Hello and welcome to the team! In addition to the responsibilities associated with your role, you are now also an operator of a new-to-you EAP. This document is intended to ensure you are able to get the most from our working relationship. It attempts to capture my management philosophy, day-to-day work expectations, and other quirks with which you may wish to familiarize yourself. It is not a replacement for the actual working relationship we will develop over time, but is a useful document to check assumptions and hold me accountable.
It is in the spirit of similar documents from other leaders who inspire me.
Motivations matter. I believe teams are healthiest when team members are primarily motivated by factors beyond their own personal gain. I reward and praise work done in service of our customers or our mission. I do not reward or praise work done for self-promotion or other self-interest.
People are the plan. I believe that happy people are a prerequisite to delivering great work, and that people are happiest when they are understood. I will always make time to listen, and try to ensure you are heard.
Leaders should be doers. I have greater respect for leaders who have done / can do / and will do when necessary. I don't believe a leader can be effective without a deep understanding of what and how their team delivers.
Doers should be leaders. Leadership comes in many forms. I recognize that people managers are a necessity when scaling organizations; I also recognize that organizations cannot effectively scale without leadership qualities exhibited by individuals at all levels.
Iteration and experimentation. Things are not perfect now, but they'll only get better if we regularly reflect, give and accept feedback, and make small changes to everything continuously.
1:1s. I recognize the value in meeting regularly with individuals on the team, but I don't like the term one-on-one; it sounds too sterile and corporate. Instead, I prefer calling these meetings Syncs, in recognition that you will ordinarily be operating asynchronously (with a fair amount of autonomy), but that we occasionally need to synchronize.
We'll meet once a week for 30 minutes (to start; we can adjust this as our working relationship evolves). I've created a collaborative document that only you and I can access which we'll use to shape the agenda of each sync. Any time a question, topic, or thought of substance comes to mind, put it in the doc. I will do the same. My expectation is that you will drive most of the agenda for our syncs.
Meetings. I'm in a lot of meetings. We could be a lot better as an organization about how we run meetings. My expectation is that meetings have an agenda (or a goal with a plan for achieving that goal) in the scheduled time. I will ask for this from a meeting organizer before accepting an invitation. I encourage you to do the same.
Before you book a meeting, think about whether or not you could achieve the same outcome using Slack or an email.
Communication. There are many ways to communicate with people. I try to be aware and use the right means for the message: email is permanent, in-person and video conversations are ephemeral, and Slack is somewhere in between. I ask that you also be thoughtful with your communications.
On the clock. My philosophy on working hours is guided by the principles outlined above (happy people beget great work). I encourage you to optimize your work time, balancing the needs associated with your role, your customers, the team, and your happiness. Work with me as this balance evolves.
I will occasionally send you an email or Slack message late in the evening or on a weekend. Working at these times is my choice; I don't expect you to respond outside of your normal work hours.
Thoughtful communications. I believe the single greatest lever we have to control the reality around us is communication: what we say (and what we don't say), to whom, and how it's said.
You will get a more thoughtful response from me in writing. I don't necessarily like writing, but I'm a compulsive editor. I use the written word to communicate important or impactful things. Write to me for a more thoughtful response than what you'd get in-person.
My inbox is a todo list, for better or for worse. Don't hesitate to update the thread and push your note back to the top of the list.
Just enough is the right amount of process. I am allergic to process for process' sake. I don't like teams that adopt Agile without respect to the context of their organization or the principles behind the methodology. I will err on the side of less process and you may need to challenge me on this.
I am an introvert, meaning I expend more energy than I take in when I am around people. I may be quiet at times, especially in larger groups, but I am engaged.
I am here to learn. Your EAP does not operate in a vacuum and requires regular updates. My hope is to learn from you.
This document evolves. I will update it from time to time and would appreciate your feedback.