Manager Readme

What is this?

Hello!

This is my Manager README, I have taken inspiration for this document from various references found on the internet (see references). This read me is a convenient way to introduce myself and how I manage.

The intended audience is primarily anyone who reports in to me, although anyone is free to read and provide feedback. Please treat it as a reference on how I will conduct myself as a manager, and what I require from my reports.

Disclaimer: This document applies to my personal management style, and is not official company policy

My Job

I am primarily here to do three things:

1. To provide context
2. Engage, retain, and grow world-class talent
3. Manage and Build a well functioning engineering team

How I approach my job

I believe in collaboration and open mindedness. You are the expert, I lean on you to help me make the best holistic decisions I can for the team, for any project I lead, and for the company as a whole.

My teams come first, with out a well staffed, and well functioning team, I will be unable to do the job, the product will fail, our company and their clients will not flourish. It is my top priority to keep my reports well watered with plenty of sun light so they're supported to do their tasks and ultimately, their job.

My Goals

If I accomplish my goals it means that:

• You feel empowered as a leader to figure out what you need to do and how you think it should be done and then to get it done
• You have enough context to understand your priority and focus over the next month or quarter
• You have built effective relationships with others in the company
• We have a clear roadmap

The Team

If I describe my ideal for our team and each person on it, it is that we:

• Take control of, and responsibility for, our own destiny
• Have each other’s back
• Hold each other accountable
• Expect excellence in ourselves and each other
• Assume positive intent
• Always question, always ask “why?”
• Constantly learn
• Laugh together

Scheduling

• You are always welcome and encouraged to drop a meeting on my calendar, either via Google Calendar or https://calendly.com/cnewfeldt
• If you want or need to talk to me, and my schedule is not open, DM me on Slack and I’ll make sure we talk that day.

Comms

• Nothing beats face-to-face in-person communication
• Our next best option is face-to-face video
• I respond to emails within 24 hours, and usually within three.
• If it feels like we’re having trouble communicating, I will always err on the side of, “let’s hop on a video call and hash this out”
• I try to be as responsive as possible via Slack

1-1s (One-on-ones)

• 1-1s are very important to me because they are dedicated space for you to talk about anything and everything you want; what would you like to talk about? What’s going well? What’s bugging you?
• They are meetings primarily for you, and only secondarily for me
• It’s not a status meeting, unless you want to talk about status
• 1-1s are flexible -- they can shift and change to fit around our shifting schedules
• Don’t save urgent matters for a 1-1!
• If I have feedback, I will also provide it during this time.

1-1 Structure

I have a specific format when completing 1-1s with team members. This is a living format and I will be making changes to this as I grow and feedback I receive about this process.

• I use a shared google doc for myself and my report to review bi-monthly.
• In this doc we have the following categories:
  • A revision history How many times we've met and the dates of meeting
  • Things that went well This section describes Positive outcomes that went well since we last talked.
  • Learnings This area is meant to document what you’ve been learning over the period since we last talked. This will help us focus discussion on your work and most importantly, promote growth.
  • Shout Outs This area is meant to document people in the office who are doing awesome things.
  • Goals A listing of your career goals over the next 1, 3 and 6 month time frames
  • Questions Any questions you have to discuss, add here for me to review and document.
  • Feedback If you have any feedback for me add it here and I will respond to it here. Please see the feedback section below for more information
  • Action items Any action items we need to track based on our discussions from all the topic above.

Feedback

• More than any other factor, candid and compassionate feedback is central to a cohesive high-functioning team
• Feedback is best received in the context of psychological safety; I want you to know, both intellectually and experientially, that my primary desire is for you to be happy and fulfilled
• Feedback should happen as real-time as possible
• I will strive for this
• In a distributed company, the “normal” post-meeting chats don’t happen; we need to be intentional

Performance

• We follow the company defined performance assessment and communication model. My goal is for you to always know where you’re at. If you ever feel you don’t know, just ask me.

Note:

• If matters are not going well, I am always open to making it right. Any concerns are absolutely recoverable, and recovering from difficult periods builds trust. If you can accept feedback, acknowledge your role in the situation, and are willing and capable of changing, growing, and improving, any matter of performance can be worked out.

Some Self Help

• Are you a procrastinator? Watch this

References

• Manager README - original
• Managers README - Aaron Lerch
• Managers README - Elliott Carlson