├── README.md ├── bear.gif ├── blog └── practical-tips-for-managing-people-through-covid-19.md ├── docs ├── about.md ├── expectations.md ├── housekeeping.md └── meetings.md ├── growing-emotionally-intelligent-engineering-teams.pdf ├── recommended-readings.md └── templates ├── annual-goals.md ├── artifacts.md ├── first-1-on-1-ics.md ├── first-1-on-1-managers.md ├── monthly-goals.md ├── one-on-one-agenda.md ├── quarterly-goals.md └── staff-eng-1-on-1s.md /README.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | # How does Danielle even 2 | 3 | Welcome to my README! In the age of remote work, it can be harder than ever to get to know the people you work with (especially a new manager!), so I wrote this README in hopes to help you understand how best to work with me. I care deeply about the work I do and the people on my team and I want to help you be your best self and do your best work. 4 | 5 | ## TLDR 6 | I believe in putting people first. I believe in collaborative teams without bullies. I love to ship things quickly and iteratively. I love to learn and to teach. I value context and transparency. I will help you become the best person you can be if you let me. I value the safety of the marginalized over the hurt feelings of the privileged. I'm an introvert. I recommend reading [Radical Candor](https://www.blinkist.com/en/books/radical-candor-en/) to understand my feelings on *compassionate* feedback and watching [Ted Lasso season 1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Lasso) and [Fresh Off the Boat](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fresh_Off_the_Boat) (seasons 1-4) to understand my motivations for running a team and Lara Hogan's [Resilient Management](https://abookapart.com/products/resilient-management) to understand my communication style. 7 | 8 | ## Publications: 9 | 10 | Check out my blog posts/podcast episodes on: 11 | - [Role models, restructuring, and living in the future with Danielle Leong](https://open.spotify.com/episode/6VHYn8fbvqeRDDtPnxkcxh?si=808c8780aa0c45a7) (podcast) 12 | - [How to run emotionally intelligent engineering teams](https://fellow.app/supermanagers/danielle-leong-github-ask-versus-guess-culture/) (podcast) 13 | - [Setting goals with your engineers that don't completely suck](https://medium.com/@tsunamino/setting-goals-with-your-engineers-that-dont-completely-suck-cb76b87e4275) 14 | - [How to build a healthy relationship between engineering and product](https://leaddev.com/cross-functional-collaboration/how-build-healthy-relationship-between-engineering-and-product?utm_source=ActiveCampaign&utm_medium=email&utm_content=How+to+build+a+healthy+relationship+between+engineering+and+product&utm_campaign=Originals+-+Issue+106+%28September+29%29&vgo_ee=ijbIr%2BuJQXk%2FfTxzEsFdwIgh9FwyGMDaZyYD%2BTLxuXQ%3D) 15 | - [10 Expert Tips for Effective 1:1s](https://fellow.app/blog/meetings/tips-for-effective-and-meaningful-one-on-one-meetings/) 16 | - [How to run effective meetings](https://leaddev.com/culture-engagement-motivation/how-have-meetings-dont-suck-much) 17 | - [Practical tips for managing people through Covid](https://medium.com/@tsunamino/practical-tips-for-managing-people-through-covid-19-52ec2db38e06) 18 | 19 | ## Table of contents 20 | - [About](docs/about.md) 21 | - [My philosophy](docs/about.md#my-philosophy) 22 | - [My role](docs/about.md#my-role) (momma bear coaching soccer.gif) 23 | - [Values](docs/about.md#values) 24 | - [Expectations](docs/expectations.md#expectations) 25 | - [High performers](docs/expectations.md#high-performers) 26 | - [Managing managers](docs/expectations.md#managers) 27 | - [How I will provide feedback to you](docs/expectations.md#how-i-will-provide-feedback-to-you) 28 | - [Housekeeping](docs/housekeeping.md) 29 | - [Feedback for me](docs/housekeeping.md#feedback-for-me) 30 | - [Availability](docs/housekeeping.md#availability) 31 | - [Expenses and Requests](docs/housekeeping.md#expenses-and-requests) 32 | - [Meetings](docs/meetings.md) 33 | - [1:1s](docs/meetings.md#11s) 34 | - [Daily standup](docs/meetings.md#daily-standup) 35 | - [Bi-weekly iterations](docs/meetings.md#biweekly-iterations) 36 | - [Retrospectives](docs/meetings.md#retrospectives) 37 | - [Things I'm working on](docs/about.md#things-im-working-on) 38 | - [Recommended readings](recommended-readings.md) 39 | 40 | 41 | ## Conclusion 42 | 43 | Thank you for slogging through my very long README. Hopefully this helps you understand how to work better with me. Please feel free to open a PR with any suggestions! 44 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /bear.gif: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/dmleong/manager-resources/48a6d0a0081ae27b557cf3f936517dd671cd128c/bear.gif -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /blog/practical-tips-for-managing-people-through-covid-19.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | # Practical tips for managing people through COVID-19 2 | 3 | _Your team’s health and family come first._ 4 | 5 | These are tough times. It’s a global pandemic, our infrastructures are crumbling, and government response is questionable. Racially-motivated hate crimes are on the rise. Childcare and support is nonexistent. If you are a people manager, your team is likely stressed, burnt out, and overwhelmed. It’s more important now than ever to make sure that your people feel supported: **your team’s health and safety should be your top priority.** 6 | 7 | ![nobodys-backup](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/2171822/80538334-6c953080-895a-11ea-9741-598bc207c82a.gif) 8 | 9 | Here’s some actionable tips on how to help your team through this crisis. 10 | 11 | ## Enforce regular PTO 12 | 13 | I’m fortunate enough to be in a company that has unlimited paid time off (PTO). Unfortunately, most people don’t utilize unlimited PTO, particularly in the United States. Now is a great time to enforce taking regular time off in order to prevent burnout! 14 | 15 | **I’ve started requiring everyone on my teams to take at least one day off every two weeks, myself and my product manager included. **We are currently on our fourth rotation of PTO and will continue to do this for the foreseeable future. We keep a shared schedule to make sure that there are enough people to maintain our services. 16 | 17 | ![Screenshot 2020-04-28 09 30 09](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/2171822/80538384-846cb480-895a-11ea-9583-17f65d55fd96.png) Team time off calendar 18 | 19 | People respond to trauma in different ways (more on that in a second) and some people use work as a coping mechanism. That’s ok! Just make sure to keep an eye on folks who do this and make sure they don’t negatively affect their teammates by working on their days off. **PTO means no company-related work. Period.** 20 | 21 | If you don’t work at a place with unlimited PTO, now is a great time to start advocating for flexible work schedules, such as the 4 day/10hr week. Your people are relying on you to advocate for them. Get creative! 22 | 23 | 24 | ## Regularly update roadmaps based on reduced capacity 25 | 26 | You cannot have regularly enforced PTO without adjusting your team’s roadmap, otherwise your team will burn out from trying to catch up on their work. I partner closely with my product manager to regularly update our product roadmaps and assure the team they’re not behind. **We estimate that right now our team is working at a maximum of 70-80% of their non-quarantine capacity due to stress from COVID-19.