Management philosophy

I am an organized and attentive manager who believes in setting up rituals, routines, and process to create clear goals, context, and priorities for the team, and then coaching you as you figure out the best approach. My role is to clear the road of unproductive constraints, so you can figure it out. You’ll see this manifest in my work when I do the legwork to set things up well and write down as much as possible, so you’re never guessing.

A sharable management philosophy makes it clearer for me, as a manager, to make values-based decisions, but also to share with reports so they have a good idea of my expectations of the relationship. This feels more equitable to me than a manager ReadMe or other similar one-way communications, especially if they’re coupled with thoughtful first 1:1 questions.

As a manager, my reports can expect a weekly 1:1 in which I share any feedback I have, provide context about the larger organization and how your work relates to our team’s strategy, and work through any problems you’re solving. They can also expect a weekly work planning meeting where everybody reviews what they’re on and informally identifies dependencies in our work and solicits ideas for solving problems from the group. The highlight of this meeting has inadvertently become Something Good.

See: My expectations of people who report to me

References

Dave McKeown. The Self-Evolved Leader: Elevate Your Focus and Develop Your People in a World That Refuses to Slow Down . Accessed 29 Apr. 2021.

Behaviors 1. Set common goals: Goals for the whole team to rally around 2. Help the team achieve their goals: their success is your success 3. Focus on the development of their people: Don’t meddle in people’s jobs 4. Focus on the long-term direction of the team: Build appropriate rituals, routines, and firewalls to avoid getting sucked into things. 5. Steer don’t row

Hogan, Lara. “Setting Expectations as a Manager.” Lara Hogan, 24 Jan. 2017, https://larahogan.me/blog/management-expectations/.