Na’aleh’s 28 Core Skills of Leadership – B’rit

B’rit: Build trusting and effective partnerships that bridge difference.

Self-Awareness: Find others to complement your leadership.

The challenges we face in leadership often require collaboration.  Thus, we seek out others to co-lead with us.  Best if those others bring complementary skills and character strengths.  First, we have to attune ourselves to our own weaknesses, in order to know what we seek out in others.

Resources

• Together with a friend of colleague: Take a skills assessment and share the results.
  • Here are two skills assessments geared toward working in teams that you could take:
    • Enneagram: https://www.enneagraminstitute.com
    • DISC: https://www.truity.com/test/disc-personality-test

Being with Others: Nurture brave spaces that embrace diversity.

Anyone can lead from any seat at the table.  But, they need to feel welcome and safe to rise up and co-lead.  This is especially difficult within diverse groups.  To create safe spaces, we might begin by co-creating the norms of the group and asking everyone to share both their desires and what they are bringing to support the work of the group.  Yet, as we noted in Chavruta, working with others may require comfort with uncertainty.  Working in groups will require comfort with conflict and difficult conversations.  Thus, better to call these brave spaces.

Action Toward Change: Organize people to work collaboratively.

Groups function best when there are shared objectives (as noted in K’dushah) and clear roles and responsibilities among the participants.  Frameworks (like RACI) can be helpful in that they clarify who needs to be informed (I), who needs to be consulted (C), who is responsible for carrying out the actual work (R), and who is ultimately responsible (A) for the project.  Thus, clear agreements – as to whom is responsible to whom and for what – are essential in building trusting and effective partnerships. 

Resources

• Engage your team in a team-building challenge.
  • Here is a list of team-building challenges to choose from:
  • https://asana.com/resources/team-building-games

Advanced Skill: Maintain long term partnerships

Not every group needs to continue onward forever.  But many challenges require extended cooperative work to address.  To maintain long-term partnerships, it is helpful to have shared measures of success (not just common purposes), and to remain aware of how each partner is fairing over the long-term.  Inquiring as to the following helps the work move forward and for everyone to feel that they matter: Do they have the resources they need to accomplish their goals?  Do they clearly understand what is expected of them?  Do they feel their efforts are being fairly recognized?