Scrum Master characteristics: From Good to Great

A fantastic blog post from Geoff Watts (inspectandadapt.com) enumerated desirable characteristics of good Scrum Masters, and how to take them to the next level in Towards a Definition of a Great Scrum Master. He used elements of the list in his book: Scrum Mastery: From Good to Great Servant-Leadership.

I've added categories and reformatted the original list for reference and readability:

Accountability
A good Scrum Master will hold team members to account if needed.
A great Scrum Master will hold the team to account for not holding team-mates to account.

Communication
A good Scrum Master encourages people to talk to each other.
A great Scrum Master encourages people to listen to each other.

A good Scrum Master says what needs to be said.

A great Scrum Master knows the power of silence.

Growth

A good Scrum Master helps every member of the team grow. 

A great Scrum Master encourages growth as a team. 

A good Scrum Master notices areas for improvement in the team. 

A great Scrum Master recognises & highlights strengths of the team for them to build on.

A good Scrum Master will coach the team to succeed. 

A great Scrum Master allows failure & encourages the team to learn from their mistakes (from Christina Ohanian).

A great Scrum Master is chosen by the team and Product Owner. 

When she's done all she can, it's time for another great Scrum Master (from Mike James).

Servant-Leadership

A good Scrum Master serves the team. 

A great Scrum Master fosters servant-leadership throughout the team. 

A good Scrum Master  is wary of influencing the team with what they say & do. 

A great Scrum Master can act normally and the team still make their own decisions.

A good Scrum Master will be indispensable to a team. 

A great Scrum Master will make themselves dispensable. And wanted.

A good Scrum Master asks to understand so they can serve. 

A great Scrum Master asks so the team understands and can serve itself.

Teamwork

A good Scrum Master helps teams use "yes, but" effectively. 

A great Scrum Master helps teams find more space for "yes, and".

A good Scrum Master facilitates co-operation between people. 

A great Scrum Master facilitates collaboration.

A good Scrum Master listens to what is said in the daily scrum. 

A great Scrum Master listens to what is not said in the daily scrum.

A good Scrum Master will help maintain team harmony. 

A great Scrum Master will guide a team through disharmony to reach a new level of teamwork.

Inspect and Adapt

A good Scrum Master helps a team meet their definition of done at the end of a sprint. 

A great Scrum Master helps a team extend their definition of done.

A good Scrum Master will help teams optimise their process. 

A great Scrum Master will help the team get past process.

A good Scrum Master helps the team hold a balanced retrospective. 

A great Scrum Master helps the team hold a focused retrospective.

Working with the Product Owner

A good Scrum Master facilitates the Sprint Review so the team gets to demo to the Product Owner . 

A great Scrum Master ensures that the PO is already aware so the demo can be for other stakeholders.

A good Scrum Master will be a bridge between the Product Owner and the team. 

A great Scrum Master will reduce the need for a bridge.

A good Scrum Master helps write stories so that the team is ready for sprint planning. 

A great Scrum Master helps the Product Owner make time before and during the Sprint to write and talk to the team.

Relationship to the larger organization

A good Scrum Master protects the team from distraction. 

A great Scrum Master finds the root cause of those distractions and eliminates them.

A good Scrum Master helps a Scrum team survive in an organisation's culture. 

A great Scrum Master helps change the culture so Scrum teams can thrive.