This is my Manager 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 - as well as 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.
Disclaimer: This document does not apply to anyone else in the company, and solely reflects on my personal management style.
As an Engineering Manager, it is my job to:
- Attract and Retain world-class talent (that's you)
- Manage and Build well functioning engineering teams
- Set context
If I fail at any of these - especially anything that puts retaining you at risk - you would be doing me a huge favor by letting me know as soon as possible. I don't expect everyone to stick around forever, however if a departure is potentially due to something we could have done different, I would appreciate the chance to make things right first.
I am not an authoritarian boss. I do not want to micro manage anyone - it's not a good use of my time, or yours.
My teams come first, the customer second, and the company comes third. Obviously I have a responsibility to the company, but without a well operating, well staffed, and well functioning team, I am unable to live up to those responsibilities. Your success is ultimately my success - so I will go out of my way to try and make you successful.
I may not always seem to be available, most often due to meetings. Regardless of how busy I am, nothing is more important than the time I can spend with you. If you need to chat - find time on my calendar - no need to ask. If you can't find time, I will make time.
I expect you to operate as a Directly Responsible Individual.
I am not here to tell you how to do your job. I believe you are able to operate as a professional adult, and make smart decisions. This does not mean that I expect you to do everything on your own - I am here to provide you guidance and mentorship (either through me, or by finding the people you should be getting it from). Nor do I expect you to know everything - when you need help, I expect you to not hesitate and ask for it. If you feel you made a mistake, own up to it, we're all human and mistakes happen. Ultimately, I am here to help you do your job in any way I can.
I believe that there is a place for process on a team. I need certain processes in place to be able to manage up and out to the rest of the organization; however I do not believe in process for the sake of process. I know that what works for one team, will not work for another - and I know that dictating process is not ideal. I will attempt to improve process, but I want to make sure that any changes I make are beneficial for all parties. If you ever have feedback on process - please let me know - I want the team to operate at its best at all times, and having a process that makes sense for everyone is critical.
1-on-1's are an important aspect of us working together. These meetings are meant to give you time with me, and I believe that the agenda should be set by you. This is a great time to talk about things that are on your mind. These meetings do not have to be centered around work unless you want to talk about that -- I will get my updates from our regular team stand ups, and reviewing the Jira board.
I will use this time to also provide you feedback on an ongoing basis - as well as occasionally ask you for feedback on your peers. This feedback loop is really important to ensure yourself and your coworkers are never surprised during performance review cycle.
My personal preference to 1-on-1's is a weekly cadance of 30 minutes. Since this is pretty much a meeting for you, you should feel empowered to cancel when you don't have anything to talk about - but, I prefer if you did not cancel two meetings in a row, even if we cut the meeting short.
I am a strong believer of Radical Candor; I want to ensure that you are receiving honest and actionable feedback on a consistent basis. There should never be a scenario where a performance review, or in the worst case scenario, a Performance Improvement Plan, is the first time that you hear negative comments or feedback. I will provide you with feedback and guidance to the best of my ability, and will do my best to ensure that you understand the feedback that I provide to you. I will always ensure that feedback is given in a private setting.
Feedback should go both ways. I am relying on you to let me know when I am doing something detrimental to my position, our relationship, or the company. If at any point you feel you have feedback to provide to me, I will listen and internalize the feedback you give me. Beyond that, I will go one step further and ask you three questions at the end of every 1-on-1 we have:
- "Anything else on your mind?" - Just in case you forgot something!
- "What do you need from me?" - Am I blocking you on anything? Do you have any additional requests?
- "Do you have feedback for me?" - This is me opening the conversation to receive feedback from you - please provide it if you have it!
I know that this gets repetitive - but it's very important to me to ask those questions every session.
I will also send an anonymous feedback form on occassion to allow anyone to provide feedback they do not feel comfortable telling me in person.
Part of my job is to track the performance of those who report to me - and obviously provide you with feedback on how to improve.
I categorize people based on one of five particular levels of performance rating (based on standard HR Performance Rating Scale):
- Exceptional - Performance far exceeds expectations
- Exceeds expectations - Performance consistently exceeds expectations
- Meets expectations - Performance consistently meets expectations
- Improvement needed - Performance did not consistently meet expectations
- Unsatisfactory - Performance was consistently below expectations
It is really important to note that a Meets Expectations is not a bad level to be at - I have high expectations of everyone that reports to me, and meeting those expectations is a great thing! If you ever disagree with my rating of your performance, please bring it up - I am happy to discuss why I see you at a certain level.
You will generally know when you are in the Improvement Needed level.
You will definitely know when you are approaching or are at the Unsatisfactory level.
Note: My personal rating scale may or may not align with the one provided by HR officially -- I will do my best to explain any correlations they have to the company provided levels.
I have personality quirks. We all do. Here are some things that I am both aware of, and that may impact how you work with me:
- I am an Internal Thinker. I will take my time to purposefully choose the words that I am going to use. I will take my time to rationalize a situation to ensure that I fully grasp what I am commenting on/contributing to. I am not loud. I have been told that this sometimes feels like I am not engaged or interested in participating (especially in larger discussions) - but often it means that I am trying to internalize everything before I add my 2 cents. Feel free to call me out if you want to hear from me.
- I am traditionally a People Pleaser. This has acted as a detriment to me in the past due to taking on too much work when I feasibly could not do this. While I have grown away from this mentality, I still want to find a way to help everyone. I try my best to not let this impact my ability to do my job, and more importantly, impact my team. If I do this, please call me out. I have grounded myself extensively over the years, so for the most part this is no longer an issue - but it does slip through at times.
- According to random personality tests I've taken at random company team building events, I am classified as an INTJ personality. While I find bucketing someone in to a single identifier is as effective as star signs defining you as an individual, I certainly see traits that match my general personality. Feel free to read up on that personality type if you want to get some insight in to some broad categorization of who I may or may not be.