jadametz / readme

Management README

README

This is my personal Management README. It is living documentation about, me. Your feedback is welcome.

My management philosophy

I believe in empowering teams to grow themselves. My role on the team is to make sure you have the skills, space, and context to do so. This takes shape in a few ways; weekly 1:1s, routine performance feedback, coaching, and instilling ownership.

1:1s are the foundation of my leadership toolkit. They are the most important meetings of my week and I vow to have them with each person, for 30 mins, no matter what. These are not status updates. They’re designated time to listen, build a relationship, and have conversations.

I believe feedback should be a regular, timely occurrence so that people can grow toward their goals. I aim to tailor and deliver feedback how it best suits each individual.

Coaching is as important as managing, but distinctly different. I believe in defaulting to coaching so that people can navigate their own learnings, with a bit of guidance.

Instilling ownership is about building intrinsic motivation through autonomy so that people want to do their best work for, and with, the people around them.

I trust you to know your own limits and get support when needed. I may provide suggestions, but I will try to not force a solution. Everyone is different, and I realize some folks need more guidance than others. If you need more direction from me, please let me know as soon as possible.

Communication

I prefer to chat as in-person as possible. Otherwise, you can expect these response times:

• Phone/SMS: immediately
• Slack: as soon as possible - understand that I'm often in meetings or may be blocking time for focused work
• Email: I check twice a day

Due to the nature of our work, it's possible but rare that you'll hear from me after-hours. If you do, I will do my best to indicate priority/urgency as clearly as possible.

What I expect of you as your manager

The following are in order of importance:

1. Be reliable. If you tell myself or the team that you're going to do something, do it. Unless, you subsequently say you're not going to, and why.
2. Ask questions. No one knows everything.
3. Ask for help. We're a team.
4. Invest in self-improvement. This looks different for everyone and can be going deeper, going broader, or engaging in feedback.

What you can expect of me as your manager

An initital 1:1 where I'll ask a series of questions. My answers to which are here.

A weekly (unless otherwise stated) 1:1, in which I provide context from the greater org, share any feedback I have for you (especially as it relates to career progression), and help you work through problems you’re trying to solve.

Routine sharing from me of the problems that I’m also facing in my current work, and concrete information about what I’m up to. (Note: I could do better at this so please ask whenever you're curious!)