarcity into ingenuity.
Choosing the work that changes the trajectory of customers, teammates, or the organization.
Behaviors
- Prioritizes by leverage, not by loudness
- Connects tasks to human outcomes
- Measures the second-order effects
Anti-patterns
- Activity without a theory of change
- Optimizing metrics that don't matter
- Busywork that looks impressive
Reinforce it with
- • Impact logs
- • Customer outcome stories
- • Reviews that ask 'what changed because of this?'
Impact is the difference between motion and progress.
Making clear, timely decisions with the information available, even when the answer is imperfect.
Behaviors
- Names a decision owner and deadline
- Distinguishes reversible from irreversible choices
- Communicates the decision and the reasoning
Anti-patterns
- Analysis paralysis
- Endless consensus loops
- Revisiting decisions every Monday
Reinforce it with
- • Decision rights matrix
- • Time-boxed decision forums
- • Post-decision reviews that reward speed and learning
Decisiveness is the momentum that keeps strategy from stalling.
Applying disciplined thinking and evidence to important choices, without letting perfection become the enemy.
Behaviors
- Tests assumptions before scaling
- Uses data to challenge intuition
- Documents the reasoning behind big bets
Anti-patterns
- Data theater without decisions
- Rigor used to delay action
- Analysis that ignores human context
Reinforce it with
- • Pre-mortems and red teams
- • Decision journals
- • Structured experiments
Rigor is the discipline that makes confidence earned.
Expecting excellence from the work, the process, and each other, and being willing to hold the line.
Behaviors
- Reviews work with the user in mind
- Gives specific, high-bar feedback
- Raises the standard after each release
Anti-patterns
- Lowering standards to be nice
- Accepting mediocrity because it's faster
- Criticism without coaching
Reinforce it with
- • Quality bars that are written and shared
- • Showcases of excellent work
- • Hiring for taste and judgment
High standards are the ceiling a team learns to live under.
Responding to people's struggles with care, without losing accountability for the outcome.
Behaviors
- Checks in before checking on deadlines
- Makes room for hard seasons
- Pairs care with clear expectations
Anti-patterns
- Compassion without standards
- Tough love that is mostly tough
- Ignoring suffering to avoid hard conversations
Reinforce it with
- • Manager training on supportive accountability
- • Employee assistance and flexibility
- • Peer support networks
Compassion is how accountability stays human.
Treating people's wellbeing and growth as a real input to the work, not a distraction from it.
Behaviors
- Notices when someone is struggling
- Protects workload before burnout
- Invests in development even when busy
Anti-patterns
- Care only when retention is at risk
- Wellness theater without workload changes
- Pushing people past sustainable limits
Reinforce it with
- • Workload reviews in 1:1s
- • Development plans tied to goals
- • Leader check-ins that ask about the person first
Care is the infrastructure that keeps people performing over years.
Building people's confidence by naming their progress and potential, especially when they doubt themselves.
Behaviors
- Notices small wins and says them out loud
- Pushes people toward stretch opportunities
- Reframes failure as learning in real time
Anti-patterns
- Only correcting, never cheering
- Generic praise that could apply to anyone
- Saving feedback for formal reviews
Reinforce it with
- • Weekly win shares
- • Growth-focused 1:1s
- • Peer recognition channels
Encouragement is the fuel that makes growth feel possible.
Building genuine connection among teammates so the work is harder to quit and easier to do together.
Behaviors
- Celebrates shared wins before individual ones
- Makes time for informal connection
- Helps a teammate without being asked
Anti-patterns
- Forced fun events
- Cliques disguised as culture
- Professional distance that prevents trust
Reinforce it with
- • Team rituals people actually enjoy
- • Cross-functional projects
- • Onboarding that builds relationships
Camaraderie is the social glue that makes collaboration voluntary.
Designing work so people can be productive and whole humans outside of it.
Behaviors
- Protects evenings and weekends for recovery
- Models real time off
- Measures output, not hours
Anti-patterns
- Always-on availability as a norm
- Vacation shaming
- Burnout treated as dedication
Reinforce it with
- • Coverage plans for time off
- • Workload audits
- • Leadership visibly logging off
Work-life balance is the promise that performance doesn't require sacrifice of self.
