Bruno's manager README

It's all about the team, we exist to serve them!

Disclaimer

This document MUST not be read in any way that applies to any other manager from other departments, groups, divisions or teams of ${company_X}.

You will find my document close to those you encounter online and sometimes a copy & paste, and that's OK. It just means I couldn't put it in better words.

This document is a living document.

If you find my beliefs, style and ways of working are not wholly aligned with what you observe in {company_X}, that's OK. I'll be learning and evolving my views and ways of working with the solely intent of serving you and company {company_X} best.

Welcome

I'm pleased to welcome you. You work at ${company_X}, where I hope it becomes a place where you'll grow, develop, contribute and have fun. I'm also hopeful that the journey gets easier with your fresh ideas and enthusiasm.

I look forward to working with you.

Welcome to the team!

Motivations behind this document

Having been inspired by several documents/posts on the importance of a Manager's README, I've decided to kick things off on Github with my own edition. Few reasons for this document to exist:

Writing and maintaining this document helps me refine my thoughts and hold myself accountable.
To share some of my expectations of you and me.
Establish guiding principles to enable you to do your job efficiently, effectively and with confidence.
For you to help me improve and hold me accountable.
Lay down the foundation for a symbiotic relationship between us that help us grow together.

Important: this document is NOT meant as a replacement for us getting to know each other! We'll learn more about each other over time.

Hi, I'm Bruno

I was born in Porto, Portugal, in 1983, where I lived for 24 years before moving to Lisbon and 5 years later to London. I'm a father to a baby boy and partner to a wonderful woman. Outside work, I like:

to travel, good cuisine and meet new people
watch TV series & films (I love a good docuseries)
to read technical, business, economics and leadership books/news/articles/posts
cars (fast cars!)
tennis, F1 and a bit of football (I'm an FCP and Chelsea FC fan)
long walks
spending time with my family and friends

Some nice things hailed to me are: forthright, upright, trustworthy, committed, pragmatic, doer, "the coach", helpful, strategic, hard-working, loyal and caring.

Some of my quirks while working:

I'm all-in, always-on, all the time. I don't expect you to follow my example, and I recommend that you don't. That's just how I work best.
I have very little patience for:
- Apathy and indifference. If something is going on, let me know ASAP
- BS and toxic culture
- "box tickers" and "talk but no walk".
- Unreasonable Leaders.
My communication skills fade out as I get tired.
I tend to be a bit verbose. I know it is annoying. Please call it out. I'm trying to improve.
I'm getting better at this, but there are times you might get messages over the weekends or late at night, or on holidays. It's just me being ON all the time. What to do when you get a message from me.
I'm heavily biased towards action. There's value in having strategic discussions, but most of the time is best to start with small and quick iterations. This way, we can prove (or not) our assumptions (fail-fast to learn-fast) and make visible progress. Actions speak louder than words.

If you're curious about my professional experience, please visit my LinkedIn profile where you can also see what people have to say about me.

My job

As an Engineering Manager, my job is to:

Foster a cohesive team and a healthy culture founded on world-class talent, kindness, candour, learn-it-all mindset, operational excellence and customer-centricity.
Attract and retain world-class talent. That's you.
Assure the growth and development of individuals and teams
Represent our team up and out.
Help ${company_X} with processes and structure so that we have a scalable, effective and efficient organisation.
Influence decisions.
Set context and expected business outcomes so that everyone can connect the dots on what ${company_X} needs, understand why/what the priorities are and what needs to get done.
Foster and nurture ownership, whereby everyone is a business owner by developing guiding principles to simplify and decentralise decision-making.
Help people to develop secondary relationships.
Help to develop ${company_X} Engineering brand.
Assure we're all delivering business value according to or above the {company_X} goals.
Create more leaders, not more followers, while setting these leaders to succeed.

How does a great culture look like to me

A commercially sustainable people-first culture.
A diverse and inclusive culture.
We have a strong sense of ownership and belonging.
We stay honest to the company vision, mission and core values at all times.
We have a growth and learn-it-all mindset. We're curious, not judgemental!
We set high standards and continuously seek to raise the bar.
We're kind and candid
We expect excellence in ourselves first and then in others.
We are proud of who we are and what we do.
We create impact at pace. We focus on outcomes, not on outputs!
We have fun together.