** This is subject to change based on a variety of factors such as changing shelter-in-place rules, health of loved ones, anyone going on extended leave, and how cooperative children are at any one given time. 27 | 28 | ![lower-expectations](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/2171822/80538439-9d756580-895a-11ea-9bc8-40043c39c3f4.gif) “You’re only unproductive by the standards of the world we lived in two months ago. And that world is gone now.” -Jenne Jaffe 29 | 30 | **Expect that human capacity is lower than usual and adjust roadmaps on a regular basis. **This also means the teams you depend on will have lower capacity and may further impact deadlines.** We have removed several projects we hoped to get to this quarter and regularly update our leadership team on any changes. You may want to break milestones down even further into smaller pieces of work to accommodate shorter attention spans. **Your team’s health and safety are more important than any new product feature.** There is always going to be work to be done. Don’t burn out your team to meet a deadline if the deadline can be moved. 31 | 32 | 33 | ## Be honest about financial repercussions 34 | 35 | Many people are understandably worried about their financial situation. **Be as honest and as transparent as you can about your company’s financials and priorities.** Be honest about what cost-cutting measures are presently being taken, how they were considered, and what to expect in the future. With a [record number of people filing for unemployment](https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/03/26/unemployment-claims-coronavirus-3-million/), it’s understandable to have anxiety around job security. 36 | 37 | Companies are slowing down on growth right now. If you are able to influence the conversation, be sure to emphasize a human-centric approach to this tough subject. Continue to pay contractors and vendors. Cut non-essential perks. Ask for a deferral on office rent. Do whatever possible to reduce costs before having to discuss layoffs. 38 | 39 | If you must do layoffs, do it with empathy. There are [horror stories](https://www.today.com/style/sephora-employees-blindsided-mass-layoffs-during-coronavirus-shutdown-t177487) of mass layoffs done without empathy. Remember, “people will forget what you said, but will always remember how you made them feel.” (Carl W. Buehner) 40 | 41 | ![cafeteria tray](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/2171822/80538502-b54ce980-895a-11ea-8f39-914c12329eca.gif) Don’t hit people with bad surprises 42 | 43 | 44 | ## Reduce unnecessary stressors 45 | 46 | There’s a lot of uncertainty and chaos in the world right now. **Reduce unnecessary stressors like reorgs or level changes to help make people’s work life as stable as possible so they can maintain some semblance of control over their daily lives.** Organization changes are stressful enough without a global pandemic! 47 | 48 | If you must implement a change, be as [clear and as transparent about the changes](https://twitter.com/USArmy/status/1241185656094801923) as early as possible. Discuss why it’s important to make these changes now, what you need from people, and have an airtight [communication plan](https://larahogan.me/blog/communicating-news-to-team/), including a clear place to direct follow up questions and easy to skim action items. 49 | 50 | ![stability](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/2171822/80538547-c990e680-895a-11ea-923b-0d30a0321a67.gif) 51 | 52 | ## Check in on parents and caretakers 53 | 54 | As a manager without children, I knew that parents were struggling, but I had no idea how bad it was.[ The parents are not alright.](https://gen.medium.com/parents-are-not-ok-66ab2a3e42d9) Many countries rely on school infrastructure to ensure that parents can work during the day. Without this support structure, parents are having to homeschool their children, entertain them, comfort them, attend meetings, get their work done, feed them, bathe them, deal with their meltdowns, try to explain why they can’t see their friends, and deal with guilt of not being the parent they want to be. And also be as productive as their childless colleagues. Saying it’s tough is an understatement. 55 | 56 | ![parenting](https://media.giphy.com/media/hSvan0ooZNv6NlXOqV/giphy.gif) I assume this is what all parents are going through 57 | 58 | I’ve started lurking in our company’s parents Slack channel, reading any resource I can, and being as flexible as possible for the parents on my team. We’ve recently started experimenting with a 4 day/10 hour work week as well as shifting time zones.** Ensuring that parents have a flexible schedule, access to family leave plans, and regular PTO is crucial to making sure that your people are cared for.** 59 | 60 | Our company has also done a stellar job of celebrating children joining meetings on zoom, providing education and entertainment resources for parents, allowing part time schedules if necessary, and reminding folks of paid family leave options. As a leader, proactively speaking about parental benefits can help lessen the amount of guilt and stress on caretakers who may need additional support working multiple shifts at home without a break. **Normalize speaking about families, childcare, and support systems in your regular team and company announcements, especially if you are a male leader.** 61 | 62 | 63 | ## Be on the lookout for trauma responses 64 | 65 | As someone with PTSD, I felt the effects of the pandemic early. For many folks, increased stress tends to cause PTSD symptoms to flare up. This can present itself in multiple ways ([source](https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/post-traumatic-stress-disorder/symptoms-causes/syc-20355967)): 66 | 67 | * Hopelessness about the future 68 | * Feeling detached from family and friends 69 | * Self-destructive behavior, such as drinking too much or driving too fast 70 | * Trouble concentrating or sleeping 71 | * Irritability, angry outbursts or aggressive behavior 72 | * Overwhelming guilt or shame 73 | 74 | ![seen-shit](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/2171822/80538700-05c44700-895b-11ea-8b0f-9d4f0e8ac96e.gif) This dog has seen some shit 75 | 76 | Different people exhibit symptoms of a trauma response in different ways. Some people have trouble concentrating. Some people concentrate too hard on the little things or throw themselves into being “productive”. Mental health is still stigmatized in many communities, so many folks may not even know if they can ask for help. Simply asking “do you need help?” may elicit a standard “I’m fine” response, especially for those who live in a [Guess culture](http://kwugirl.blogspot.com/2015/05/ask-vs-guess-culture-communications.html). 77 | 78 | I really love these [lightweight check in questions](https://larahogan.me/blog/3-steps-for-leaders-in-emergencies/) by Lara Hogan to see what people need in order to survive without making people feel like they need to explain why they feel a certain way. 79 | 80 | Some teams have started using Slack statuses to announce personal capacity at any one given day. I don’t personally prefer this method because if a person is in a toxic environment, it can feel unsafe to admit weakness. But, if you are in a high trust environment like a private team Slack channel, this can be helpful in setting expectations for capacity. 