Adapting work structures to fit people's lives, constraints, and peak contribution styles.
Behaviors
- Offers async options where possible
- Adjusts deadlines around real life
- Trusts people to choose how they work
Anti-patterns
- Flexibility as a favor instead of a norm
- Punishing people for using it
- Rigid policies that ignore human reality
Reinforce it with
- • Flexible work charters
- • Async-first norms
- • Results-based evaluation
Flexibility is trust translated into schedule and structure.
Ensuring access, opportunity, and outcomes are fair across different starting points and identities.
Behaviors
- Audits who gets opportunities and why
- Removes unnecessary barriers
- Adjusts support based on need
Anti-patterns
- Treating equal treatment as fair treatment
- Ignoring systemic barriers
- Diversity without access to power
Reinforce it with
- • Equity audits of processes
- • Diverse decision panels
- • Transparent growth criteria
Equity is the work of making fairness real.
Building relationships across roles and teams so people can coordinate with trust instead of process.
Behaviors
- Introduces people who should know each other
- Shares context that prevents silos
- Invests in relationships outside transactions
Anti-patterns
- Relationships only when you need something
- Working in isolation
- Silos that require escalation to cross
Reinforce it with
- • Cross-functional coffees
- • Onboarding buddy systems
- • Internal networking events
Connection is the shortcut that makes hard coordination feel easy.
Helping people grow by asking more than telling, and by believing in their capacity before they do.
Behaviors
- Asks questions before giving answers
- Gives feedback that is specific and actionable
- Creates stretch opportunities with support
Anti-patterns
- Telling people exactly what to do
- Feedback only when something is wrong
- Development as a reward for favorites
Reinforce it with
- • Manager-as-coach training
- • Regular growth conversations
- • Peer coaching circles
Coaching is how a culture turns experience into capability.
Testing ideas in small, cheap ways so failure becomes data and learning becomes routine.
Behaviors
- Runs a small test before a big bet
- Documents what was learned, not just what shipped
- Kills experiments that don't work
Anti-patterns
- Betting the quarter on an untested idea
- Experiment theater with no follow-through
- Punishing failed experiments that were designed to learn
Reinforce it with
- • Experiment boards
- • Time-boxed pilots
- • Post-experiment retrospectives
Experimentation is the engine that turns guesses into knowledge.
Believing that abilities and intelligence can be developed through effort, feedback, and learning.
Behaviors
- Takes on challenges that stretch current skills
- Asks for feedback even when it's uncomfortable
- Sees effort as the path to mastery
Anti-patterns
- Avoiding challenges to protect reputation
- Treating feedback as attack
- Believing talent is fixed
Reinforce it with
- • Learning goals alongside performance goals
- • Feedback rituals
- • Growth-focused recognition
Growth mindset is the belief that people are a work in progress worth investing in.
Generating useful, original ideas and making room for them to surface from anywhere.
Behaviors
- Invites wild ideas before judging them
- Combines concepts from unrelated fields
- Protects time for exploration
Anti-patterns
- Shooting down ideas early
- Creativity reserved for designated roles
- Innovation theater without production
Reinforce it with
- • Idea capture systems
- • Creative sprints
- • Cross-pollination sessions
Creativity is the raw material that discipline turns into progress.
Holding a clear, compelling picture of the future that helps people choose what to do today.
Behaviors
- Connects daily work to the long-term story
- Revisits vision when priorities drift
- Makes the future concrete enough to act on
Anti-patterns
- Vision statements that never appear in decisions
- Abstract goals no one can picture
- Changing vision every quarter
Reinforce it with
- • Quarterly vision refresh rituals
- • Storytelling in all-hands
- • Decision filters tied to the vision
Vision is the magnetic north that makes short-term trade-offs make sense.
Pursuing deep skill and judgment in a craft, and helping others climb the same path.
Behaviors
- Studies the craft beyond the job requirements
- Teaches what they learn
- Sets personal standards above the minimum
Anti-patterns
- Good enough as a permanent ceiling
- Hoarding expertise
- Mastery without teaching
Reinforce it with
- • Skill ladders and apprenticeships
- • Internal talks and workshops
- • Time budgeted for deliberate practice
Mastery is the pursuit of craft that lifts the whole team's standard.