General guiding principles

Integrity, honesty and authenticity are never up for discussion.
You work for ${company_X} not for me, and I serve you, not the other way around.
We're a team, one team. Our behaviours are conducive to a cohesive, effective and efficient team.
We assume the best intentions in everyone until proven otherwise. We set lean and humane checks & balances to ensure cultural deviations don't go unacknowledged.
We're biased towards transparency. Anyone can ask us anything and often will get an answer. Sometimes we can't disclose information, but we're committed to never to lie.
We have a strong bias for action. We thrive on getting meaningful work done (AKA impact).
We first expect excellence from ourselves and only then from others, but we hold each other's backs at all times. Along the way, we're making mistakes. We're committed to taking accountability and learning from our mistakes.
We coach individuals and teams relentlessly. We take it as an article of faith that a culture founded on learning and growing returns better outcomes long-term.
We embrace that management is not leadership. Both are equally important but not mutually exclusive or dependent. In an oversimplification fashion:
- Management is about working with objectives; responsible for the quality, processes, staffing and retaining talent; and deliverables. It's a position in the company.
- Leadership is about working with goals and vision; and inspiring people towards a goal. Leadership comes from everywhere.
We think about impact:
- Consistency: Are you able to deliver work that matters not just once but does so sustainably over time?
- Velocity: What's the rate at which you deliver impact, not just the cumulative impact you have achieved.
- Ownership: Think long term and take ownership of what and how you deliver impact in line with the ${company_X} objectives.
- Accountability: Everyone is accountable for delivering impact. More senior levels are held more directly accountable for the business impact of their decisions and actions.
- Materiality: You deliver what you've said you'll deliver on the time you committed to.
- Force multipliers: Individually, we're accountable for impact, but what would happen if you actively help your wider team create impact? What happens when we radiate positivity?

How do I manage

The model that I follow:

Be a role model: Your behaviours matter to everyone around you. Model the behaviour you expect from others. Live and embody ${company_X} culture and values. If you want to effect change, you must often adjust yourself to embody the change you wish to make.
Be a coach: it all starts by actively listening! Then help individuals and teams to gain self-awareness and self-reflection; set and clarify objectives; achieve their development objectives; unlock their potential; act as a sounding board. The coach's job is to ensure individuals and teams thrive and grow.
Be the one that cares: nothing really matters if people don't feel that you deeply care about their growth, success and them as human beings. By deeply caring, you'll be fostering a strong sense of belonging, a holistic sense of ownership, and ultimately loyalty. They come first, or in other words, we eat last!
Think global, act locally: instead of waiting for grand breakthroughs to "fix the world" or solutions from high or out, focus on culturally conscious solutions into everyday decisions and actions. Think in systems systems thinking, a company is not a sum of all parts but the product of its interactions! We need everyone from everywhere in the ${company_X} to be successful. A problem anywhere is a shared problem, and a win anywhere is a shared win!

Remember: we run companies, manage processes and things and lead people!

Management guiding principles

Our #1 priority is our people. We'll always find time to attract, retain, coach, and lead our people while continually raising the bar, even when it is uncomfortable. We take it as an article of faith that is the right decision long-term.
Customers at the front and centre of everything we do.
We grow with people, there is always room for growth, and we seek it relentlessly.
Feedback is our most valuable and effective tool to keep raising the bar on everything we do. We deliver and receive feedback kindly, promptly, with empathy and candour.
Processes exist to serve us. We continually review its fit for purpose and ways to improve. A customer must never experience a degraded service while waiting for our processes to complete.
We take accountability for anything that goes wrong in our team, even if we're not involved in the issue.

How do I measure the success of our team

Team health and everyone's well-being is high.
Customer's quantitative and qualitative feedback about the software we ship is positive, e.g. NPS, active usage, etc.
We're strong contributors to the {company_X} objectives/goals.

How am I going to review your performance

You're a good coach and mentor, you have a growth and learn-it-all mindset, and you show deep concern for the success and well-being of everyone.
You're a good role model for everyone that you interact with
You're a business leader that fosters ownership, not just accountability. You focus on outcomes, establish an effective decision-making framework for your team(s), and you set humane checks & balances to hold people accountable for success.
You foster a diverse and inclusive team environment where everyone has a strong sense of belonging.
You're productive and results-oriented.
You're a good communicator (hint - active listening!).
You hire world-class talent, support career development, discuss performance, set clear expectations, and recognise great work.
You know the ingredients, not just the recipes. You have the technical skills (e.g. system design, tooling, processes, delivery, etc.) to influence the team(s) and deep dive when needed.
You collaborate effectively across ${company_X}.
You're a reliable decision-maker.
You're a fast learner and relentlessly seek to improve yourself.
You're a team player that develops productive and meaningful relationships at all levels.
You foster an influential, productive and healthy Engineering Culture.
We work well together.