81 | 82 | ![Screenshot 2020-04-28 12 46 29](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/2171822/80538743-1674bd00-895b-11ea-9fc5-6b64d439ab8e.png) 83 | 84 | As a manager, it’s your responsibility to be on the lookout for these symptoms and recognize when they are becoming unhealthy. I have also seen people throw themselves into their work as a way to gain a sense of control over their lives. **In times of sustained stress, be sure to enforce regular PTO and professional mental health resources.** This is a marathon, not a sprint. 85 | 86 | It’s also important to remember that **managers are not professional mental health experts.** Encourage your team to regularly utilize professional mental health resources and make sure to model these behaviors yourself! 87 | 88 | For additional resources on how to structure 1:1s in times of crisis, I highly recommend checking out Lara Hogan’s post on[ managering in times of crisis](https://larahogan.me/blog/being-a-manager-in-terrible-times/). 89 | 90 | 91 | ## Check in on individuals impacted by racially-motivated hate 92 | 93 | There has been a[ rise in hate crimes](https://www.adl.org/blog/reports-of-anti-asian-assaults-harassment-and-hate-crimes-rise-as-coronavirus-spreads) against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) in the United States and abroad. There’s also a[ significantly higher impact of COVID-19 across communities of color and immigrants](https://www.npr.org/2020/04/12/832455226/what-coronavirus-exposes-about-americas-political-divide). Be sure to regularly check in on your teammates from these communities. **People may be dealing with the additional burden of worrying for the safety of their communities, the health of their family members, and existing as a person of color.** 94 | 95 | Be sure to speak up when you hear someone use racially-insensitive language to speak about COVID-19. Be cautious of the types of news sources that you share and encourage trusted, neutral sources. Read up on[ relevant hashtags](https://twitter.com/hashtag/BreathingWhileAsian?src=hashtag_click) about people’s experiences. Donate or volunteer if you are able to. Lastly, understand if your teammates don’t wish to discuss something. **It can be exhausting to explain complex feelings on race and often folks may want to focus on their work.** 96 | 97 | ![Jessica Huang thank you](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/2171822/80538770-24c2d900-895b-11ea-8086-6b8e5131aaee.gif) 98 | 99 | ## Take care of yourself 100 | 101 | Lastly, be sure to[ take care of yourself](https://superyesmore.com/productivity-in-terrible-times-709d4b3127d845e2d090bf94f0b93263). We managers love to say “put on your own oxygen mask first” but have you actually been doing it? Have you been going to therapy? Have you been taking time off with the rest of your team? Have you been enforcing work/life boundaries? Have you been clearly communicating how much work you can realistically take on? 102 | 103 | ![Homer bush](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/2171822/80538818-36a47c00-895b-11ea-8a8d-99b70c8cbd4e.gif) 104 | Yeah I didn’t think you were. Go schedule some time off! ಠ_ಠ 105 | 106 | **Managers are often the caretakers of the organization, so we take on a lot of the emotional labor from our teams and our higher ups.** Be sure to take care of yourself so that you can serve your team better. You can’t pour from your cup if it’s empty! 107 | 108 | 109 | ## Conclusion 110 | 111 | I hope that these practical tips of managing through COVID-19 are helpful. It’s an incredibly tough time right now, and nothing is normal. Be sure to check in on your folks, enforce regular PTO, adjust roadmaps, and remove as many stressors as possible, particularly for parents and people impacted by racially-motivated hate. 112 | 113 | Stay safe and go schedule some time off! 114 | 115 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /docs/about.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | # About me 2 | I guess this is why you're here? 3 | 4 | ## My philosophy 5 | 6 | I often ask people "What is your purpose in life?" I think it's a very telling question and I hope a thought-provoking one! For me, the answer has been pretty consistent for the past few years: **My purpose in life is to help people become the best they can be.** 7 | 8 | [Radical Candor](https://www.blinkist.com/en/books/radical-candor-en/) is perhaps the best resource to understand my approach to management and feedback. I believe in giving timely, honest feedback _because I care about you._ I don't believe in surprising people at review time with bad feedback. Your performance reviews should be underwhelming events because you should always know where you stand with me at all times. You can read more about my thoughts on feedback [here](https://medium.com/@tsunamino/setting-goals-with-your-engineers-that-dont-completely-suck-cb76b87e4275). 9 | 10 | ## My role 11 | 12 | I like to think of myself as a momma bear coaching a soccer team that my cubs are on. I will 100% eat any other bears that dares to hurt my team, but I also expect my cubsters to be on their best behavior and to be excellent team players. Everyone must shake hands (or paws, if you must) with the other team at the end of the game. No exceptions. 13 | 14 | ![obligatory bear gif](../bear.gif) 15 | 16 | In real people terms, it means I expect my reports to be collaborative team players and to be good sports if something does go wrong. There is no room for ego on my team. **There is no room for bullies on this team.** If someone is doing really well on the team, we should all celebrate that person's work! If you're doing really well, we will also celebrate you! If you need to constantly be in the limelight **at the expense of others**, then you may want to reconsider if this is the best fit for you. 17 | 18 | I also identify pretty strongly with Jessica from [Fresh Off the Boat](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fresh_Off_the_Boat) (in the first 4 seasons at least). I'll push you to do your absolute best, but it's only because I care about your future! 19 | 20 | My role as the EM on this team is to: 21 | 22 | - trust you to do your job 23 | - unblock you 24 | - provide you with a safe environment to grow into a well-rounded human 25 | - give you timely feedback, both good and constructive 26 | - get you the resources you need 27 | - challenge you in ways that will help you grow 28 | - champion your accomplishments to anyone who will listen (and even those who won't) 29 | 30 | My role is not to: 31 | 32 | - do your job for you 33 | - enable destructive behaviors 34 | 35 | You do have to meet me halfway. I will be your biggest cheerleader, but I can't be everywhere at once! Sometimes I'll ask you to write down what you're doing to help me out. Sometimes it's because I legit have too many things to focus on and I need an easy way to recall all the amazing things that you've done lately. Help me help you get more money! 36 | 37 | ## What do I value most? 38 | 39 | I value honesty over saving face. 40 | 41 | I value genuine efforts to improve over using the "correct" words all the time. 42 | 43 | I value the safety of the marginalized over the hurt feelings of the privileged. 44 | 45 | I value context and transparency. 46 | 47 | I value consent and boundaries. 48 | 49 | I value collaboration and clear communication over ego (including my own). 50 | 51 | I value sustainable work/life equilibrium. 52 | 53 | I value shipping iteratively and quickly. 54 | 55 | I value learning from mistakes over blaming others. 56 | 57 | I value emotional labor. 