Pausing to learn from experience before rushing to the next thing.
Behaviors
- Runs retros that lead to action
- Journals decisions and outcomes
- Builds in review time before moving on
Anti-patterns
- Moving on without learning
- Retros that become blame sessions
- Speed celebrated without reflection
Reinforce it with
- • End-of-project reviews
- • Weekly reflection prompts
- • Decision logs reviewed quarterly
Reflection is the pause that turns experience into wisdom.
Aiming for meaningful progress without confusing size or status with significance.
Behaviors
- Sets goals that stretch the organization's impact
- Measures progress by outcomes, not optics
- Inspires others to aim higher without shame
Anti-patterns
- Growth for growth's sake
- Ambition used to justify burnout
- Comparing the team to vanity benchmarks
Reinforce it with
- • Impact goals tied to real users
- • Public milestones that matter
- • Celebration of progress, not just arrival
Ambition is the energy that keeps a team reaching for work that matters.
Taking the bet that matters when the safe path won't get you where you need to go.
Behaviors
- Names the hard choice early
- Invests in possibilities before they are proven
- Acts before the fear of failure becomes the decision
Anti-patterns
- Reckless risk-taking
- Bold talk with no commitment
- Waiting for permission to be brave
Reinforce it with
- • Decision forums that protect risk-takers
- • Stories of bets that paid off
- • Clear limits on reversible experiments
Boldness is the willingness to be wrong in service of something worth building.
Keeping progress visible even when the finish line is uncertain or the path keeps changing.
Behaviors
- Ships small wins when the big goal is far away
- Tracks leading indicators, not just outcomes
- Re-energizes the team during long projects
Anti-patterns
- Stalling until the plan is perfect
- Measuring only the final result
- Letting long timelines drain motivation
Reinforce it with
- • Weekly progress rituals
- • Visible roadmaps with milestones
- • Recognition of incremental advances
Forward momentum is the proof that the work is still alive.
Knowing your own patterns, limits, and impact so you can grow from them instead of repeating them.
Behaviors
- Asks for feedback on their own behavior
- Notices emotional reactions before acting on them
- Names their own strengths and gaps out loud
Anti-patterns
- Blaming others for repeated friction
- Ignoring blind spots
- Performing growth without real change
Reinforce it with
- • 360 feedback cycles
- • Journaling and reflection rituals
- • Coaching conversations that start with the self
Self-awareness is the starting point for every other kind of growth.
Staying with hard problems long enough for breakthroughs to arrive, without confusing stubbornness with persistence.
Behaviors
- Returns to hard problems with fresh angles
- Protects energy for long challenges
- Switches tactics without abandoning the goal
Anti-patterns
- Pounding the same approach that isn't working
- Burning out to prove commitment
- Giving up at the first real obstacle
Reinforce it with
- • Protected project time
- • Milestone-based persistence reviews
- • Stories of late-arriving breakthroughs
Tenacity is the patience to keep moving when the solution hasn't shown up yet.
Applying judgment that comes from experience, not just information, especially when the right answer is unclear.
Behaviors
- Weighs context before applying a playbook
- Names trade-offs others miss
- Shares lessons without preaching
Anti-patterns
- Following process without judgment
- Mistaking confidence for wisdom
- Hoarding experience as leverage
Reinforce it with
- • Mentorship and story-sharing
- • Decision retrospectives
- • Cross-generational problem solving
Wisdom is experience translated into good judgment for others.
Believing the problem can be solved and acting as if it will be, without denying reality.
Behaviors
- Frames obstacles as solvable
- Highlights progress when others see only gaps
- Pairs hope with concrete action
Anti-patterns
- Toxic positivity that ignores pain
- Assuming things will just work out
- Dismissing real risks as negativity
Reinforce it with
- • Solution-focused retros
- • Stories of recovery from hard moments
- • Leaders naming what is going well honestly
Optimism is the fuel that keeps a team moving through hard problems.
Letting go of what worked yesterday when the world asks for something new.