My ideal team

Everyone has a strong sense of belonging.
Take control of, and responsibility for, our own destiny in alignment with ${company_X} objectives.
Have each other's back.
Hold each other accountable.
Expect excellence in ourselves and then in others.
We're curious, not judgemental
Context is high at all times.
Constantly learn.
Laugh together.
Create long-lasting impact at pace

Please get comfortable with Guide: Understand team effectiveness

Me as a resource

Be clear about what you need from me for your success — the role, comp, org change, more feedback, more context, etc.

Be clear when you need the company's resources. Be data-driven about why you need it, gather alignment from the pertinent stakeholders, and show that you're cost-conscious. I like justifications that include, "this is what [company we respect] does" + "this is the ROI" + "this is what an experiment would cost, and if it works, from there, I can shut it down or scale it up" + "this is the most cost-effective solution for these reasons."

I love to work through problems together if it's helpful to you.

How do I think about trust

Trust and developing trust is a vast topic. Still, I broadly think about trust in the terms:

Empathy: Their success comes first. One will not trust you if it is thought that you care more about yourself than about them.
Logic: If it doesn't make sense or lacks rigour, chances are one will not trust your judgement.
Authenticity: If one feels they're not getting access to the "real" you — to a full and complete accounting of what you know, think, and feel — chances are they will not feel safe around you and therefore not trust you.
Execution: If one doesn't walk the talk, meaning not dependable, chances are they will not trust you.

Tips:

Vulnerability precedes trust, not the other way around
You tend to judge yourself by your intentions, but people tend to judge you by how your actions make them feel
As a manager and/or leader, you have the duty to foster trust, not the direct and indirect reports.

Coaching

I've drafted this section a few times now and always falls short on such an important topic. I expect you to coach and coach some more and be great at it. I'm here to help.

The article The Leader as Coach by Harvard Business Review does a much better job than I'll ever do. Read it and embrace it.

I strongly recommend reading:

Decision-making

I expect you to make decisions all the time as independently as possible and be right often. I expect you to ask for help or advice when you're not sure, or you could use a soundboard. You're are not alone. I'm here for you.

Directly-Responsible Individual (DRI)

Note: Follow the link for more context

Being DRI means:

That a decision is either yours or mine, but not both.
You don't have to get to a consensus or reach an agreement.
The scope of my responsibility does not enclose your scope of responsibility.
I won't override you, but I can try to persuade you.
If you make a mistake, fix it, take accountability, and learn from it.

Being DRI does not mean:

You get to be thoughtless.
You're exempt from having to explain why you made a particular decision and be held accountable for it.
You're exempt from people telling you, ahead of time or afterwards, that you made a mistake.
You get to make decisions without attempting an agreement or including stakeholders.
Your choices won't be challenged.

Decision-making reasoning

Reasoning is using data, facts, and a formal process to decide about possible courses of action. We move fast, but the world is complex, ambiguous and unpredictable. More often than not, we can't wait to have all the information available to make a decision. We need between 50% to 70% of the information to decide. Still, we must be excellent at correcting course and learning.

I tend to optimise for:

What's the best for the customer/our people today, mid and long-term? "How does good look like" so I have a reference point to evaluate other options. If you don't know what you want without constraints, how the heck will you know in the face of constraints? Note that today's solution is often tomorrow's problem (System Thinking)!
What's the cost of delay in making the decision?
Can it be reversed? Will it open other possibilities in the future? How? When?
Are we going to learn something new?

Decision-making intuition

Intuition is using one gut feeling to decide about possible courses of action. Although some people perceive it as a sixth sense only available to some, IMHO, intuition combines past experience and personal values. It is worth taking intuition into account because it reflects your learnings. It is, however, not always based on reality, only perceptions.

It's perfectly acceptable to use your intuition to make a decision that's simple in nature or needs to be made quickly. It's also perfectly acceptable to use intuition to close the gap between knowns and unknowns and question what the data suggests (e.g. are we asking the right questions?). When your intuition is fronting the facts, try hard to validate it. Watch out for confirmation bias.

Deliberately not making a decision is also valid

Deciding not to decide is also a sound decision when it is deliberate. Not making a decision might feel unnatural or even wrong. It's a valid course of action as any other, and it must always be on the table.

Decision-making process

I expect you to align with the following decision-making process:

Start from nothing! and hypotheses, whether metaphysical or physical, or based on occult qualities, or mechanical, have no place in experimental philosophy Sir Isaac Newton, Hypotheses non fingo, 1793.
State the problem, assumptions, constraints and dependencies.
Define how good looks like and how to measure it so that one has a reference point.
Define what options are available using data and facts:
- Rank the options, E.g. Bronze, Silver, Gold
- Be specific and clear on the pros/cons and the risks/mitigations for each variant.
- Define the success criteria for each option (How does success look like? How does failure look like?)
- Define rollout, E.g. experiment, kill-switch, how to scale-up, etc.
Anticipate the questions of the stakeholders.
Keep yourself in check. Use your critical thinking, and don't let your ego/emotions get in the way.
Make a decision!

