Sometimes we think the 16 qualities come automatically. This appears to be well supported by the well-known Srimad Bhagavatam verse:

yasyasti bhaktir bhagavaty akicana,
sarvair guuis tatra samasate sura,
harav abhaktasya kuto mahad-guna,
manorathenasati dhavato bahi (5.18.12)

Srila Prabhupada translates the verse like this: “All the demigods and their exalted qualities, such as religion, knowledge and renunciation, become manifest in the body of one who has developed unalloyed devotion for the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Vasudeva. On the other hand, a person devoid of devotional service and engaged in material activities has no good qualities. Even if he is adept at the practice of mystic yoga or the honest endeavor of maintaining his family and relatives, he must be driven by his own mental speculations and must engage in the service of the Lord’s external energy. How can there be any good qualities in such a man?” Nonetheless Srila Prabhupada emphasized learning the 26 qualities SEPARATELY. One way in which he manifested this separateness was posting the 26 NUMBERED qualities on the doors in his apartment at 26 Second Avenue. In New York City on 6 January, 1966, he said this in a public lecture: “That is the perfection of Krishna consciousness. When we see the twenty-six qualification in full present, that means he is perfect in Krishna consciousness. If those qualities are not present, that means there is still, I mean to say, a touch of contamination of material nature.”