Behaviors
- Questions sacred practices regularly
- Retires processes that no longer serve the mission
- Invests in learning new skills before they are required
Anti-patterns
- Clinging to legacy because it's familiar
- Reinvention theater with no follow-through
- Changing everything at once without strategy
Reinforce it with
- • Regular 'what would we build from scratch?' reviews
- • Skill-building sabbaticals
- • Celebration of successful retirements
Reinvention is the discipline of not letting yesterday's success become today's trap.
Choosing goals that require people to become more capable than they are today.
Behaviors
- Assigns work slightly beyond current ability
- Supports people through the discomfort of growth
- Recognizes growth as much as outcome
Anti-patterns
- Setting goals so safe they cannot fail
- Stretch without support
- Punishing people for missing ambitious targets
Reinforce it with
- • Growth-oriented goal setting
- • Coaching during hard assignments
- • Promotions that reward capability built, not just results delivered
Stretch is the request that pulls people into their next version of themselves.
Designing your time, energy, and priorities instead of accepting the defaults the organization hands you.
Behaviors
- Says no to good opportunities to protect great ones
- Chooses rituals deliberately rather than copying them
- Reviews calendars and habits for alignment
Anti-patterns
- Busyness as a default
- Copying other teams' rituals without purpose
- Letting urgency set the agenda
Reinforce it with
- • Quarterly intention reviews
- • Protected focus time
- • Norms that question recurring meetings
Intentionality is the refusal to let the loudest demand set your priorities.
Bringing genuine human care into professional interactions without losing clarity or accountability.
Behaviors
- Greets people as humans before discussing tasks
- Checks in during hard weeks
- Celebrates personal milestones, not just work wins
Anti-patterns
- Professional distance that feels cold
- Warmth that avoids hard truths
- Friendliness as a performance
Reinforce it with
- • Onboarding that builds personal connection
- • Manager check-ins that start with the person
- • Peer recognition that includes personal notes
Warmth is the invitation that makes accountability feel like partnership.
Treating every person as worthy of respect, regardless of role, result, or seniority.
Behaviors
- Listens fully to junior voices
- Never uses status to humiliate
- Protects people's reputation in their absence
Anti-patterns
- Talking down based on role
- Public shaming for mistakes
- Treating some people as disposable
Reinforce it with
- • Meeting norms that protect voices
- • Feedback delivered privately and respectfully
- • Onboarding on dignity as a core expectation
Dignity is the floor beneath every other people value.
Using lightheartedness to build connection, reduce tension, and make hard work more human.
Behaviors
- Laughs at mistakes without mocking people
- Uses humor to defuse tension, not to dominate
- Shares jokes that include rather than exclude
Anti-patterns
- Humor at someone's expense
- Sarcasm that masks criticism
- Forced fun that ignores real mood
Reinforce it with
- • Team rituals that include genuine laughter
- • Leaders who don't take themselves too seriously
- • Norms that call out harmful humor
Humor is the shortcut that reminds a team they are human together.
Giving people and ideas the time they need to develop, without rushing past growth or settling for slowness.
Behaviors
- Explains things twice without condescension
- Waits for quieter people to finish forming thoughts
- Balances patience with clear expectations
Anti-patterns
- Impatience that shuts people down
- Using patience as an excuse for no progress
- Rushing people through learning curves
Reinforce it with
- • Asynchronous thinking time before decisions
- • Onboarding that allows for questions
- • Manager training on pacing
Patience is the respect that allows people to grow at their own speed.
Showing up fully in conversations and meetings, not just physically, so people feel heard and respected.
Behaviors
- Puts devices away during one-on-one conversations
- Listens without planning the response
- Notices when someone is not participating and invites them in
Anti-patterns
- Multitasking in meetings
- Listening only to respond
- Presence as a performance without attention
Reinforce it with
- • Meeting norms that protect attention
- • Camera-on norms that respect remote colleagues
- • Leaders modeling full engagement
Presence is the gift of attention in a distracted world.
Speaking up for people, ideas, and perspectives that aren't in the room to speak for themselves.