I found that writing a 6 or fewer pages document, less is more, for decisions that have a significant impact or must be discussed by a group works well. Keeping a decision log is also a tool that helps me understand 'why', 'what' and 'when' I've made a given decision and its quality.

Roadblocks and escalation

Let me know when you bump into a roadblock that you can't solve or something needs approval from high. I'll work with you. Don't get hung up on "process", upcoming meetings and such. Just-in-time escalation is usually more efficient.

When the decision it's not yours to make, or you weren't included, or you simply disagree with the decision

If you genuinely agree with the decision, happy days. Join forces and let's get it done. It is, however, harder to buy into a decision that you don't agree with and/or you weren't consulted. While I'll always try to include you, decisions must happen at the right level. The right level is dictated by the ${company_X} structure and processes. Sometimes life just happens. The world is not perfect. Note that I'll not be looking for consensus at all costs. You're expected to:

Provide clear and factual-based arguments why you disagree with the decision on the right forum.
Come up with realistic alternatives.
If the decision hasn't budged, Disagree and Commit. Stand by it and give your best to make it a success. Be a team player.

We all have those moments where we have a gut reaction "I don't like this", "It doesn't make sense whatsoever", "this is wrong", etc. Pace yourself! Know your position first; don't just say 'no' and expect others to try to convince you. Start by completing the sentence: "I [don't agree with/don't think we should do/don't like] X because…". If it doesn't sound strong enough or right, it usually is because it's not. Think a bit more, take it off-line, and come back later with good arguments.

5 steps for Disagreeing Effectively
Group thinking is not acceptable in any circumstances.

Learning from your decisions

I suggest you conduct a retrospective for every significant successful or failed decision you've made. Better when you include stakeholders. It's a powerful tool to learn.

Communication

Communication is key to everything that we do. It's the cornerstone of trust, and trust is the bedrock of everything we do. It will make or break us. I don't claim to be an expert, but below I'll do my very best to describe what works for me. It's not a definite guide.

I strive to spend 10h+ of my week with my direct reports because I've found the hard way that the vast majority of issues result from poor or infrequent communication. We must communicate well and often.

Communicate kindly, clearly, concisely and go straight to the point (I'm working hard on these). Value people's time, and they will value yours.

Empathy goes a long way, and often one doesn't know people's constraints, feelings and commitments before having a candid and compassionate conversation about it. Don't assume, have a conversation instead.

Share information openly, broadly and deliberately

Nothing to hide, all to share. Feel free to discuss things with anybody in the company, from C-levels to everyone else. If there's something wrong, I appreciate hearing it from you so we can fix it together. Failure to address issues first with me will bring us both a great deal of pain because I perceive it as toxic office politics.

Over-communicate when you can, so that you earn credits for when you're unusually busy. If people start getting overwhelmed by the quantity, they will tell you.

Intentionally create/use communication in the right forums to share information.

Be as data-centric as possible. There's less room for interpretation, and emotions tend not to get in the way.

Use your business acumen. Communication goes a long way when people can relate with a solid narrative that's solving a problem.

If you're unsure if you should share something, ask before sharing. Failing to do so will have a nett negative impact on trust.

Optimise for data/facts/knowledge-based communication

I see opinions as a view or judgement formed about something, not necessarily based on fact or knowledge. It's perfectly acceptable to share opinions. But it's important to be explicit when you're giving your opinion versus making a statement of fact, "IMO" vs "evidence shows". This will help the audience put your remarks in perspective, and you'll be giving a positive contribution to the group.

I tend to ask for your thoughts rather than opinions because I value the understanding of your thought process more. It's best when we both reach the same conclusions.

When people don't buy into your ideas

It's vital that you take stakeholders on a journey so that everyone has skin in the game.

The Chicken and the Pig business fable

A Pig and a Chicken are walking down the road. The Chicken says: "Hey Pig, I was thinking we should open a restaurant!" Pig replies: "Hm, maybe, what would we call it?" The Chicken responds: "How about 'ham-n-eggs'?" The Pig thinks for a moment and says: "No, thanks. I'd be committed, but you'd only be involved."

You must avoid the situation whereby you/we commit, but stakeholders are involved.

Please read Crucial Conversations Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High and How to Win Friends and Influence People if you're struggling to get buy-in.

It's crucial stakeholders trust you.

There are three hard rules to learn…

You are not the exclusive source of good ideas.

There is a high chance that your ideas suck.

Even if number 2 is not true, you probably haven't gone deep enough to prove otherwise.

