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Lou Holtz [0] has a very pithy mental model for how to evaluate leadership: Everyone asks three questions of people leading them: 1. Can I trust you? 2. Do y

Lou Holtz [0] has a very pithy mental model for how to evaluate leadership: Everyone asks three questions of people leading them: 1. Can I trust you? 2. Do you care about me? 3. Are you committed to excellence? (aka do you have high standards). Think about someone you admire. Odds are the answer to the above for them is "yes" to all three. Now think of someone you have had a lot of problems with. Odds are the answers to the above are "no". [0] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lou_Holtz https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lou_Holtz

wsinks 6y ago
I love this! And had no idea about it. Really really stellar way of looking at it. And for a leader, you can scale these by caring about roles and what info those roles get to show trust. Really cool framework as a fundamental baseline.
username90 6y ago
Here is a fourth: 4. Do you delegate high visibility tasks? Managers who don't do this work hard to hog all the glory, spend all their time in meetings with other managers or presenting to higher level people etc. It isn't good for them nor their reports, by not growing the reports skills they have a hard time getting to the next level as a manager. Also they create a situation where they are the bus factor 1, which is problematic in itself.
- jdgiese 6y ago
  4 seems like it is a particular instance of 2
  - rmwaite 6y ago
    I’d say in many cases it could also be 1.
    - DarkByte 6y ago
      I agree. I consider delegation of high value or visibility tasks as a combination of 1 and 2. Regardless I recognize it as being very important overall.
- seekitabroad 6y ago
  A lot of times, the trouble is that it's challenging to say no or delegate in the first place. We found that this works for us internally for helping to drive delegation: https://darja-bunch.medium.com/an-engineers-guide-to-saying-no-3b2dba385c66 https://darja-bunch.medium.com/an-engineers-guide-to-saying-...
29athrowaway 6y ago
Do you share credit? Can your reports eat what they kill?
hyko 6y ago
This seems very close to the stereotype content model, which asserts that every interpersonal impression is formed along two dimensions: warmth and competence. Feeling someone cares fits the warmth dimension; commitment to excellence is a hallmark of competence. I would say the word trust can encompass both. [0] - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stereotype_content_model https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stereotype_content_model
- jimkleiber 6y ago
  I've often played with these concepts in my head, completely oblivious that someone had coined them and developed them. Thank you for linking this!
- groby_b 6y ago
  Trust is neither warmth nor competence - trust is the assumption that our mental model of the person we trust somewhat reliably predicts how they actually act, combined with somewhat aligned values.
  - hyko 6y ago
    I mean that when you trust someone, that can mean you either trust them not to screw up or trust them not to screw you over.
    - groby_b 6y ago
      Yep - the first one means they're predictable, the second one means they're predictable and your values align. (Unless you value getting screwed over, I guess ;)
mathattack 6y ago
Very good! A correlary to point 2 is “Will they give me time?”

wsinks 6y ago

I love this! And had no idea about it. Really really stellar way of looking at it. And for a leader, you can scale these by caring about roles and what info those roles get to show trust. Really cool framework as a fundamental baseline.

username90 6y ago

Here is a fourth: 4. Do you delegate high visibility tasks? Managers who don't do this work hard to hog all the glory, spend all their time in meetings with other managers or presenting to higher level people etc. It isn't good for them nor their reports, by not growing the reports skills they have a hard time getting to the next level as a manager. Also they create a situation where they are the bus factor 1, which is problematic in itself.

jdgiese 6y ago
4 seems like it is a particular instance of 2
- rmwaite 6y ago
  I’d say in many cases it could also be 1.
  - DarkByte 6y ago
    I agree. I consider delegation of high value or visibility tasks as a combination of 1 and 2. Regardless I recognize it as being very important overall.
seekitabroad 6y ago
A lot of times, the trouble is that it's challenging to say no or delegate in the first place. We found that this works for us internally for helping to drive delegation: https://darja-bunch.medium.com/an-engineers-guide-to-saying-no-3b2dba385c66 https://darja-bunch.medium.com/an-engineers-guide-to-saying-...

29athrowaway 6y ago

Do you share credit? Can your reports eat what they kill?

hyko 6y ago

This seems very close to the stereotype content model, which asserts that every interpersonal impression is formed along two dimensions: warmth and competence. Feeling someone cares fits the warmth dimension; commitment to excellence is a hallmark of competence. I would say the word trust can encompass both. [0] - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stereotype_content_model https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stereotype_content_model

jimkleiber 6y ago
I've often played with these concepts in my head, completely oblivious that someone had coined them and developed them. Thank you for linking this!
groby_b 6y ago
Trust is neither warmth nor competence - trust is the assumption that our mental model of the person we trust somewhat reliably predicts how they actually act, combined with somewhat aligned values.
- hyko 6y ago
  I mean that when you trust someone, that can mean you either trust them not to screw up or trust them not to screw you over.
  - groby_b 6y ago
    Yep - the first one means they're predictable, the second one means they're predictable and your values align. (Unless you value getting screwed over, I guess ;)

mathattack 6y ago

Very good! A correlary to point 2 is “Will they give me time?”