My Leadership/Management Operating Manual
Editor’s Note: This is heavily influenced by the work of Lara Hogan, Oren Ellenbogen, Katie Lo and John Cline. All props to them and credit where due.
Creating and sharing a manager readme/operating manual is a great way to reflect on who you are as a leader, what your leadership philosophy is, and what folks can expect from you. — Katie Lo
My Leadership Philosophy
Candor & Psychological Safety
I believe in leading by creating environments where people not only feel free, but believe it is an obligation, to bring the best idea to the table and challenge each other and the status quo. After all, to do our jobs well we have to be great at problem solving and I believe that the most highly generative teams are curious, encouraging, experimental, and passionate in their opinions and feedback. Psychological safety enables this kind of candor and disagreement without it coming off as aggressive.
Transparency
I believe in transparency about what’s happened, what’s happening, and what’s going to happen. This includes transparency from me about where you stand in the organization and what decisions are being made from above, transparency from you on what’s going on on a given project, your feedback on how I can improve and better help you, as well as the direction you’d like to see both your career and the organization go. Transparency from both of us in all of these areas is the best way for us to move forward and truly improve.
Learning, Collaboration, & Innovation
I believe in continuous learning, collaboration and innovation. I believe that it is our responsibility to stay on top of both sustaining and disruptive technologies. And we should be versed in them well enough to successfully make a recommendation in the event a particular technology makes sense for a project, client, or the organization at large. At the same time, I realize that we have to pay the bills and can’t spend all day chasing the latest trend. Finding the right balance, setting priorities, and creating the correct space for learning and innovation is one of my key roles.
My Expectations of People
Follow Through
I expect you to deliver on the commitments you’ve made to teams, me and especially yourself. This includes being transparent and raising your hand when you’re feeling overwhelmed or over promised on something. Myself and your teammates are more than willing to jump in and help push you across the finish line when necessary, but can’t do so if we’re not aware of the situation.
Intellectual Curiosity & Craft
I expect you to have an intellectual curiosity about our industry, field, and technology in general and treat our role in it as a craft. How can we improve what we’re doing? What new technologies, frameworks, and tools are emerging that we should be taking advantage of? How can we not only build things better, faster, and easier, but build the right thing better, faster, and easier?
Problem Solving
I expect you to come with a possible solution to the challenge you’re facing. Even if it’s not the right one, it shows that you’re doing due diligence in thinking through possible options. I totally understand that this isn’t possible in every case, and that sometimes the specific challenge may not even be clear until we talk it through. But nine times out of ten, it’s best to think through possible solutions.
1:1s
I believe that 1:1s are for you to set the agenda. What’s on your mind? What’s going well? What challenges are you facing? They don’t need to be status updates unless you really need/want to talk about a project’s status. 1:1’s are a chance to reflect on your challenges and growth. They are a time for us to discuss opportunities, areas for growth, and ways in which you’d like to help our team and the organization improve and grow.
What People Can Expect of Me
Overall, I am here to align teams around the work that needs to be done, set a vision and strategy for where we’re going next, provide context, recruit and retain high-quality engineers, and help individuals, the collective team, and the organization as a whole grow and succeed. I am not here to tell you how to do your day-to-day job or to micromanage. If what I’m doing ever feels more like the latter than the former, let me know. In addition to that, I will provide:
Feedback
Feedback is critical to your success and mine. I’ll work to provide you timely constructive feedback on your performance and anything else relevant to your work or skills growth. Sometimes this will be as it happens and sometimes it will be in 1:1s, but if you ever feel like you’re not receiving enough, let me know.
Transparency
I will work to be as open as possible about what’s going on with our team, department, and the organization. I bias towards open communication. You can ask anything. Although there will at times be items I can’t share due to privacy, legal or other concerns, most of the time, I’ll answer. Rarely, I won’t.
Advocacy
I will work to be an advocate, with the rest of the organization, for both you and the team. If there are ideas that need to be pushed forward or up the chain, or initiatives that would benefit you, the team, or the organization I’m here to work with you to help move those forward.
I will also work to be an advocate for you, to you. This normally takes the form of working to recognize opportunities for professional growth in individuals as well as areas where I believe you would excel and pushing you to grow in those areas.
Improvement
We should never be standing still. Not as individuals and professionals, or as a team or organization. The world we operate in is constantly changing, and with that comes a need to evolve. If there’s a challenge we’re facing, an opportunity we should be taking on, or just a way that we can improve in general to up our game, I’ll work with you to solve the problem or take on the challenge to get us to where we need to be.
Personality & Work Style
My answers to first 1:1 questions
What makes me grumpy?
- People doing work without asking “Why we are doing this & why now?”
- Indifference. I’m not talking about sliding scale of giving a fuck indifference, which can be a great tool. I mean not caring about how you can improve yourself, the team, and by extension the work.
- People not caring about the difference between building something without errors and building the correct thing without errors.
How do I like feedback?
- As it happens. For sure. In whatever medium works best for you. Please call me out on my bullshit.
How do I prefer to receive recognition, public or private?
- I’m fine with public. But good with whichever.
What makes 1:1s the most valuable for you?
- Honest discussions around the challenges we’re facing and how to overcome them.
- Discussions on how we can grow ourselves, our team, and improve the work we do on a daily basis.
What are your goals for this year? And for the next 3 months?
- Working with peers, team members, and leadership to position both the organization and our people at the forefront of the capabilities needed for the future. Currently, this entails a number of initiatives across a range of areas including: standing up and growing capabilities in leading edge and future forward technologies (e.g. content-as-a-service, headless platforms), aligning skillsets and career growth paths to the digital experience spectrum, creating new and engaging opportunities for our people, improving the work we’re already doing through methodology and process updates, and aligning all of that in a way that makes sense for both the people and the business.
Beer or Baked Goods?
- Farmhouse Ales / Saisons and/or good Bourbon or Rye
DiSC Assessment
- Dominance: 7, Direct, Daring
- Influence: 2, Logical, Suspicious
- Steadiness: 1, Change-oriented, Frustrated by Status Quo
- Conscientiousness: 6, Systematic, Fact-finder
- Classical Pattern: Creative
As someone with a Creative Pattern, I tend to seek unique accomplishments and innovative solutions. I desire an atmosphere where I can try out creative solutions and bold ideas. For me, change is usually far from threatening. Rather, I often view it as exhilarating. I am often most concerned with concrete results and not with social decorum.
Your Philosophies & Style
This has been all about my leadership style but a large part of my job is adapting to the needs of my teams and people. I always look forward to learning, adjusting, and growing by listening to the philosophies of others. I look forward to talking to you about yours!