For people to believe you, they need to trust you. For people to trust you, you need to demonstrate that you understand your subject matter to depths that they had never considered, that you have considered every conceivable alternative and edge case, that you have data to validate your hypothesis, that you have reached beyond the narrow confines of your teams and tried your hardest to disconfirm your beliefs and biases, that you understand what went before and the impact that it had.

Once you get to that point, it would frankly be irresponsible not to follow your plans. Until you get to that point, you risk having the ideas of others forced upon you.

Source: Julian Skeels

Words matter

Note: I'm not a native English speaker and don't claim to excel. But it's something that I work on every day.

Communication tends to be vague, verbose and non-committal. This often leads to misunderstandings that can erode trust, cause inefficiencies and ultimately build resentment. We must work hard to avoid it!

Use words people understand; avoid using acronyms and weasle words; be concise and straight to the point; be specific with the language you use.

Some examples of words that one should work hard to avoid using: "may", "might", "could", "can", "can be", "virtually", "up to", "as much as", "help", "like", "believe", "possibly", "endeavours", "aims to", "try", "some", "many", "most", "almost all", "often", "I think", "I reckon", "probably" and similar qualifiers that create enough wiggle room for interpretation.

NOTE: these examples don't apply to this document because it's supposed to reference how to work with me.

Feedback

Feedback is a reaction or information from someone that occurs due to actions or behaviour undertaken by an individual or group. A gift with the power to skyrocket an organisation to new heights. It unleashes growth, innovation, problem-solving, engagement and creates empowerment across the board. The objective of feedback is solely to help people grow, live up to their potential, and interact more effectively with colleagues. It's a service to them, a gift!

Feedback is critical to our success, and I love it.
At heart, Radical Candour.
Let me know if I don't do well.
I'll let you know if you don't.
Performance reviews should never be a surprise for you. If it is, let me know.
Feedback must be given often and immediately.

On our first 1:1, I'll ask you how you prefer to receive feedback. I like to receive feedback: promptly, objective, direct, specific and actionable.

To learn about Radical candour, follow the links and take your time to digest them:

Some tips on how to give feedback:

Praise in a meaningful way efforts and behaviours, not abilities. Intelligence, talent, or skills are often innate and can't be actively replicated. Instead, praise effort/behaviours explaining exactly what prompted your praise. It'll reinforce the desired efforts/behaviour.
Ignore the ratios such as 5:1! Give positive feedback often, be specific and be authentic. Too much and too often critical feedback leads to a feeling of not belonging and ultimately to disengagement.
Telling people they are missing the mark is not the same as helping them hit the mark.
Honest critical feedback can strengthen your bond rather than degrade it when delivered correctly.
When we don't feel empathy, we reject even useful feedback! Be empathetic! This, according to Douglas Stone, a Lecturer on Law at Harvard Law School, is one of the main reasons we reject even the most constructive feedback.
Ask permission to give feedback! By asking for permission, you give the person a feeling of autonomy and a sense of control. After all feedback is dialogue!
Be objective. Focus on the situation, not the person
Avoid blur words! A blur word is something that can mean different things to different people. E.g. "You shouldn't be so defensive" or "You could be more proactive.". Be specific!
Don't use generalisations! Words like "always" and "never". This is a form of labelling someone.
Use 'I' statements! Give feedback from your perspective alone. This way, one avoids labelling the person.
Keep it short! Long descriptions will confuse and/or get the receiver lost.

Three dimensions are required for people to continue to give you feedback:

Safety - unlikelihood of being punished for giving feedback: should be high.
Effort - The amount of work to provide feedback, also known as "how much do you argue when people give you feedback?": should be low.
Benefit - how likely is it that giving you feedback will materially impact your behaviour?: should be high.
Be grateful! Just say "Thank You".

Note: When seeking feedback, make specific questions. "Do you have any feedback for me?" That's a terrible question! Better:

What's one thing I could improve?
What's one thing I could have done better in that X?

Staff meetings

Staff meetings occur on Monday morning with an average duration of 1.5 hours with my direct reports. It set us off for the week. It's also a forum where team members:

Receive cross-departmental and business information.
Get to know what's going on with each other, bounce off ideas and offer help.
To ensure we're aligned at all times.
To nurture team cohesion.

Before the meeting

To be shared 1 working day before the meeting.

Key Indicator Report: 1-pager summary of KPIs and key delivery update shared by me.
Flash Reports: each team member writes their updates. Should working on a team assignment, the update must be provided weekly.
Deep Dive / Swarming suggestions: A deep dive is a problem-solving or new initiatives slot that leverages the power of the team. Deep dives are about discussing the topic(s), not learning about it. Share a 1 to 6 pages document.

All goes into a shared document/folder where we can look back.