58 | 59 | I value getting things done. 60 | 61 | I value having fun! We do serious things, but we don't necessarily have to be serious all the time. 62 | 63 | I understand that it can be difficult to trust a new manager. You've probably been burned before! But hopefully laying out my values can help you understand where I'm coming from. I will always tell you as much information as I know and am able to tell you and work with you to understand the context behind decisions. I will always care about you as a person and your wellbeing. My values are the most important thing to me. 64 | 65 | ## Things I'm working on 66 | 67 | As much as I like to think I'm a robot who will live forever without feelings, I often fail pretty hard. Some known failure modes I have are: 68 | 69 | - overcommitting to events and burning out 70 | - getting overwhelmed at social events (I am an introvert after all) 71 | - forgetting to do self-care 72 | - not liking being told what to do (asking questions has a much better success rate) 73 | 74 | Ways I'm working on these: 75 | - regularly going to therapy 76 | - regularly going to the gym 77 | - actively working on [closing the stress cycle](https://www.amazon.com/Burnout-Secret-Unlocking-Stress-Cycle-ebook/dp/B07DT4GW16/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1567181581&sr=8-1) 78 | - [photography](https://instagram.com/danielleleongphoto) 79 | - limiting the number of extracurricular activities I do 80 | - regularly taking time off 81 | - limiting social media usage 82 | 83 | Ways you can help! 84 | - remind me to take breaks (I always appreciate this) 85 | - remind me to delegate 86 | - give me some space if it looks like it's That Kind of Day 87 | - snacks. Snacks are always appreciated (savory preferred). Or coffee/tea. 88 | - start with questions and context - I always value learning about your understanding of a situation so that we can be on the same page 89 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /docs/expectations.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | ## My Expectations 2 | 3 | **I expect you, dear reader, to give me your best effort each day.** I understand some days are just not working out. That's totes fine. I want to work with you to make sure that you have a reasonable workload with reasonable deadlines and you are taking care of yourself. If you aren't able to give it your all for whatever reason, let's talk about it sooner rather than later! 4 | 5 | **I expect you to show up on time and be present at meetings.** I hate useless meetings and promise to keep them to a minimum. There will always be an agenda. They'll probably always be remote meetings. There will be a facilitator and a notetaker. So put on some pj pants and hop on video and be fully present for the short time we have together. More thoughts on meetings [here](meetings.md) 6 | 7 | **I expect you to help out your fellow teammates if they need help.** We all have trouble here and there and no one likes to feel like a burden! If someone is asking for help then let's help teach one another the skills we need to solve the problem. 8 | 9 | **I expect you to be respectful of one another's lived experiences.** I hate to use a buzzword, but diversity & inclusion is super important to making good teams. That means sometimes misunderstandings happen! But I expect you to be respectful of someone's lived experiences. However, keep in mind that I value the safety of the marginalized over the hurt feelings of those with more privilege. Power dynamics in terms of race, gender and gender expression, sexual identity or expression, class, disability, religion, age, body size, etc will always be kept in mind. **Clarifying questions: good. Dismissing someone's lived experiences: bad.** 10 | 11 | ## Managers 12 | 13 | Managing managers is different from managing individual contributors. I expect my managers to create safe, productive environments for their teams. My general expectations are: 14 | 15 | - I believe in a balance of autonomy and consistency. I will do my best to communicate my desired outcome and context for why it's important and allow managers to find out what works best for them and their teams. 16 | 17 | - I will do my best to continue to work on your career. Managers don't often get enough feedback on their own careers and it can feel isolating. I will work with you in our 1:1s to further your career, not just have a status update on how your teams are doing. 18 | 19 | - I expect managers to have a clear understanding of the progress of their teams' current projects. You should be able to clearly communicate how projects are going, what needs to be done, and any roadblocks that are happening. 20 | 21 | - I prefer managers to bring up issues when they are small before they become big issues. I like to collaborate together on solutions or provide opportunities for growth. If something catches us by surprise, this is a blameless culture. Let's work the problem first, provide constructive feedback with an eye to fixing systems after. 22 | 23 | - I like to have regular skip level 1:1s with your teams to gather themes and feedback from the organization. This isn't to undermine anything you've done, but to make sure that the overall health of the organization is going well. 24 | 25 | - I expect managers to work with one another to provide cross-pollination opportunities for their engineers. Teams may be too small to provide the right opportunties for everyone, so I expect managers to work together to share best practices as well as opportunities for their people in other parts of the org. We are all part of the same organization working towards the same goal. It doesn't do anybody any good to hoard knowledge or people when it makes the entire org suffer. 26 | 27 | 28 | ## High performers 29 | 30 | While most of the people on my teams end up being high performers, I think it's valuable to document what I've found useful. 31 | 32 | As a high performer myself, I find that the best way to stifle someone's passion and creativity is to force them do things without a valid reason, not believe them when they raise a concern, and not pay attention to burnout levels. My general guidelines are: 33 | 34 | - I expect high performers to motivate themselves! If you aren't motivated, then something's wrong and let's work on it together. Sometimes it's a structural problem, sometimes it's a personal problem. Whatever it is, let's talk it through and work on a solution together. 35 | 36 | - I will do my best to guide you to new challenges. Sometimes that involves challenging you to improve your interpersonal skills with other people! These are just as valuable as technical skills. Depending on your level, it may be necessary to focus on interpersonal and leadership skills over technical, which can be uncomfortable. 37 | 38 | - I will try very hard not to spring any last minute or unreasonable requests on you. It's pretty rude to constantly have to fight fires and it's bad for people's mental health to do so. If this does happen, I will do my best to discuss the context behind the request with you. 39 | 40 | - I'll try to request things rather than tell you to do them. On the rare occasion I _require_ you to do something, I'll do my best to explain why it's important, the timeline it's needed, and who the request is coming from. 41 | 42 | - I try acknowledge the good as well as the Needs Improvement(tm)! Sometimes as a high performer, you don't realize just how great you're doing because it's easy to move on to the next thing that needs fixing. I'll be sure to point out when you're also kicking ass. 43 | 44 | - I'll probably keep a close eye on your PTO. As a high performer myself, I'm often working on a million things at once until all of a sudden I'm too exhausted to do anything. I'll likely keep a reoccurring task on our 1:1 agendas to check in on the last time you took some time off. 45 | 46 | ## How I will provide feedback to you 47 | 48 | I believe feedback should be given swiftly, clearly, and kindly. If I'm walking around with spinach in my teeth, I would be really upset if my friends didn't tell me about it! The same thing with feedback: I believe you should always tell someone if they they're doing well or there's room for improvement. 