Behaviors
- Names the missing voice before finalizing
- Represents customers or teammates in decision rooms
- Uses influence to create opportunities for others
Anti-patterns
- Advocacy only when it benefits the speaker
- Speaking over the people being advocated for
- Performative allyship without action
Reinforce it with
- • Decision rituals that ask 'who is missing?'
- • Sponsorship programs
- • Recognition for people who elevate others
Advocacy is the voice that makes inclusion real.
Making newcomers and teammates feel genuinely welcome, oriented, and able to contribute quickly.
Behaviors
- Prepares for new arrivals before they start
- Introduces people across the team proactively
- Checks in after first meetings and first failures
Anti-patterns
- Onboarding as paperwork
- Leaving newcomers to figure it out alone
- Hospitality only for senior guests
Reinforce it with
- • Structured first-week experiences
- • Buddy systems beyond onboarding
- • Norms that invite contribution from day one
Hospitality is the welcome that turns strangers into teammates.
Actively creating opportunities for others, especially those whose contributions are often overlooked.
Behaviors
- Recommends people for stretch roles
- Credits quiet contributors in rooms where it matters
- Invests political capital in others' growth
Anti-patterns
- Mentorship without opportunity
- Sponsoring only people who look like you
- Taking credit while 'helping'
Reinforce it with
- • Sponsorship tracking in leadership goals
- • Visible promotion of diverse talent
- • Recognition for leaders who develop others
Sponsorship is mentorship with a door held open.
Treating people well because it's the right way to work, not because there's something to gain.
Behaviors
- Defaults to generous interpretations
- Helps without keeping score
- Delivers hard feedback with care
Anti-patterns
- Kindness that avoids accountability
- Niceness used to manipulate
- Being kind only to people with power
Reinforce it with
- • Peer recognition for acts of kindness
- • Feedback training that pairs care with clarity
- • Hiring for how people treat others
Kindness is the choice that makes every interaction a little more human.
Moving with appropriate speed because the opportunity or problem matters, without inventing false crises.
Behaviors
- Names what will be lost by waiting
- Removes blockers the same day they appear
- Balances speed with quality
Anti-patterns
- Manufactured urgency that burns people out
- Rushing past necessary thought
- Urgency used to justify chaos
Reinforce it with
- • Clear deadlines tied to real outcomes
- • Fast escalation paths
- • Celebration of smart speed
Urgency is the speed that serves the mission, not the ego.
Designing work that can grow without losing its essence, quality, or humanity.
Behaviors
- Builds systems and templates for repeated work
- Invests in training before demand spikes
- Measures quality at volume, not just at launch
Anti-patterns
- Scaling before the model works
- Growth that sacrifices the people doing the work
- Adding complexity without standardization
Reinforce it with
- • Playbooks and reusable assets
- • Capacity planning alongside growth goals
- • Regular reviews of what breaks at scale
Scale is the discipline of growing the impact without breaking the soul.
Seeing how parts connect and fixing the system, not just the symptom, when something breaks.
Behaviors
- Asks 'what made this likely?' after incidents
- Maps upstream causes before assigning blame
- Designs fixes that prevent recurrence
Anti-patterns
- Firefighting the same issue repeatedly
- Blaming individuals for systemic failures
- Quick fixes that create new problems
Reinforce it with
- • Root-cause analysis rituals
- • Cross-functional system maps
- • Incentives that reward prevention
Systems thinking is the habit of solving problems that stay solved.
Knowing your customers so well that you can anticipate what they need before they have to ask.
Behaviors
- Spends time with customers beyond surveys
- Shares customer stories in decision meetings
- Tracks the problems customers face, not just what they buy
Anti-patterns
- Customer knowledge as a research team's job
- Assuming you know what customers want
- Listening only to the loudest customers
Reinforce it with
- • Customer immersion programs
- • Voice-of-customer in OKRs
- • Cross-functional customer success rituals
Customer intimacy is the difference between serving a market and understanding humans.
Delivering value quickly while keeping the quality and trust that make the work sustainable.
Behaviors
- Removes unnecessary steps from delivery
- Makes fast decisions on reversible bets
- Measures cycle time and learns from it
Anti-patterns
- Speed that breaks trust or quality
- Moving fast without learning
- Using speed as an excuse to skip care
Reinforce it with
- • Short feedback loops with real users
- • Clear definitions of 'good enough'
- • Retrospectives that focus on what slowed the team down
Speed is the competitive advantage that only works when paired with judgment.