The meeting

The below format is a blueprint. All team members must be prepared for the meeting to actively and assertively contribute. Time is a scarce resource for us all. Attending and participating it's a moral duty to your teammates and a formal duty to me.

Overview (5-15 min): I'll provide an overview of the KPIs, progress, sometimes go in-depth on some, and share business or cross-department information.
Team members round (30 min): each team member will share impact, disappointments, issues/concerns for visibility, escalation/help needed, and learnings. What's hot on their plate. What's the plan for the week. Usually is just to highlight some points on the Flash Reports and let the team make questions or offer help.
Review team assignments/actions progress (5 min)
Customer focus (5 min): We'll answer the questions "What are we going to do this week to enhance Customer Experience?" and "Has anyone has gone out of their way to improve Customer Experience?".
Deep dives / swarming (30 min to 1 hour): Discussion about problem-solving or new initiatives. This time can also be used to discuss strategy.
Review action items.

Meeting minutes will be shared during the week and ratified by the team members. Minute to be written by a meeting historian or a team member in a round-robin fashion.

1:1s

Our 1:1s are weekly and for 1h. Please let me know if you wish to change the frequency or length. This is mostly your time and your agenda. I like using 1:1s to check in on how you're doing, what you need from me, personnel issues, your professional development and performance reviews. I also use 1:1s for strategy questions that we can seed/discuss, for you to seek advice, me to provide any missing context and bi-directional feedback.

Once a quarter, we will formally document performance.

Every 3 months, we'll hold a 1:1s retrospective. This way, we can continuously improve our chats.

We'll have a private online document collating notes from 1:1s that will help us with the retrospectives and tracking progress.

Pro tips:

Start from where you left off.
Prepare your topics in advance.
I frequently use the OSCAR model - Outcome, Situation, Choices, Actions and Review to assist you with your growth and development.
I often use the FUEL model - Frame the conversation, Understand the current state and Explore the desired state to assist you navigating issues.
Don't expect me to have everything figured out or solve the problems for you. I'm here to help you find a way forward.

Note on career development: Your career is yours, not mine. You know best how you'd like to grow and in what areas. I can provide feedback, be a soundboard, help you self-reflect, help set objectives, provide guidance and tools, etc. I'll do my best to offer growth opportunities, but it's up to you to seize them. You must be growing and developing all the time. It's not negotiable.

I keep myself in check by filling a form after every 1:1:

Criteria	Grade
Team member did most of the talking	Yes/No
Team member displayed a sense of belonging and commitment	Yes/No
Team member is exhibiting proof of growth and development	Yes/No
Team member and I were aligned on takeaways	Yes/No
Team member left with a renewed sense of purpose and motivation	Yes/No
Team member talked about things that are not going well	Yes/No
Team member's perspectives match with what I've seen and heard elsewhere	Yes/No

Plans Vs. Planning

Plans are essential because they attempt to map out how to reach the destination.

"If you don't know where you are going, you'll end up someplace else." – Yogi Berra

I expect you to plan and to share your plans in writing. Plans not in written and shared don't exist!

If you don't have a plan, you become part of somebody else's plan - Terence McKenna.

Plans must be clear and specific, prompting commitment by the stakeholders.

"It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations, if you live near one." – J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit

Things usually don't go according to the plan, and that's OK.

everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth - Mike Tyson.

It's about thinking ahead that get us to be better prepared for when "you're punched in the mouth" (haha!).

In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable - Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Lastly,

"By Failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail." – Benjamin Franklin

Delivery reporting

Create a regular, systematic, clearly framed written process by which you share your progress against the plan, RAG, risks/mitigations, assumptions and issues/blockers. Share this update with me no less frequently than weekly. I place a high premium on data and well-thought mitigation actions. Should something be RED for more than a couple of weeks, it becomes the focus of my attention, and you should be all over it to find the path to GREEN.

Perhaps {company_X} has a delivery department or something similar. I expect you to work closely with them and be accountable for the quality and accuracy of what's being reported by your teams.

Flash reports

Flash reports are delivered to me weekly, 1 working day before the Staff Meeting. It must be clearly written, concise, and specific.

Format:

Flash report dd/MM/yyyy

This week's impact: Write about your team/your achievements
Issues for visibility: issues and concerns that you are dealing with, but you want to keep the team in the loop/aware
Help needed: this is a form of escalation to me or to seek help from the team
Next week's priorities: what are you focusing on next week
My assignments progress: sometimes we take some assignments that don't fit anywhere. This is a place to report progress. E.g. organising a hackathon.
Worth mentioning: anything that doesn't fit in the above topics but it's worth sharing

What to do when you get a message from me

I don't expect you to respond to everything in real-time, but I expect you to close the loop on everything we open in a timely manner. If it's on my plate, I will do the same. I get frustrated when I have to ask about something twice or ask about something that we've agreed you should have come back to me with.