49 | 50 | I like to give feedback on a regular basis. I will use our [1:1s](meetings.md#11s) mainly for this to cover: 51 | 52 | - Any specific examples I see of behavior I'd like to see **more** of 53 | - Any specific examples I see of behavior I'd like to see **less** of 54 | 55 | Feedback will be on both technical and interpersonal parts of the job! 56 | 57 | ### Positive feedback can be conveyed in the following ways: 58 | - Public sparkles in Slack 59 | - Slack DM 60 | - Written down in our 1:1 records and added to performance reviews 61 | - Gift card OR donation to your favorite charity OR physical gift, whichever you prefer 62 | 63 | ### Constructive feedback can be conveyed in the following ways: 64 | - Slack DM OR video call OR in person 65 | - Written down in our 1:1 records and added to performance reviews 66 | 67 | I try to be very consistent in my constructive feedback. Key phrases of constructive feedback from me by severity include: 68 | - "Minor feedback:" ... (i.e. truly minor nitpick thing I noticed) 69 | - “I need you to…by...” (i.e. this wasn't great, please don't do it again) 70 | - “You must do…by…” (i.e. you will likely be written up if you do this again) 71 | 72 | We will always talk through any feedback and if you have additional context to add, then please feel free to do so. I believe performance reviews should never be a surprise. You and I should be having very regular conversations about things! If we are not, then that is indicative of larger problems and you should probably [provide feedback about me to my manager](housekeeping.md#feedback-for-me). 73 | 74 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /docs/housekeeping.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | # Housekeeping 2 | Miscellanious but important info 3 | 4 | ## Feedback for me 5 | 6 | I realize that as a manager there is a power imbalance between us. I do my best to [create a healthy environment for two way feedback](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bDV_Ciffn0) and I hope that you will feel comfortable speaking to me about feedback in our daily stand ups, async/sync retrospectives, 1:1s, anonymous Q&A forms, and performance reviews. However, I recognize that it's not easy to do so! **Please feel free to speak to my manager if you have any feedback about my performance that you don't feel comfortable telling me.** You can also tell your teammates if you feel comfortable doing so, and hopefully they will pass it along to me. 7 | 8 | 9 | ## Availability 10 | 11 | I am a strong believer in work/life equlibrium. Sometimes we need to sprint, but rest should always be worked into the schedule afterwards. **I do not expect you to respond to pings (with the exception of oncall rotation) unless it is normal business hours in your time zone.** I highly discourage working on the weekend! (side projects are ok) I will not respond to pings on the weekend or during the evenings unless it's urgent. I encourage everyone to take liberal use of the Do Not Disturb feature. Remember: newer teammates may feel they need to work on weekends if they see you doing it! 12 | 13 | ## Expenses and Requests 14 | 15 | I prefer to be asked about days off. And please ask about expenses that seem out of the ordinary (ie- expensive or not easily/recognizably related to work). (shamelessly lifted from @asheren's README) 16 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /docs/meetings.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | # Meetings 2 | 3 | I'm a strong believer in having [useful, short, productive meetings](https://www.fearlessculture.design/blog-posts/the-ultimate-guide-to-successful-meetings), in-person/video meetings for clarity and emotional connection, and making sure everything is well-documented. I value your time as well as my own, so **each meeting starts and ends on time**, and will be facilitated and have notes at the end. I also welcome longer one-off meetings! If there's something you need help with right now, please don't hesitate to throw something on my calendar. 4 | 5 | I go more into this topic in-depth in [this article](https://leaddev.com/culture-engagement-motivation/how-have-meetings-dont-suck-much) 6 | 7 | | Meeting | Length | Purpose | 8 | |------------------------------|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 9 | | Stand up | 10 min, 3x week in person and/or Geekbot | Led by a rotating leader, status updates, bring up blockers, human connection | 10 | | Weekly team sync | 30 min every week | Sprint planning, task planning, bring up blockers | 11 | | Retrospective | 1 hour/month + async issue | Pulse on how we're doing and chance to improve iteratively. Can also be used for mid and end projects | 12 | | Office hours | 30 min, 2x a month | Talk with external teams, open forum to answer questions about team's area of responsibility | 13 | | Coffee talk | 30 min, 2x a month | Social time (optional) | 14 | | Project kickoff | 1 hour, as needed | Project alignment across stakeholders and engineers, define roles, schedule, and next steps | 15 | | Strategy or working sessions | 1 hour-3 hours, as needed | Workshopping ideas with room to explore and collaborate on ideas. Break sessions into 1 hour chunks with breaks | 16 | | 1:1s | 30 min every week to 1 hour every week. Season to taste based on individual needs | Work on goals, human connection, provide feedback | 17 | | Executive briefings | Variable | Bring executives up to speed on a project, be informed on company direction, bring up blockers | 18 | 19 | ## 1:1s 20 | 21 | 1:1s are our time to **work together** on _your career_. They will always have agendas, have a space to add any additional emotional labor you're doing, and be a space for us to work on the next portion of your career. They are typically 30 min every week. 22 | 23 | You can read more about my feelings on goals and 1:1s [here](https://medium.com/@tsunamino/setting-goals-with-your-engineers-that-dont-completely-suck-cb76b87e4275) and [here](https://fellow.app/blog/2020/tips-for-effective-and-meaningful-one-on-one-meetings/) 24 | 25 | I will use these 1:1s to give you feedback, unblock you, work on your goals, and help you with anything that you need help with. I will take notes during these meetings so we remember what we worked on, but I encourage you to take your own notes as well! 26 | 27 | We can work together to set a meeting cadence that works for us. Both of us have the ability to reschedule our 1:1 if the time doesn't work out. 28 | 29 | ## Daily Stand Up 30 | 31 | Our daily standup is every day for ten minutes. It's led by that week's first responder (randomly assigned via PagerDuty), and we each go over: 32 | 33 | - Any blockers 34 | - What we worked on since the last standup 35 | - What we're currently working on 36 | 37 | We currently use Geekbot to facilitate our async stand ups, as many people have indicated that it's useful for them to list things down. I keep an eye on these async standups to: 38 | 39 | - Check if anyone is blocked for an unreasonable amount of time 40 | - Keep a general temperature check on things if people are stressed 41 | - Stay informed if someone is in a different time zone 42 | 43 | Geekbot should not be: 44 | 45 | - A place to compare your status with other team member statuses! Different people have different projects with different scope - keep focused on your definition of "productive" 46 | 47 | All members of the team are expected to attend/participate. 