Choosing the solution that works in reality over the one that is theoretically perfect or politically easy.
Behaviors
- Tests ideas with the simplest possible version
- Adapts the plan to real constraints
- Values progress over purity
Anti-patterns
- Perfectionism that blocks delivery
- Cutting corners that create debt
- Pragmatism used to justify laziness
Reinforce it with
- • Decision criteria that favor workable progress
- • Hack days and rapid prototypes
- • Recognition for elegant simplifications
Pragmatism is the wisdom to prefer a working solution today over a perfect one never.
Covering the details that matter, even when no one is checking, because the work deserves it.
Behaviors
- Reviews the edge cases others skip
- Double-checks high-stakes work
- Documents the reasoning behind decisions
Anti-patterns
- Rushing past details to ship faster
- Thoroughness as a way to avoid action
- Checking only what is easy to measure
Reinforce it with
- • Checklists for repeated work
- • Peer review with real standards
- • Time budgeted for the second look
Thoroughness is the care that shows up in the details people never see.
Keeping commitments to people, principles, and the mission even when it is easier to adjust or abandon them.
Behaviors
- Honors small promises as much as big ones
- Stays aligned with stated values in decisions
- Renegotiates openly before breaking a commitment
Anti-patterns
- Commitments that change with every pressure
- Loyalty only when it is convenient
- Saying yes to please, then failing to deliver
Reinforce it with
- • Public commitment tracking
- • Values-based decision reviews
- • Stories of people who kept their word in hard moments
Fidelity is the loyalty that makes trust durable.
Protecting sensitive information and the trust people place in you by handling it with care.
Behaviors
- Shares private information only with real need
- Secures data and conversations appropriately
- Respects boundaries around personal stories
Anti-patterns
- Gossip disguised as transparency
- Sharing confidences to gain influence
- Carelessness with personal or business data
Reinforce it with
- • Clear data-handling policies
- • Privacy training tied to trust
- • Consequences for breaches that match their weight
Confidentiality is the guardrail that keeps trust safe.
Knowing what to share, when, and with whom to protect people, outcomes, and the organization's trust.
Behaviors
- Considers impact before speaking
- Handles sensitive decisions privately first
- Shares enough context without oversharing
Anti-patterns
- Secrecy that breeds suspicion
- Using discretion to avoid accountability
- Oversharing to appear transparent
Reinforce it with
- • Communication playbooks for sensitive topics
- • Leadership training on timing
- • Norms that protect private conversations
Discretion is the judgment that keeps transparency from becoming harm.
Treating every relationship as a two-way street of honor, consideration, and shared accountability.
Behaviors
- Honors other people's time and expertise
- Disagrees without diminishing
- Listens to understand before trying to win
Anti-patterns
- Respect that flows only upward
- Using civility to mask dismissal
- Demanding respect without offering it
Reinforce it with
- • Meeting norms that protect equal voice
- • Feedback rituals that model respect
- • Hiring and promotion criteria that include how people treat others
Mutual respect is the trust that no one is above or beneath the basic dignity of the team.
Designing work, products, and spaces so people of every ability can fully participate.
Behaviors
- Checks whether tools and docs work for everyone
- Asks about access needs before events
- Fixes barriers instead of granting exceptions
Anti-patterns
- Treating accommodation as a favor
- Accessibility as a late-stage checklist
- Assuming silence means no barriers
Reinforce it with
- • Accessibility standards in design reviews
- • Budget for assistive tools
- • Feedback channels for barriers
Accessibility turns inclusion from a statement into something people can actually use.
Keeping a steady nervous system so hard problems get thinking instead of panic.
Behaviors
- Slows the room down in a crisis
- Separates urgent from alarming
- Communicates plainly under pressure
Anti-patterns
- Manufacturing emergencies
- Rewarding visible stress as commitment
- Silence that hides real risk
Reinforce it with
- • Incident norms with clear roles
- • Realistic planning buffers
- • Leaders modeling steady tone
Calm is what lets a team think clearly on its worst day.