I like fast turnaround and acknowledgement on written communications like "got it" or "on it" type acknowledgement, so I know things we're discussing are moving.

I tend to send FYIs to keep you in the loop. Unless you have a simple question that can't be discussed on other forums, there's no need to reply.

If you're CC'ed, I'm not expecting you to reply, but it's perfectly acceptable that you choose to do so. Just be conscious that you're jumping on someone else conversation.

Get a hold of me

I'm usually quite busy, and it's hard to find me at my desk or e-desk. I will always make myself available if you need me. Some tips that can help you get a hold of me:

Emergency: find me at my desk or around the office -> call me -> text me -> slack me -> drop me an email. Do whatever you need to do to get a hold of me.
Urgent matter: text me -> slack me -> drop me an email.
Important matter: slack me -> drop me an email.
BAU: drop me an email -> slack me -> book a meeting

If you suggest a meeting or discussion, initiate finding time in my diary and make the appointment. If I suggest a discussion, I will do the same. Don't say "let's discuss" without a quick follow-up of when we'll discuss.

Leadership

I'm a big fan of Amazon's 14 leadership principles. Therefore you'll see me using them often within our context. Please get familiar with them and reach out if you'd like to discuss it further.

Lead by example, and show, don't tell.

Everyone is a leader, and leadership comes from everywhere

I expect different team members to step into leadership roles, contribute, and step back once the need for their specific skills has passed. We must pull out leaders from everywhere. It's vital to scale the org; give opportunities for people to grow and develop; use the best people for the job; etc.

I expect you to pull out leaders from everywhere consistently.

A Leadership Primer

From General Colin Powell, Chairman (Ret), Joint Chiefs of Staff. 18 valuable lessons that you should be aware of. Some are really close to my heart:

Being responsible sometimes means pissing people off.
The day soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you have stopped leading them. They have either lost confidence that you can help them or concluded that you do not care. Either case is a failure of leadership.
Organisation doesn't really accomplish anything. Plans don't accomplish anything, either. Theories of management don't much matter. Endeavours succeed or fail because of the people involved. Only by attracting the best people will you accomplish great deeds.
Organisation charts and fancy titles count for next to nothing.
Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier.
The commander in the field is always right and the rear echelon is wrong unless proved otherwise.

The 21 irrefutable laws of leadership

I'm a big fan of John C. Maxwell books. Get familiar with the: The 21 irrefutable laws Of leadership. You can also find a good summary here.

Command & control or authoritative leadership style (AKA top-down)

It is not advisable! I'll not question your judgement only when a team is in survival mode and for a short period. I also appreciate a heads-up when you feel it is needed.

Unreasonable Vs Business Vs. Servant Leader

You are a Business Leader, not a Unreasonable Leader. You must represent and serve your team(s) to set them to succeed, but it must be in alignment with the {company_X} context.

To be a business leader is to be a servant leader:

As stated by its founder, Robert K. Greenleaf, a Servant Leader should be focused on, "Do those served grow as persons? Do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants?" When leaders shift their mindset and serve first, they benefit as well as their employees in that their employees acquire personal growth, while the organisation grows as well due to the employees growing commitment and engagement. source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Servant_leadership

Unreasonable leaders demand or commit or rally people into popular but unrealistic requests/quests, usually around the company resources or ways of working. This is not advisable, and will bring us both a great deal of pain that I would like to avoid. If you can't gauge if the request is unrealistic, ask first. It will save us both a great deal of pain. Use me as a resource for sound judgement

I expect you to set expectations and context for everyone in your team so that we achieve a robust alignment, and the temptation to embody a Unreasonable leader is low.

Technology

So, you're a manager. It means you don't need to be technical anymore. You're an Engineering Manager. I don't expect you to code, but I expect you to be a technologist and influence technical decisions. You must understand what your people do to earn their trust and provide them with what they need to succeed.

