WHY?
I believe that, more often than not, people are inspired to greatness by "Why?" They want to know why they are doing something, and will do the best work when they believe in that core principle. With that in mind, I strive to provide my "Why" and will help you find yours.
About you
I consider you
Valued
Competent
Well-intentioned
And I make decisions based on those assumptions.
You and your teammates have various nationalities, ethnicities, religions, genders, sexual orientations, disabilities, and so on.
I know this should go without saying, but it is unacceptable for you to be discriminated against or treated poorly for these.
This also includes mental health and other invisible disabilities, which have a special place in my heart.
Your personal well-being is more important to me than whatever $COMPANY has going on. (Sorry, $COMPANY.)
About me
I ask questions, lots of them, sometimes the same ones multiple times, and encourage you to do the same.
Being the smartest person in the room often means you are in the wrong room, and should challenge yourself.
When making decisions, I consider both the the needs of the business (e.g. deliver on time) and the needs of the employee (e.g. don't get burnt out), and bias toward the latter.
I try to give you the exact amount of information you want, no more, no less.
This is difficult, and varies from person to person. I need your feedback to find the sweet spot between too much and not enough.
I am as transparent as I am allowed to be. Sometimes I'm not supposed to tell you things. Sometimes I will tell you anyway. (Shh, don't tell.)
My Job
My job is to make sure you can do your job.
Effectively
With minimal hassle, administrative overhead, and other miscellaneous bullshit
With maximum fun! (Fun not guaranteed)
My prioritization order of operations: you > our customers > my peers > my management
Yes, you are a higher priority than our customers. This is important!
To ensure you understand the reason for, purpose of, and value of any work you are asked to do.
To ensure you have ample opportunities for personal and professional growth.
To ensure you always know how you are performing, and what is required to reach your next level (promotion, job family change, etc.).
You should never be surprised by performance feedback, ESPECIALLY at review time.
Known failure mode: I tend toward "no news is good news," or in other words, lack of negative feedback from me implies positive feedback. I realize this is a weakness of mine. I try to be mindful of it, but it will likely always be present in some form.
If you don't know how you're doing, please don't hesitate to tell me so I can correct that.
Your Job
Being "busy" is not a desirable condition. Never run at 100% capacity during normal course of business. Running under capacity leaves headroom in case of emergency.
Be stingy with the word "emergency."
Excessive busy-ness is a symptom of a problem that needs to be addressed. Let's work together to address it.
You are encouraged and empowered to decline or postpone requests for additional work that are lower priority than your current task list.
If your "no" doesn't take, escalate to me and I will handle this for you.
If you don't have the information to prioritize, I have done something wrong. Talk to me so I can correct this.
Known failure mode: If you don't tell me you're overloaded, I assume you have bandwidth, and will keep giving you more shit to do. Easy solution: tell me you're at max, and I will correct that.
Logistics
I am always available to my team (yes 24/7) for any reason. You can reach me by any means available to you, but note that I may not always be checking. Phone/text is most likely to grab my attention. Email is least likely.
You are encouraged to bring me into an issue (or project, meeting, etc.) whenever you want; but only if you want.
I schedule weekly 1:1 (minimum 30 min) with every team member.
You own the meeting and can cancel or cut short for any reason. If I have something I have to discuss, I will schedule a separate time.
I will prioritize the 1:1 over other conflicts. Except in rare cases, I will only cancel or reschedule with your permission.
1:1 is not a status update. You should not be telling me anything I don't already know about what you're working on or how it's going. We will have other mechanisms for status.
Some weeks we don't have anything to talk about and don't get into a groove. That's ok. We'll cut it short and take the time back those weeks. This is not a problem.
I'm serious, I'm aggressive about keeping these short.
That said, you should feel free to keep the conversation going about whatever topic you like. It's your time. AMA, if you like.
I use tags in email subjects for filtering purposes.
See glossary at [link]
I default to Scrum Kanban [I keep doing this - if I propose Scrum, remind me it never works and we should skip ahead to Kanban]. I am not particularly dogmatic about it. I am open to other methodologies.
"Nothing" is not a methodology.
I don't care where or when you work. If I can reach you within a business day and you are generally making an effort to be available, we're probably good.
I have teams across many time zones. Don't count on me to be available for any specific time if we haven't negotiated it in advance. As above, if you need to you can contact me direct 24/7.
I am typing on my laptop while I'm talking to you because I am taking notes.
My notes are typically in markdown. I'm glad to give you a copy in a format of your choice, but man, you really don't want my raw notes.