Nice to meet you!
Getting to know someone can be hard, and it's even harder when there's a power dynamic mismatch. The purpose of this document is to help kickstart our communication by showing you who I am and how I think.
protected void Warning() {
this.appliesTo = "Only Me"; // not my current employer nor other managers you've ever met or will meet
}I trust and expect my teams to do good work without me digging into the details, but I can and will dig when you or I need to. I expect you to be the expert.
I generally work from 9:00-5:00 Eastern, and skew a little earlier on work-from-home days. I check slack and email earlier in the morning on my phone. If I respond outside of your normal working hours, I don't expect you to reply. I log out at 5:00 every day to be with my family and will not check slack or email after that time. For emergencies you can text me. Feel free to send me a slack or email at any time: off-hours I will not get notified. But don't expect a response until I'm back online.
If I am working from the office, I will prioritize in-person meetings. Due to the unpredictable Boston commute, I avoid scheduling meetings before 9:30 AM Eastern on in-office days.
When I go on vacation, I unplug. I assign members of my team to cover various aspects of my role if the vacation is more than 2 days. For 2 or fewer days I assume everything can wait. If something catches fire you can text me, but please try not to light any fires when I'm gone.
I encourage you to own your calendar and your separation of work and home life. Block off commute time (yes even if you work from home, my calendar labels that "Family Time"). Mark off personal appointments. Unplug when on vacation.
Your 1:1 is important to me. I will avoid canceling your 1:1 if there is a way to reschedule. I will add extra 1:1s if you ask for them. I will always respond to pings of "hey can we chat for a minute?" and will find the time. If I reschedule a 1:1 to a time that doesn't work for you, please let me know!
I will not take notes unless I assign myself something to do. Your 1:1 is yours. It's up to you to take notes if you want them.
I will schedule 1:1 meetings with you at least weekly. I will always start by asking how you're doing. I expect that you will bring at least one topic for us to discuss to your 1:1. If your topic or topics take up the entire time, I may schedule extra time for topics coming from me. We can work together to decide on timing that works for you.
I will schedule 1:1 meetings with you at least monthly. I will always start by asking how you're doing. I expect that you will bring at least one topic for us to discuss to your 1:1. If your topic or topics take up the entire time, I may schedule extra time for topics coming from me.
I will schedule 1:1 meetings with you at your request. I am open to chatting any time you want. This time is for you. I'm happy to talk about anything that interests you: your own work, your team, your manager, or things happening across the company. I also host open office hours from time to time and will post about them in slack.
I will happily and regularly discuss personal growth goals with you verbally. For these conversations I will take notes, but I will not turn them into a formal document for you. It is up to you to own your goals and document them in ways that help you keep track.
When we revisit your goals at formal review time I will come with prepared thoughts on how you're doing against the goals as I understood them. I expect you to come with your version of the same. I will also do extensive 360 feedback for you against your level and role. I will compile that feedback for you to digest.
Formal reviews should not be surprising: we should have discussed everything continuously. I strive to make formal review time very boring by having our 1:1s be valuable.
Meetings are a tool to force progress in communication. They are not the only way to make progress and they are not the only way to communicate. The owner of a meeting decides through their actions what the outcome of the meeting should be. If there is a decision to be made it should be clearly called out in the agenda or invitation. If the meeting is about information sharing or teaching then it should be recorded for later watching.
If I own a meeting I will send an agenda: it is likely to be inside the meeting invite. I will take notes, and send them out by the end of the day of the meeting.
If I am attending a meeting that you own I will provide my whole attention to your meeting. If I decide that I don't need to be there I will let you know that I trust you to handle it yourself.
I use my calendar not only for meetings and 1:1s, but also for tasks and reminders. Because of this, it will always look full. Don't let that deter you. If you would like to chat, reach out via slack. I can and will make the time.
If you are looking to book a larger meeting, you can feel free to book over my scheduled Tasks without asking. I'm also happy to help find a time that works. I am adept at calendar tetris.
There are a few things I know I could be better at. If I am not living up to your or my expectations, I'd appreciate you calling me out on it privately.
I think of myself as a Creative Engineer. I went to Worcester Polytechnic Institute and received dual Bachelor's degrees in Computer Science and Music. I wrote a lot of code before I got into management: I have been a firmware engineer, a database architect, a web backend engineer, a web frontend engineer, a desktop engineer, and a mobile engineer. I even spent some time as the closest thing to a visual designer that you can be without a lick of training. But it's been a while since I wrote production code. I trust my team leads and engineers to be the experts.
I love to sing. Sometimes I sing at my desk. I try not to do that too much.
I am married and I have a daughter. She is obsessed with drawing (especially cute animals), sports (especially soccer), playing games (especially Clue), and cats (especially our own). I am obsessed with superheroes (especially MCU), music (especially Ben Folds), playing games (especially Tzolk'in), and cats (especially our own). Our cats are obsessed with sunbeams.