Dive Deep Leaders operate at all levels, stay connected to the details, audit frequently, and are sceptical when metrics and anecdote differ. No task is beneath them. Amazon’s 14 leadership principles

Technology general principles

Our #1 priority is service continuity. We prioritise security, availability, scalability, reliability, regulatory requirements, and the resolution of defects that block customers from using core functionality or our best value ahead of other initiatives, even when that decision is uncomfortable.
We design, build, and maintain complete solutions, through quick and short iterations that enable and take advantage of experimentation.
Work done is better than work in progress. Working software in front of the customer is better than software in the development phase.
We take great pride in 'what' and 'how' we deliver software to our customers. QA, Security, Ops, engineering culture, and outcomes are everyone's responsibility.
We take it as an article of faith that the compounding of continually improving small things through sort and quick iterations is the best decision long-term.
We thrive in intentional failing-fast and experimenting within a controlled and acceptable blast radius. We learn more and faster this way, and we share our learnings, so others learn as well. We'll never deliberately put the trust of our customers at odds. We have ZERO tolerance for blame.
Software Engineering is craftsmanship in the service of the customer. We contribute to outcomes, not outputs. By focusing on customer outcomes, we do our best work, and we'll be engaged throughout.
We'll make tactical moves and manage tech debt as a token of gratitude for the customer. However, a high bar must be cleared before approving tactical moves.

Pragmatic Craftsmanship

Software Engineering is a craft, but it doesn't have an end in itself in a business context. Software exists to serve the customer.

I always ask: If a team member were to be alerted at 4 am on a Friday to deal with an incident, will they be able to identify, test and ship a hotfix by 4:30 am with a sense of fulfilled duty? If not, the team must get the system in a state that enables it.

There are times when we need to make tactical moves to meet the customer's expectations. Technical debt must be managed to not pay an unpalatable future tax.

Non Functional Requirements must be threaded carefully. There's little value in a system that doesn't work in specific situations, often when a high volume of users expect to use the system simultaneously. Also, there is little value in putting at risk customers' privacy.

Operational Excellence

Operational Excellence is a mindset that enables us to consistently and reliably ship, run and maintain systems that maximise business outcomes by meeting our customer's expectations. Operational Excellence is therefore reinforced by specific tools and processes.

Operational Excellence is exceptionally close to my heart. I expect you to have it front and centre as it's key to meeting customer expectations.

Design Principles:

Make frequent, small, reversible changes.
Create paved roads aggressively: tools, processes, etc.
Everything as code.
Refine operations procedures frequently and relentlessly.
360 observability: from dev to prod, processes, tools, etc.
Anticipate failure: pre-mortem, Production Readiness Reviews, etc.
Learn from all operational failures: post-mortem, retrospectives, sharing findings with the Engineering group, etc.

Note: it is better to do the right thing than do it right if we have to choose. Ask me what I mean by this ;)

Product teams Vs Dev/Feature/Project teams

In a succinct way, we don't have Dev/Feature/Project teams (full stop).

Yes, even if we're talking about DX, Platform, Data, etc., teams. We might exceptionally have ephemeral teams, but that's exceptional. Get familiar with how different they operate - Product vs. Feature Teams. We're happier and more effective when focusing on outcomes, not outputs!

Team Dependencies

Best dependencies are no dependency. Aggressively kill dependencies. I rather have 2 of the same than 0 of nothing or 1 that takes much longer.

Teams should be able to carry out their mission without having to coordinate outside the team. When it's impossible, I expect you to actively establish interfaces that enable the teams to coordinate efficiently. At the same time, we must actively kill inter-team dependencies. Teams' ownership and autonomy are essential to meet our customers' expectations at pace, and we must never ever ship our org structure to our customers - low coupling, high cohesion

Get familiar with Amdahl's Law and its extension to Universal Scalability Law and how it applies to coherence penalty for humans.

Innovation

Innovation comes from everyone, everywhere and at any time. When possible and on your team's remit, apply "small, fast and measurable" iterations and get on with it. Share the findings when you're ready.

When innovation requires work that impacts the company objectives and/or other teams, it must be discussed across Tech and Product. Put it down in writing to have an asynchronous conversation first. I am very fun of A3 thinking that's usually used to find root causes issues. I find the template quite helpful with a few small adjustments. Still, I'm open to any format that you find beneficial to express the idea.

A3 template

TIP: Be pedantic and technically sound.

Some points on hiring and managing your team

One of your most important jobs is to recruit world-class talent. Collaborate with me on your new hires - direct reports. These are ultimately your decision, but I hold veto power (that I will use judiciously). I will want more involvement in your first hire, than your second, than your third, than your fourth, etc.

Share with me your team management system — where different from the organisation — how you communicate the vision, set goals, create alignment, foster high engagement, and cultural nuances/recruiting practices/performance review processes unique to your team.

I'll push you to create high-performance teams and to focus on growth. I get frustrated when it takes too long to act.

Be fair with terminations, and don't surprise the person you're letting go. People who are let go must leave with their respect intact. Remember, excellence is highly contextual!

Recognise and support your top performers. Help me help you recognise your top performers.

Don't surprise me with employee departures. We should know about these before they happen.

Be explicit about team norms that aren't held companywide. It's OK if some norms differ between teams. Just be explicit about it and make sure they don't collide with company values.

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