48 | 49 | ## Bi-Weekly Iterations 50 | 51 | Our bi-weekly iterations are planning and sync meetings with the team and representatives from other teams we work with. 52 | 53 | Every two weeks, we will meet to discuss: 54 | - Work we are planning on doing 55 | - Unusual metrics we've seen 56 | - Statuses from the teams we work with 57 | - Agenda items 58 | - Deep dive presentations on topics of interest for the group 59 | 60 | At the beginning every iteration, engineers should pick the work that they anticipate working on in the next two weeks from the On Deck column and assign themselves a project. **It is not a requirement to finish the entire project**, but it will help the team and external dependencies understand what to expect in the coming weeks. 61 | 62 | All members of the team are expected to attend. 63 | 64 | ## Retrospectives 65 | 66 | At the beginning of every month, an async retrospective issue will be opened in our repo. All members of the team (and guests!) are welcome to leave comments on the issue. On the last day of the month we have a 1 hour retrospective where we go over: 67 | 68 | - What worked 69 | - What could have been improved 70 | - Action items for next time 71 | 72 | A moderator sets up a board on [FunRetro](https://funretro.io/) with the above categories. Teammates are allowed to vote on anything that resonates with them. Typically there are 3 minutes set aside for each category and about 10 minutes for discussion. The moderator takes notes in an issue in this repo, categorizes them, and adds the retrospective label. 73 | 74 | All members of the team are expected to attend the synchronous retrospective. 75 | 76 | ## Office Hours 77 | 78 | Twice a month, we have open office hours for half an hour to an hour. Anyone and everyone is welcome to join us and ask questions regarding abuse vectors, product features, or just to hang out. We often invite guests from other companies to join us so we can learn from their processes. 79 | 80 | All members of the team are encouraged to attend. 81 | 82 | ## Coffee Talk 83 | 84 | Twice a month (alternating with office hours) we have informal coffee talk for half an hour. It's completely optional for team members to attend, but highly encouraged so we can relax and get to know one another! 85 | 86 | ## Slack 87 | 88 | Slack should be used to coordinate development efforts. It is also a place to provide a bit of a virtual water cooler and connect more with each other. Also emoji. :palm_tree: :sparkling_heart: :rocket: 89 | 90 | We have a public channel for work talk and a private channel for more sensitive topics. 91 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /growing-emotionally-intelligent-engineering-teams.pdf: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/dmleong/manager-resources/48a6d0a0081ae27b557cf3f936517dd671cd128c/growing-emotionally-intelligent-engineering-teams.pdf -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /recommended-readings.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | # Recommended readings 2 | 3 | Here's a list of resources I have personally found helpful. I include the Blinkist link if I can (Cliffnotes for management books) because books are long and who has time? 4 | 5 | ### Burnout 6 | - [Burnout: the secret to unlocking the stress cycle](https://www.amazon.com/dp/1984818325/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_DqVkEbEKKD7WY) (book) 7 | - Excellent book for women/femmes who are exhausted by the demands of work, home, and society. Discusses tools to close the stress cycle and how the game is rigged 8 | - [It doesn't have to be crazy at work](https://blinki.st/0e6f8273219e) (book) 9 | - Being "busy" is not usually a good thing these days 10 | - [Panda Planner](http://pandaplanner.com) (tool) 11 | - Physical day planner that helps balance priorities with mental health 12 | 13 | ## Business 14 | - [Finance for Designers](https://ellenchisa.substack.com/p/finance-for-designers?s=r) (article) 15 | - Business 101 for designers and engineers to help understand why revenue/sales folks may make the requests they do and how to work with your revenue partners instead of against them 16 | 17 | ### Inclusivity (more found on [my website](https://danielleleong.com/recommended-readings/)) 18 | - [How to grow emotionally intelligent engineering teams](https://pbell.wistia.com/medias/k8htv3947p) (talk) 19 | - [The Psychological Toll of Being the Only Woman of Color at Work](https://hbr.org/2022/09/the-psychological-toll-of-being-the-only-woman-of-color-at-work) (article) 20 | - Self-explanatory description of what it's like to be the only woman of color at work and resources for help 21 | - [When Black Women Go From Office Pet to Office Threat](https://zora.medium.com/when-black-women-go-from-office-pet-to-office-threat-83bde710332e) (article) 22 | - First your boss loves you, then they dislike you. Here’s how Black women can manage the icy transition. 23 | - [Why women and people of color fall off the glass cliff](https://www.youtube.com/embed/5nMbKkgqork) (video) 24 | - 10 min video on why women and racially marginalized people in senior leadership are often set up to fail and the snowball effect it has on the business 25 | 26 | ## Decision making 27 | - [Make Better Decisions by Challenging Your Expectations](https://hbr.org/2022/04/make-better-decisions-by-challenging-your-expectations?utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter_daily&utm_campaign=dailyalert_actsubs&utm_content=signinnudge&deliveryName=DM189727) (article) 28 | - Using the BIAS framework (behavior, information, analysis, structure) to analyze your biases and make a good decision 29 | - [The Big Idea: Before You Make That Big Decision...](https://hbr.org/2011/06/the-big-idea-before-you-make-that-big-decision) (article) 30 | - One of the Harvard Business Review's top articles, a checklist of 12 questions that any leader should ask before making a big decision 31 | 32 | 33 | ### Product Management 34 | - [Inspired](https://blinki.st/0e6f8273219e) (book) 35 | - How to be a great product manager 36 | - [Good Product Manager, Bad Product Manager](https://a16z.com/2012/06/15/good-product-managerbad-product-manager/) (article) 37 | - Defines a good product manager as a CEO of their product area and defines a bad one 38 | 39 | ### Management 40 | - [10 Expert Tips for Effective and Meaningful One-on-One Meetings](https://fellow.app/blog/2020/tips-for-effective-and-meaningful-one-on-one-meetings/) (article) 41 | - An article summery of a Twitter chat I participated in to discuss how to have effective 1:1 meetings 42 | - [1:1 GitHub Actions](https://github.com/sophshep/one-on-one) (tools) 43 | - @sophshep's 1:1 repos and automation tools via Actions 44 | - [The Culture Code](https://blinki.st/0e6f8273219e) (book) 45 | - How to build a team that works together 46 | - [Difficult Conversations](https://blinki.st/0e6f8273219e) (book) 47 | - Giving tough feedback and having hard conversations is part of the job. Here's how to do it well 48 | - [Dream Teams](https://blinki.st/0e6f8273219e) (book) 49 | - How to build teams that actually work together 50 | - [Emotional Agility](https://hbr.org/2013/11/emotional-agility) (article) 51 | - Article on how leaders can embrace emotions and recognize that emotions and reactions shouldn't be the same. Especially important for those high-tension conversations! TED talk link is [here](https://www.ted.com/talks/susan_david_the_gift_and_power_of_emotional_courage). 