Leadership Qualities

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Leadership Qualities

Criteria for leadership and basis for the CS peer review system.

Individual skills and personality traits:

• Focus on the CS Mission, Dedication to Organization and Core Ideology: Relates work and job purpose to CouchSurfing mission and commits to keep all work aligned with goals specifically serving the mission.
• Producing Quality: Creates and adopts practices to improve work processes, takes the time/energy to ensure excellence in work, creates superb results, efficient, accomplishes work in ways that maximize productivity and available resources while minimizing waste.
• Inspires Confidence in Leadership: Respectfully assertive, offer positive suggestions and opportunities, acts with integrity, adheres to high standards of personal and professional conduct, exercises balanced and intelligent risk taking, makes a professional impression, honest, genuine, level-headed, rational, emotionally balanced.
• Structure: Respects the organizations agreed upon process and procedures, adheres to CS internal rules (NDA, policies, core values, etc.), responds positively to change, showing willingness to learn new ways to accomplish work, respect for community relationships, partnerships, and resources, creates backup contingency planning (has job covered by another in emergency situations).
• Knowledge Seeking Person: Ability to meet basic needs--physiological (food, sleep, etc.) security, human-connection, self-esteem, community-acceptance (operating in the Self-Actualization realm of Maslow's Hierarchy), active and respectful host/surfer, actively seeks out new information that will improve self and CS, ability to take criticism constructively, feedback as opportunity for growth. See Maslow's hierarchy of needs.
• Discipline: Stays on task, understands time availability/management (committing to the right amount of work, under promising and over delivering), accountability (ability to deliver promised results), responsive and timely, aware of personal limitations of skill or knowledge, humble, finds answers and delegates.

Interpersonal Skills and Group-Oriented Abilities:

• Focus on working group's mission: Relates team's resources and energy to accomplish mission and commits to keep all work aligned with goals specifically serving the mission of the department and the greater CS mission, ability to create and adopt operating practices/procedures of the group's specific goals and strategies.
• Teamwork: Interacts effectively and builds respectful relationships among individuals and in teams, respect for group consensus above individual ideology, unites and brings people together (avoid creating "us against them" situations at all costs), inspires other group members to achieve great results, expresses appreciation and acknowledgement, , consensus building, employs effective group decision making processes (chooses the right decision making process).
• Communication: Fosters mutual respect amongst individuals, communicates effectively in ways that enhance productivity and build respectful relationships, demonstrates active listening skills, proficient written, verbal, and information technology skills, ability to communicate concisely (respects people's time and attention, efficiency of communication), provides candid and caring constructive feedback, open-minded (respects and entertains other people's ideas), demonstrates conflict resolution (doesn’t linger on or get invested drama), proficient in "non-violent communication" practices and "I" language, demonstrates awareness and respect for cultural differences, active listening skills (paying attention, withholding judgment, reflecting, clarifying, summarizing and sharing), practices empathy (concern for social and emotional needs of other group members).
• Knowledge Sharing: Teaches and mentors co-workers and volunteers, creates training practices, delegates the right tasks to the right people.