{"id":25607,"date":"2026-07-19T09:12:43","date_gmt":"2026-07-19T15:12:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.designandexecute.com\/designs\/?p=25607"},"modified":"2026-07-19T09:42:44","modified_gmt":"2026-07-19T15:42:44","slug":"leadership-rubric","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.designandexecute.com\/designs\/leadership-rubric\/","title":{"rendered":"Leadership RUBRIC"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The 5 Roles<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
#<\/th>Role<\/th>Core Accountability in the Pod Context<\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
1<\/strong><\/td>Executive<\/strong><\/td>Own the book of work for 3-4 high-impact projects. Make binding architectural decisions without escalating to the Pod Lead. Balance your projects against the pod’s total capacity.<\/td><\/tr>
2<\/strong><\/td>Influencer<\/strong><\/td>Influence your 4 peer architects to adopt your reusable patterns, standards, and templates\u2014so the whole pod moves faster. Turn “my way” into “our way.”<\/td><\/tr>
3<\/strong><\/td>Relationship Builder<\/strong><\/td>Build trust with your Pod Lead (India) and your 4 peers (distributed across US\/India). Become the “glue” who resolves disagreements, not the source of them.<\/td><\/tr>
4<\/strong><\/td>Strategic Thinker<\/strong><\/td>Continuously compare New project requests against existing project commitments in the LoB portfolio. Help the pod decide\u00a0what to say no to<\/em>\u00a0so that the most valuable work gets prioritized.<\/td><\/tr>
5<\/strong><\/td>Execution<\/strong><\/td>Turn architectural decisions into\u00a0delivered, deployed, and validated<\/strong>\u00a0outcomes. Own the end-to-end delivery lifecycle\u2014from design approval to production go-live\u2014for your assigned projects, with zero handoff drama.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Role<\/th>Score 1 (Needs Improvement)<\/th>Score 5 (Solid Performer)<\/th>Score 10 (Triple Strong – Pod MVP)<\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
1. Executive<\/strong><\/td>You escalate project decisions to the Pod Lead >3x\/week. You miss capacity updates. Your projects are always “almost done.” Other architects have to cover for you.<\/td>You make routine decisions for your 2-3 projects. You update the pod’s capacity tracker weekly. Your projects deliver on time \u00b11 week.<\/td>You make binding<\/strong> decisions on the pod’s most complex projects without<\/em> escalation. You proactively swap project assignments to balance pod workload. The Pod Lead trusts your judgement over their own<\/em> on your projects.<\/td><\/tr>
2. Influencer<\/strong><\/td>You work in a silo. You share nothing. Your peers ignore your docs. You complain about “lack of standards” but do nothing to fix it.<\/td>You share your work. 1-2 peers occasionally reuse your templates. You present in pod meetings when asked.<\/td>3+ of your 4 peers<\/strong> actively reuse your patterns, templates, or decision frameworks. Your peers cite your work in their<\/em> project docs. The pod’s decision-cycle time drops because of your<\/em> standards.<\/td><\/tr>
3. Relationship Builder<\/strong><\/td>You only speak to the Pod Lead during formal 1:1s. You compete with peers. You’ve never helped a peer unblock. The Pod Lead doesn’t share confidential LoB info with you.<\/td>You have a professional rapport with the Pod Lead and peers. You respond to Slack messages promptly. You are cordial, but not go-to.<\/td>The Pod Lead shares pre-decision<\/strong> LoB portfolio changes with you. Peers come to you first<\/em> for design advice. You mediate disagreements between peers without being asked. The Pod Lead calls you the “glue” of the pod.<\/td><\/tr>
4. Strategic Thinker<\/strong><\/td>You only think about your own projects. You resist portfolio triage. You say “yes” to everything. You have no 2027 view.<\/td>You compare 2-3 New vs. Existing opportunities when asked. You contribute to portfolio discussions with basic data. You have a 1-year vague roadmap.<\/td>You proactively run quarterly portfolio triage<\/strong> for the entire pod. You recommend what to kill<\/em> with data. The LoB leadership asks for your<\/em> input on 2027 investment decisions. You predict architectural debt 2 quarters out and propose fixes before<\/em> it becomes a crisis.<\/td><\/tr>
5. Execution<\/strong><\/td>Designs die in your hands. You hand off to delivery teams and never follow up. Projects you touch miss deadlines or fail in production. You don’t monitor post-launch.<\/td>You shepHerd projects through delivery. Your projects ship within \u00b12 weeks of estimate. You run basic post-launch monitoring. You handle minor production issues.<\/td>You\u00a0close the loop<\/strong>\u00a0on every project you touch\u2014from design to deployment to post-mortem. Your projects ship on time, with < 2 critical bugs in the first 30 days. You proactively identify and fix delivery bottlenecks\u00a0before<\/em>\u00a0they delay the pod. The delivery team requests to work with you
because you make\u00a0their<\/em>\u00a0job easier.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