Letting evidence, not seniority or volume, settle disagreements.
Behaviors
- States the metric before the opinion
- Shows the data behind a recommendation
- Changes position when numbers say so
Anti-patterns
- Cherry-picking supportive charts
- Analysis used to stall decisions
- Loudest voice wins
Reinforce it with
- • Shared dashboards
- • Decision docs with evidence sections
- • Post-launch measurement rituals
Data keeps power from deciding what should be decided by reality.
Saying the real thing to the right person, early, without cruelty or hedging.
Behaviors
- Raises concerns with the person involved
- Names the actual issue in one sentence
- Asks clearly for what is needed
Anti-patterns
- Hints instead of requests
- Complaining sideways
- Feedback saved for review season
Reinforce it with
- • Feedback norms taught in onboarding
- • Leaders inviting direct pushback
- • Short escalation paths
Directness shortens the distance between a problem and its fix.
Staying with hard, unglamorous work long enough for it to pay off.
Behaviors
- Returns to a hard problem after a setback
- Finishes the last ten percent
- Keeps standards up when nobody is watching
Anti-patterns
- Grit used to justify burnout
- Abandoning work when novelty fades
- Grinding on something already disproven
Reinforce it with
- • Recognition for long-haul progress
- • Milestones on multi-quarter work
- • Honest stop-or-continue reviews
Grit is what turns ambition into finished work.
Closing the loop on every commitment, including the small ones.
Behaviors
- Confirms when a task is actually done
- Circles back on open questions
- Flags slippage before the deadline
Anti-patterns
- Enthusiastic yeses with no delivery
- Handoffs left dangling
- Silence as a status update
Reinforce it with
- • Visible commitment tracking
- • Meeting notes with owners and dates
- • Reviews that check closure, not effort
Follow-through is what makes a team's word worth something.
Arguing hard about ideas so decisions get stress-tested before they ship.
Behaviors
- Voices disagreement in the room
- Argues the strongest opposing case
- Commits fully once the call is made
Anti-patterns
- Artificial harmony
- Debate that turns personal
- Relitigating decided calls in private
Reinforce it with
- • Devil's-advocate roles in reviews
- • Disagree-and-commit norms
- • Leaders thanking dissenters publicly
Healthy conflict is how a team finds problems before customers do.
Finding a clever path when the obvious one is blocked or too expensive.
Behaviors
- Reframes the constraint as the puzzle
- Builds a scrappy version to learn
- Borrows solutions from unrelated fields
Anti-patterns
- Cleverness that creates fragile systems
- Reinventing what already works
- Waiting for perfect resources
Reinforce it with
- • Prototype demos
- • Constraint-based design challenges
- • Celebrating elegant simplifications
Ingenuity keeps limited resources from becoming an excuse.
Recognizing that no team's success is separable from the teams around it.
Behaviors
- Shares plans with affected teams early
- Offers help across boundaries
- Measures success at the system level
Anti-patterns
- Local wins that hurt the whole
- Throwing work over the wall
- Hero teams that hoard credit
Reinforce it with
- • Shared cross-team goals
- • Joint planning rituals
- • Recognition for enabling others
Interdependence dissolves the silos that slow everything down.
Making good calls with incomplete information and owning what follows.
Behaviors
- Weighs cost of delay against cost of error
- Distinguishes reversible from irreversible calls
- Explains the reasoning, not just the choice
Anti-patterns
- Escalating every decision upward
- Treating all decisions as equally weighty
- Rules used to avoid thinking
Reinforce it with
- • Decision-rights clarity
- • Written decision rationales
- • Reviews that assess reasoning, not just outcomes
Judgment is what lets an organization move fast without a rulebook for everything.
Hearing what someone actually means before responding to what you assumed.
Behaviors
- Plays back what it heard
- Asks a second question before advising
- Lets quiet people finish
Anti-patterns
- Waiting to talk
- Rebutting before understanding
- Listening only to senior voices
Reinforce it with
- • Meeting norms on airtime
- • Skip-level listening sessions
- • Coaching that starts with questions
Listening is where respect and good decisions overlap.
Holding beliefs loosely enough that better evidence can change them.
