whoami

Hey, I'm Anosh and it looks like you're about to work with me, here's what you probably want to know

Motivation for this document:

This is my README, a document that helps introduce you to my management style, philosophy, and expectations. The intended audience is primarily anyone who reports in to me, though anyone is free to read it - or even provide feedback on it! Please treat it as a reference and promise on how I will conduct myself as a manager, and what I expect from you.

I urge you to hold me accountable to my promises, and to call out anything that might be missing from this document. Without your guidance, I will not be able to improve as a manager.

What you can expect of me as your manager:

A weekly 1:1 (unless you specifically prefer a different cadence) where we’ll work on challenges, goals, and priorities to support you and play to your strengths. As part of this, I’ll do my best to hold a safe space for you and to know you as a person, and connect together as humans to whatever degree feels best for you. I will also share wider context and my own areas of focus or challenge. For managers, you can also expect regular “skip level” 1:1s where I’ll chat with your direct reports.

Clear, gentle, honest communication. I promise not to leave you guessing what I "really" think or expect you to read between the lines of what I’m saying. If it’s not clear, and you have a nagging feeling, let me know so I can fix it! It’s not intentional. I’ll also reply promptly to you, or let you know when you can expect a reply, if you reach out.

One-on-ones:

These meetings are designed to give you a dedicated time and place to ask anything and everything.

Hopefully we talk about things you wouldn’t otherwise bring up in a group setting. I want our 1:1 to be a safe place; if this isn’t the case please tell my boss. We will go through your agenda first and if time permits I will always have some questions. First and foremost these meetings are for you. Urgent matters should not wait for a 1:1.

Career Development:

• Your career is yours.
• I will coach, I will offer feedback.
• I will provide you with outside perspective. You may know where you want to be, but when you’re living it in the moment it can be hard to see if there’s a gap and where.
• I will partner with you to line up the opportunities needed for the growth you are targeting.
• But at the end of the day, it’s your career. You set your goals. You set your priorities. You determine whether you make the time to get there.

Conditions I like to work in:

• As long as I'm able to charge my laptop and connect to the internet, I'm flexible. I have no preference yet.
• Operating temperature: between 17℃ to 22℃

The times/hours I like to work:

• Start and end during daylight preferably, this is mostly because I'd like to still be able to enjoy the journey home and feel as if there's more to do.

The best ways to communicate with me:

• No headphones; Feel free to grab my attention. I don't mind helping others since if I don't have my headphones on, it means I'm just pacing out my tasks.
• Headphones on; Message me on Slack. With my headphones on I'm usually in the zone and trying to get something accomplished so I'd appreciate as little distraction as possible.

The ways I like to receive feedback:

• Face to face, I prefer human interaction much more than over Slack/Zoom as it feels much more "real" and helps me focus on what you're saying.
• Over email with a lot of explicit detail, this helps me greatly as you should mention what I need to improve on and hopefully how too. A written record helps me keep reminders as to what to do and how.

Things I love:

• Summer print shirts
• Bubble tea
• Privacy advocacy

Things I struggle with:

• I get into rabbit holes; When I'm almost on the verge of completing something or trying to solve a problem in an overcomplicated way, I'll end up sometimes trapping myself in a loop and may take longer than usual to realise I'm in a loop.
• Short attention span, I will sometimes lose context of conversations happening right in front of me, don't fret, just ensure the point has been made and communicated to me. I will be happy to reiterate any of the points just in case.
• Forgetful so I write tasks down, this is linked to the above but I will switch context sometimes and 95% chance forget everything just mentioned unless I've written it down or somehow deemed it super duper critical.

Other things to know about me:

• I hum and tap my desk a lot, if this gets annoying, feel free to tap my shoulder and tell me and I will stop.

Favourite saying:

“The greatest barrier to success is the fear of failure.” - Sven Goran Eriksson