Thank you for taking the time to read this. My goal is for this to be a living document that can serve as a starting place where you can get to know me so that we kick off our working relationship with a strong and successful start. Below, I'll share how I like to work and what you can expect from me as a manager and leader. If document doesn't match your experience, challenge me to update it. This will help me and the next person.
If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together. - Burkina Faso Proverb
My friends, we're going to go far! Each and every person I work with has a unique set of skills, talents and attributes. Yes, this means you too! I value what you bring, and will work with you and your teammates to grow our collective skills, leaning in to your individual talents and building a strong team who builds great things together and has fun in the process. I work collaboratively with my team to help them meet their objectives and overcome challenges.
I view our one on one time as a time to really focus on YOU. The cadence will be 30 minutes weekly. We'll share a running document and we'll co-create the topics for each meeting. Regularly, we can expect to celebrate wins, discuss challenges, check in on priorities and cover any additional topics. Once nice thing about our document is that it's a becomes a great starting point for your personal brag document.
At least quarterly, we'll use the time to check in on your goals career. These will likely include goals that roll up to company and department goals, as well as goals for your own individual career growth. When I know what you want to focus on, I can help finding resources, opportunities and mentors who can help you achieve them. I'll check in to make sure we're hitting the sweet spot of work that's just right in terms of it's level of challenge.
Our team will share an agenda for team meetings where everyone can drop in topics. This isn't meant to be a status meeting, and in fact, we often won't talk about the current work in progress at all. Instead, these meetings are a good time for us all to zoom out a level. We'll discuss agenda items. We'll cheer our recent accomplishments to help us enjoy our journey along the way. We'll talk about where we're going and where we are with respect to bigger picture milestones. We'll take a pulse check on how we're feeling collectively. I'll share any business updates and news. You can ask me anything about whatever questions, topics, or concerns you may have. I intend for this time to be an open forum for us.
Retrospective Prime Directive: Everyone does the best they can with the knowledge they have and the resources they have available at the time - Norman L. Kerth
People first. I fall back to the retrospective prime directive in most things. When things go off course, I promise to give feedback as soon as possible afterwards as I appreciate it when people let me know when I've made a mistake. Feedback is a gift, for it is how we learn, grow and improve. While I like to celebrate positive feedback publicly, I will deliver any negative feedback in private, and I prefer to receive it in private as well. This could be in a dm, email or in person.
I tend to prefer public communication in our team channel or other appropriate channel for things that affect the team, the work, the tools and technology. In this way, everyone can benefit from the discussion. Of course, use threads when possible.
That said, you can DM or email me anytime with questions, concerns or feedback, especially when it's of a more personal nature.
I respect your work follows a Maker's schedule and as such, when I DM you, I know you'll respond the next time you come up for air. If there's ever an exception to this, I'll indicate that it's URGENT.
My calendar will be visible to you and you can schedule any open time.
I don't tend to work on weekends, and I don't expect you to either. That said, you can DM me anytime, 24/7.
If I'm traveling or on vacation, I'll let you know ahead of time. I prefer to be disconnected from work, and encourage you to do the same during your time off. I'll leave a point of contact for anything that might need a timely response while I'm away.
When you take time off, I appreciate as much advance notice as possible. When possible, I'd ask for a week's heads up for a day off, and a month's notice for a week off. This helps us to manage project schedules and planning.
As a Software Engineering Manager, I'm successful when our team is successful. I subscribe to the servant leader philosophy, and to that end, I'll remove obstacles, chase down missing information, make decisions, clarify priorities and help each team member in their own growth. I am measured for success in the following areas:
- Our team's performance and delivering value
- Building and maintaining an inclusive environment
- Helping my team learn and grow
- Making quality hires and helping them ramp up
- Maintaining stakeholder relationships
- Sharing best practices
God, Health, Family. These form a strong foundation of centeredness in my life which underlie and support everything I do. From this foundation, I reach out into the world bringing a calm, clear headed and empathetic approach to those around me.
In my working (and personal) relationships, I value courage and honesty. I'd rather hear when there's an inkling that something is going off track than wait until its already derailed. I'm a realist and I know that mistakes will happen. As the saying goes, bad news is like a dirty diaper. Neither smells better with age. With a heads up, I can help clear obstacles, renegotiate work or deadlines, or bring in additional resources. Without it, we risk disappointing our stakeholders and our credibility. I encourage my team to be brave and speak up when something feels off.
Fully participate in team rituals. I want to hear your perspective! When we're estimating, help me understand the trade offs in both in time and in technical debt in the solutions that we explore.
Overcommitting. I'm a recovering overcommitter. While I'm pretty sure I can do anything (perhaps with enough training and time...), I realize I can't do everything . Further, there are many things that others can do in a fraction of the time that I could. I'm getting better at this, and am slower to say Yes to a new thing than I was in the past. Occasionally, it still happens, and when I recognize that I've done this, I will apologize and renegotiate. If you see me doing this, I appreciate if you call me out it (in a tactful or friendly-teasing way please).
My other weakness? Chocolate 🍫. Enough said.
When conflicts arise, I work with the affected parties. This may be 1:1, or perhaps in a meeting. During these, we'll remember the retrospective prime directive. We'll brainstorm and discuss solutions to find one that's a best fit. Will we always make everyone happy? Probably not. But we'll be respectful. And we'll remember that we're all on the same side against the problem. And together we'll overcome it.
You'll have much to learn! I'll work with you through your onboarding to make sure you have the resources you need so that you can ramp up and be successful in your role. Our goal will be for you to merge your first pull request within your first week. This will proof out that you have all the tools and permissions that you need and will help build your own confidence in the process.
If you're ever stuck or feeling like you're not sure what to do, be proactive and reach out. This is especially important in remote environments.
During our 1:1s we'll check in on the on-boarding process and we'll both have an opportunity to share feedback. At your 90-day mark, you'll have an opportunity to share thoughts about your overall onboarding experience. I encourage you to share frankly, calling out the good and the bad, so that we can improve the process for the next newcomer.
This document was inspired by Oren Ellenbogen. Many thanks to his insightful writing which has helped me grow as a manager over the years.