52 | - [Goal setting for managers](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=np1rZvM9GD4&t=66s) (lightning talk) 53 | - Quick lightning talk on how to structure goals for someone who doesn't quite know what they want to do yet 54 | - [Hofstede's Cultural Dimensions](https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newLDR_66.htm) (article) 55 | - Index on 6 different areas that can help you prevent making a cultural faux pas. Areas include: Power Distance Index (high versus low), Individualism Versus Collectivism, Masculinity Versus Femininity, Uncertainty Avoidance Index (high versus low), Long- Versus Short-Term Orientation, Indulgence Versus Restraint 56 | - [How to avoid the growing pains of communicating at scale](https://leaddev.com/communication-relationships/how-avoid-growing-pains-communicating-scale) (article) 57 | - Great actionable advice on pitfalls to avoid when growing and trying to communicate change 58 | - [How to have meetings that don't suck (as much)](https://leaddev.com/culture-engagement-motivation/how-have-meetings-dont-suck-much) (article by me) 59 | - Tips and tricks on how to run more effective meetings 60 | - [How to set goals with your engineers that don't totally suck](https://link.medium.com/2spD8XpLv3) (article) 61 | - My thoughts and structure on how to have effective goals and useful 1:1s 62 | - [How to (slowly) build trust with your staff engineers](https://leaddev.com/culture-engagement-motivation/how-slowly-build-trust-your-staff-engineers) (article) 63 | - Great list of questions to add to your 1:1s with your staff engineers 64 | - [Interview with Danielle Leong: Ask vs Guess culture](https://fellow.app/supermanagers/danielle-leong-github-ask-versus-guess-culture/) (podcast) 65 | - Podcast that I'm on discussing how to improve psychological safety and emotional intelligence on your teams 66 | - [It's Time to Fine-Tune Performance Management](https://hbr.org/podcast/2022/09/its-time-to-fine-tune-performance-management) (podcast with transcript) 67 | - You can always tell when a company implements a bonus structure because their products no longer make sense. Great podcast (with transcript!) on fine tuning performance reviews to incentivize collaboration and actually doing what's right for the customer 68 | - [Kübler-Ross Challenge Curve](https://www.ekrfoundation.org/5-stages-of-grief/change-curve/) (diagram) 69 | - Creators of the 5 stages of grief, this outlines the 7 stages of dealing with organizational change 70 | - [Leading with Heart](https://leadingwithheartbook.com/) (book) 71 | - ⭐ One of my favorite leadership books, this book discusses how to set a good example by leading with empathy and making sure you aren't causing your own organizational problems by taking care of your base needs first 72 | - [Manager's Path](https://www.amazon.com/Managers-Path-Leaders-Navigating-Growth/dp/1491973897) (book) 73 | - Excellent book on the various different levels of management. Something I come back to at each level of my career 74 | - [Model, Document, Share](https://lethain.com/model-document-share/) (article) 75 | - How to lead without explicit power through modeling behavior you want to see, documenting best practices, and sharing 76 | - [Multipliers](https://blinki.st/0e6f8273219e) (book) 77 | - Amplify your impact by making other people better so you can do other things 78 | - [Netflix's Pivot to Growing Teams Internally](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FzYStDy1RjE&t=28s) (podcast) 79 | - Great podcast on how to grow talent internally because hiring "the best" can only take you so far. You need to also be able to grow the best internally 80 | - [Radical Candor](https://blinki.st/0e6f8273219e) (book) 81 | - Giving people feedback is a kindness! Make sure you do it regularly and honestly 82 | - [Remote manager toolkit](https://github.com/alexwitherspoon/Remote-Manager-Toolkit) (tool) 83 | - @alexwitherspoon's fantastic resource on remote manager tools 84 | - [Resilient Management](https://abookapart.com/products/resilient-management) (book) 85 | - Excellent book for managers looking to improve their team processes, how to handle tough conversations, and 1:1s. Has actionable templates and is a reasonable length! 86 | - [The invisible song of engineering leadership](https://leaddev.com/leadership-skills/invisible-song-engineering-leadership) (article) 87 | - When technicality isn't enough to quantify what makes a good leader 88 | - [The Ultimate Guide to Successful Meetings](https://www.fearlessculture.design/blog-posts/the-ultimate-guide-to-successful-meetings) (aricle) 89 | - How to have successful meetings 90 | - [Three crucial skills that leaders must develop to become executives](https://theskip.substack.com/p/three-crucial-skills-that-leaders) (article) 91 | - How soft skills become crucial at the higher levels of leadership 92 | - [Toto Wolff and the Mercedes Formula One Team](https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=61978) (case study) 93 | - Harvard Business School case study on the leadership skills of Toto Wolff and the Mercedes F1 team. High emphasis on people management and maintaining excellence. Definitely recommend checking out the team values and ethos in the exhibits at the end 94 | - [Transitioning to Meta-Management](https://larahogan.me/blog/transition-meta-management/) (article) 95 | - Article describing the changes going from line management to managing managers 96 | - [Tribal Leadership](https://www.blinkist.com/en/nc/reader/tribal-leadership-en) (book) 97 | - Describing the 5 stages of a company's culture from toxic ("my life sucks and I can't do anything about it") to efficient and aspirational ("we are great and we are working towards a noble goal") 98 | - [‘Ugh fields’, or why you can’t even bear to think about that task](https://medium.com/@robertwiblin/ugh-fields-or-why-you-can-t-even-bear-to-think-about-that-task-5941837dac62) (article) 99 | - Check in on your reports on what they're avoiding as well as what they're doing 100 | - [What We Say Matters](https://blinki.st/0e6f8273219e) (book) 101 | - We are still doing phrasing and it's important. Communication is so important as a manager 102 | - [You're not just a manager, you're also a boss](https://leaddev.com/professional-development/youre-not-just-manager-youre-also-boss) (article) 103 | - Article on keeping power dynamics at the front of your mind as your power and influence grows. (CW: discusses insurrection attempt at the US Capital on Jan 6, 2021) 104 | 105 | ### Startups 106 | - [Joining a Startup for the First Time? 30 Actionable Tips From Folks Who've Been There](https://review.firstround.com/30-tips-for-new-startup-employees) (article) 107 | - Great tips on what to do in your first startup 108 | 109 | ### Technical leadership outside of management 110 | - [An incomplete list of skills senior engineers need beyond coding](https://skamille.medium.com/an-incomplete-list-of-skills-senior-engineers-need-beyond-coding-8ed4a521b29f) (article) 