WEEKLY ADAPTATION RULE <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Every Monday morning at 8 AM ET, look at last week’s scores:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  1. If any role scored \u2264 4:<\/strong>\u00a0That role is your “Emergency Focus” for the week.\n
      \n
    • Example:<\/em>\u00a0If Execution is a 3, cancel your Thursday Strategic block and spend that time creating a deployment checklist and shadowing the delivery team.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • If Execution drops 2+ points:<\/strong>\u00a0This is your\u00a0most critical warning<\/em>. Stop all strategy work and\u00a0ship something<\/strong>\u2014even a small milestone. Execution is the role that makes all other roles credible.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • If you score a 10 in any role:<\/strong>\u00a0Immediately document the specific event. This becomes Exhibit A in your self-assessment.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • If your average dips below 6 for 2 weeks:<\/strong>\u00a0Send a candor check-in to the Pod Lead:\u00a0“My self-score is lower than I want. Here is my plan to fix it. Do you agree with my self-assessment?”<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

      QUARTERLY TRAJECTORY MAP (Q3 + Q4)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

      To earn the Triple Strong, your average score across all 4 roles<\/strong> must hit \u2265 8.5<\/strong> by the end of Q4, with no single role below a 7<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Target Arc:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Timeframe<\/th>Executive Target<\/th>Influencer Target<\/th>Relationship Builder Target<\/th>Strategic Thinker Target<\/th>Overall Average<\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
      Start of Q3 (July)<\/strong><\/td>5<\/td>3<\/td>4<\/td>4<\/td>4.0 (Baseline)<\/td><\/tr>
      End of Q3 (Sept)<\/strong><\/td>7<\/td>7<\/td>6<\/td>8<\/td>7.0 (On-track)<\/td><\/tr>
      End of Q4 (Dec)<\/strong><\/td>9<\/strong><\/td>9<\/strong><\/td>9<\/strong><\/td>10<\/strong><\/td>9.25 (TRIPLE STRONG)<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

      FINAL TRIPLE STRONG PROOF PACKAGE (Oct 15th)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

      Submit this to your Pod Lead:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        \n
      1. Your Weekly Scoring Card<\/strong>\u00a0(all 24 weeks of Q3+Q4, showing the upward trajectory).\n
          \n
        • Your Weekly Scoring Card<\/strong>\u00a0(all 24 weeks\u2014showing upward trajectory across 5 roles).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n
        • The 3 highest-scoring weeks<\/strong>\u00a0(where you hit a 10 in one role) \u2014 with the specific event and its impact on the business.\n
            \n
          • The 3 highest-scoring weeks<\/strong>\u00a0(with specific events and impact on the pod).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n
          • The 1 lowest-scoring week<\/strong>\u00a0(where you scored a 4) \u2014 and a 2-paragraph reflection on\u00a0how you adapted and recovered<\/em>\u00a0(this shows growth mindset).<\/li>\n\n\n\n
          • A 1-pager summary<\/strong>\u00a0of your\u00a0pod contributions<\/em>:\n
              \n
            • How many decisions you made without escalation (Executive).<\/li>\n\n\n\n
            • How many templates you created and how many peers adopted them (Influencer).<\/li>\n\n\n\n
            • How many peer disputes you mediated (Relationship Builder).<\/li>\n\n\n\n
            • How many portfolio triages you ran (Strategic Thinker).<\/li>\n\n\n\n
            • How many projects you designed AND shipped to production\u2014with 0 critical incidents (Execution).<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n
            • A “Design-to-Deployment” cycle time chart<\/strong>\u00a0showing your improvement from Q3 to Q4.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

              <\/p>\n\n\n\n

              Why this wins:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

                \n
              • Your manager in India cannot argue with a numerical, weekly, self-scored trajectory that ends at 9.25.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
              • It proves you are\u00a0self-aware<\/strong>\u00a0(you know when you are a 4).<\/li>\n\n\n\n
              • It proves you are\u00a0self-correcting<\/strong>\u00a0(you adapted weekly).<\/li>\n\n\n\n
              • It proves you are\u00a0consistent<\/strong>\u00a0(not a one-hit-wonder).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

                Print the rubric. Tape it to your monitor. Score yourself every Friday at 4 PM ET. By December, you won’t just ask<\/em> for a Triple Strong\u2014you will present<\/em> it as an undeniable fact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

                The 5 Roles # Role Core Accountability in the Pod Context 1 Executive Own the book of work for 3-4 high-impact projects. Make binding architectural decisions without escalating to the Pod Lead. Balance your projects against the pod’s total capacity. 2 Influencer Influence your 4 peer architects to adopt your reusable patterns, standards, and templates\u2014so […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25608,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25607","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-productivity-quality"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.designandexecute.com\/designs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/rubric.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.designandexecute.com\/designs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25607","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.designandexecute.com\/designs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.designandexecute.com\/designs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.designandexecute.com\/designs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.designandexecute.com\/designs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25607"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.designandexecute.com\/designs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25607\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25620,"href":"https:\/\/www.designandexecute.com\/designs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25607\/revisions\/25620"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.designandexecute.com\/designs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25608"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.designandexecute.com\/designs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.designandexecute.com\/designs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.designandexecute.com\/designs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}