Behaviors
- Names what would change its mind
- Invites views from outside the team
- Updates publicly after new information
Anti-patterns
- Openness that never changes anything
- Dismissing ideas by their source
- Debate framed as winning
Reinforce it with
- • Pre-mortems
- • Outside reviewers on big calls
- • Norms that reward changed minds
Open-mindedness keeps a team learning faster than the market changes.
Taking risks deliberately, sized so a bad outcome never becomes fatal.
Behaviors
- Caps downside before chasing upside
- Tests small before committing big
- Keeps reserves for bad quarters
Anti-patterns
- Caution dressed up as strategy
- Betting the company on one guess
- Ignoring tail risks
Reinforce it with
- • Risk limits in planning
- • Staged investment gates
- • Scenario planning rituals
Prudence is what lets a company stay in the game long enough to win.
Answering people and problems quickly enough that momentum survives.
Behaviors
- Acknowledges requests even when the answer waits
- Sets expectations on timing
- Unblocks others before starting new work
Anti-patterns
- Inbox silence for days
- Instant replies that dodge real answers
- Responsiveness that destroys deep work
Reinforce it with
- • Agreed response-time norms
- • On-call rotations for internal requests
- • Protected focus blocks alongside them
Responsiveness is how a team keeps each other moving.
Protecting people's physical wellbeing as a precondition of any result.
Behaviors
- Stops work when conditions are unsafe
- Reports near-misses without prompting
- Fixes hazards instead of warning about them
Anti-patterns
- Production pressure overriding stop-work
- Blaming individuals for system failures
- Safety theater with no follow-up
Reinforce it with
- • Stop-work authority for everyone
- • Near-miss reporting without blame
- • Leaders auditing conditions in person
Safety is the value that proves the company means people first.
Leading by removing obstacles and growing people rather than collecting authority.
Behaviors
- Asks what is in the way
- Takes the blame and shares the credit
- Spends time developing successors
Anti-patterns
- Service language with command behavior
- Leaders too helpful to let people grow
- Avoiding hard decisions to seem kind
Reinforce it with
- • Manager scorecards based on team growth
- • Skip-level feedback on leaders
- • Promotion criteria that include developing others
Servant leadership makes authority useful instead of decorative.
Keeping the ground steady enough that people can plan and build.
Behaviors
- Changes priorities with notice and reasons
- Protects agreed commitments from churn
- Keeps processes predictable
Anti-patterns
- Weekly strategy reversals
- Stability used to resist needed change
- Reorgs as a substitute for decisions
Reinforce it with
- • Planning cadences that hold
- • Change-management norms
- • Clear criteria for reprioritizing
Stability is what makes long-term work possible in a fast-moving company.
Standing with colleagues when it costs something, not only when it is easy.
Behaviors
- Backs teammates publicly in hard moments
- Shares load during crunch
- Speaks up when someone is treated unfairly
Anti-patterns
- Loyalty that covers bad behavior
- Distancing from a struggling teammate
- Us-versus-them between teams
Reinforce it with
- • Shared on-call and load-balancing norms
- • Recognition for supporting others
- • Clear channels for raising unfair treatment
Solidarity is what makes a team feel like one, especially under strain.
Doing what the role requires because it matters, not because someone is watching.
Behaviors
- Handles unglamorous obligations on time
- Covers the gap when nobody owns it
- Holds the standard when it is inconvenient
Anti-patterns
- Duty used to justify martyrdom
- Compliance without judgment
- Only doing what is visible
Reinforce it with
- • Clear role expectations
- • Recognition for invisible work
- • Leaders taking their share of the drudgery
Duty is the quiet reliability that keeps an organization running.
Looking far enough ahead to act before a problem or opportunity arrives.
Behaviors
- Names the second-order effects of a plan
- Watches leading indicators, not just results
- Invests ahead of obvious need
Anti-patterns
- Endless forecasting with no action
- Reacting only after metrics break
- Predictions that ignore evidence
Reinforce it with
- • Quarterly horizon-scanning sessions
- • Leading-indicator dashboards
- • Scenario planning in strategy reviews
Foresight buys a team time, the scarcest resource it has.