MM interview №2 — Josh Finewax

Joshua Finewax is the Vice President of Investor Relations at Citco Fund Services, a financial services company that specializes in hedge fund administration. Joshua sat down with us and shared his thoughts on being a modern manager.

MM: How long have you been managing people?

4 years.

MM: And how many direct reports do you have currently?

I have 10 direct reports.

MM: What was the biggest difference when making the jump to managing people?

I think as an individual contributor (IC), you’re really concentrated on your own stuff. You are thinking about what you have to get done and the status of all your deliverables. When you’re managing people you are looking at the overall picture, company strategy, how to keep your employees engaged, and how to keep clients happy. As a manager you’re basically looking at everything at a macro level, whereas at an IC level you’re kind of just absorbed in your own granular activities.

MM: How do you keep employees engaged?

Keeping my employees engaged starts with keeping myself engaged with them: understanding where their strengths are and maybe where they need help. It requires a lot of communication and a lot of full disclosure on the things that matter to employees. I have monthly one-on-one meetings with each of my staff where we go through:

• things that went well during the month
• challenges that they go through and that maybe need additional help on
• anything else that they want to talk about.

MM: How long are your one-on-one meetings?

I try to keep them to 30 mins because sometimes we can get kind of off topic — we can start rambling on and stuff. I don’t really want it to just be a vent session — although sometimes you need those too. I want there to be things that they actually take away and learn from; things that we use to build on.

MM: Do you have an agenda for those meetings?

Each of my team members comes to me with points before the meeting. I ask them to give me 2 things that went well — give me 2 things they struggled with during the month, and one thing that we can work on together moving forward.

MM: What would an example of that last item be?

It could be something that they are working on personally. It could be something they’d like to see changed within the business. It could be something that they’ve seen in working with a particular client that causes them a lot of manual work or a lot of extra work that requires them to stay late and they want to see changed — I really give them the the freedom to bring anything to me, whether it’s personal or business related — and we can work on that. It’s usually more of a stretch goal than something that we can immediately fix on that day or that week.

MM: How do you motivate employees?

Motivating employees really stems from understanding and knowing your staff- which stems from your one-on-ones. As a new manager, it’s hard to really understand how to speak to people and get through to them, because everyone is different. It’s interesting to see the different personalities of my team — some people need me to speak more directly to them, whereas that doesn’t work with other people that maybe I need to soften the message for — so one-on-ones are a big thing for me for learning about my team and how to tailor my communication style to each person.

MM: how do you invest in personal relationships at work?

We do team building events. I think they are really important for understanding the people who you work with. Everyone is at work with together for 40 hours a week or more, and team building events let you understand how people function outside of the office. We’ve done things like trampoline dodgeball, going to watch stand-up comedy at Second City, or even just going for drinks.

MM: Why is so important to spend time with your colleagues outside of work?

When everyone’s at work people are kind of — I don’t want to say tense — but they are hesitant about what they can or cannot say. They are a little bit reluctant to let their true personality come out. Once you get out of the office and you’re bouncing around on a trampoline or whatever, you can let loose a little bit and relax and let your true personality out. I think that’s when people actually make genuine connections- which is hard to do when you’re in work mode all the time.

“Motivating employees really stems from understanding and knowing your people- which stems from your one-on-ones. As a new manager, it’s hard to really understand how to speak to people and get through to them, because everyone is different…so one-on-ones are a big thing for me for learning about my team and how to tailor my communication style to each person.”

MM: You have 10 direct reports — that’s a large team. What are the challenges of managing a larger team?

It’s challenging because you’ve got to keep up with everyone who’s on your team. I have to have enough time to talk to everyone on my team — and I’ve got to have enough time for clients as well and my own stuff.

It’s difficult, but the motivation thing is really key. You want your staff working at their highest potential, but you need to recognize it’s a fine line. You don’t want to push too hard. You really need to learn when to push, and when to let up. It’s tough, especially when you have a lot of people reporting into you. It’s tough to manage the hopes and dreams of 10 different people — because all 10 want to be promoted, all 10 want different roles and not every person can get it. It’s a tough position to be in.

MM: What else do you remember about making the jump to manager?

I think one of the hardest things for new managers is learning to deliver really difficult messages to employees, especially if you were in a position laterally with someone and you were working close with them. Then you get bumped up, and now you’re in a position where you have to deliver a difficult message whether it’s constructive feedback or if someone’s not performing where they need to be. It’s difficult to go from the friend phase into a Manager/IC phase.

MM: Do you you have any advice for new managers preparing to have those conversations?

You can go through a lot of trainings, you can prep yourself as much as you want, but a big part of it is just going through it. You need to gain that experience for yourself: learning to deliver difficult messages and how to handle people’s reactions, if it’s anger — if it’s sadness — it’s really just going through those experiences. It’s hard to equip yourself until you actually go through it. If you’re friends with someone and now you have to deliver difficult feedback — it’s a much different conversation than [when it was just] venting between colleagues. It’s tough, but you do get better at it.

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