111 | - A listicle of great leadership and communication skills needed beyond coding 112 | - [Are You Sabotaging Your Career By Being Perceived as a Doer and Not a Leader?](https://medium.com/swlh/are-you-sabotaging-your-career-by-being-perceived-as-a-doer-and-not-a-leader-d7a5693d0e68) (article) 113 | - Article helpful particularly for staff engineers or staff hopefuls who are struggling to move from doing the work to unblocking people and becoming a leader 114 | - [Becoming a Better Writer in Tech](https://blog.pragmaticengineer.com/becoming-a-better-writer-in-tech/) (article) 115 | - Writing is a crucial part of growing your career. Being a clear and crisp communicator helps in all aspects of you job. Great article with tools and tips on how to become a better writer 116 | - [High Bit-rate People](https://calv.info/bitrate) (article) 117 | - How to be more concise with communication and transfer more information in fewer words 118 | - [Manager's Path](https://www.amazon.com/Managers-Path-Leaders-Navigating-Growth/dp/1491973897) (book) 119 | - Highly recommend the section on how to be a tech lead 120 | - [Not all engineering leaders are managers](https://leaddev.com/not-all-engineering-leaders-are-engineering-managers) (article) 121 | - Stop pushing leaders into management if it doesn't suit them. This article discusses how to encourage ICs into a parallel technical track and measuring strategy, execution, and influence. 122 | - [Presenting to executives](https://player.vimeo.com/video/501142624?feature=oembed&enablejsapi=1) (video) 123 | - This talk presents some concrete strategies for planning your presentation, preparing the attendees, handling unexpected questions, going down rabbit holes, driving the attendees to a decision (if that is your goal), and following up afterward. 124 | - [Reasons to step into a leadership role (or not)](https://leaddev.com/reasons-step-leadership-role-and-reasons-not) (article) 125 | - Are you interested in becoming a manager or stepping into a leadership role? What's driving you? Check out this great resource and make sure you're doing it for the right reasons 126 | - [The Software Engineer Spectrum: Speed vs. Accuracy](https://benhowdle.im/software-engineer-spectrum.html) (article) 127 | - How to balance hiring for startups, growth, and enterprise by determining how comfortable someone is on the spectrum of speed vs accuracy 128 | - [The reality of being a principal engineer](https://leaddev.com/career-paths-progression-promotion/reality-being-principal-engineer) (article) 129 | - What's it really like to be a principal engineer? Discussing the influence needed to maintain a principal engineer position, rather than focusing on the code 130 | - [Staff archetypes](https://staffeng.com/guides/staff-archetypes) (article) 131 | - Outlining the different types of staff engineers 132 | 133 | ### Tools 134 | - [Linear Method for building software](https://linear.app/method/introduction) (process) 135 | - Concise way of organizing work, being flexible, and focusing on alignment 136 | - [Plucky 1:1 cards](https://shop.beplucky.com/products/the-plucky-1-1-starter-pack) (tool) 137 | - Deck of cards with questions to ask in 1:1s to inspire deeper conversation around individuals, teams, and organizations 138 | - [Reader Mode](https://readermode.io/) (chrome extension) 139 | - Chrome extension to help make raeding longform articles easier. Includes dark mode, dyslexia fonts, and a focus ruler 140 | - [Remote manager toolkit](https://github.com/alexwitherspoon/Remote-Manager-Toolkit) (tool) 141 | - @alexwitherspoon's templates, examples, and things that could be downloaded, cloned, forked and used to manage remote teams with elements of real-time and asynchronous approaches and the Git change control system. 142 | 143 | ### Work 144 | - [Farsighted](https://blinki.st/0e6f8273219e) (book) 145 | - How to make better decisions 146 | - [No Hard Feelings](https://blinki.st/0e6f8273219e) (book) 147 | - Feelings are hard but they are a normal part of life. Time to stop fighting it. 148 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /templates/annual-goals.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | ## Annual goals - _YEAR_ 2 | 3 | - Current role and level: 4 | - Desired career track: _technical IC, management, other role at GitHub, etc._ 5 | 6 | Goals should be an evolving conversation between an IC and their manager. They should be S.M.A.R.T. - Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound and be based off the person’s engineering level. 7 | 8 | ### Levels assessment 9 | 10 | With your manager, take a look at the Engineering levels and expectations for your current level, assess where you are, and identify some tangible areas of improvement. 11 | 12 | | Component | Expectations | 13 | |-----------------------------------|--------------------------------------------------------------| 14 | | Communication | _exceeds expectations, meets expectations, or does not meet_ | 15 | | Interaction & Relationships | _exceeds expectations, meets expectations, or does not meet_ | 16 | | Knowledge & Practices | _exceeds expectations, meets expectations, or does not meet_ | 17 | | Leadership | _exceeds expectations, meets expectations, or does not meet_ | 18 | | Operational Excellence | _exceeds expectations, meets expectations, or does not meet_ | 19 | | Problem Solving & Decision Making | _exceeds expectations, meets expectations, or does not meet_ | 20 | | Scope of Position | _exceeds expectations, meets expectations, or does not meet_ | 21 | 22 | 23 | ### Set long term goals 24 | 25 | Work together with your manager to come up with some S.M.A.R.T. goals. Be sure to include both technical areas of improvement as well as interpersonal. A well-rounded engineer is able code as well as work well on a team! 26 | 27 | **S – Specific –** The more specific you can be with writing down your objective, the easier it will be to clearly see what it is you need to accomplish. Often, answering the five “W” questions—Who, What, Where, Why, and Which—can help you achieve greater specificity. 28 | 29 | **M – Measurable –** Can your goal be measured? How will you know when you’ve achieved your goal? 30 | 31 | **A – Attainable –** Another way of putting this is “realistic.” Is it possible to achieve the goal you’ve set for yourself? 32 | 33 | **R – Relevant –** For businesses, a relevant goal means that it has the potential to impact your business objectives, vision, or values. 34 | 35 | **T – Time-bound –** Give your goal a deadline. 36 | 37 | To write these SMART goals, try to do the following: 38 | 39 | - **Component**: (Technical/Interpersonal) 40 | - Skill and description with time frame 41 | 42 | Example: 43 | 44 | - **Operational Excellence**: (Technical) 45 | - Get better at code review by participating or pairing with others in code review at least once a week 46 | - **Communication**: (Interpersonal) 47 | - Improve communication with team members by participating in more team conversations, technical or interpersonal, to improve team cohesion. Speak up in regularly recurring team meetings ~once a week or participate in Slack conversations in public team channel ~3x a week 48 | 49 | 50 | ### Quarterly action plan 51 | 52 | Add specific actions you will take to support your goals each quarter. These can be filled out at the beginning of each quarter. 53 | 54 | #### Q1 55 | 56 | Copy to [monthly goals document](monthly-goals.md) 57 | 58 | - **Component**: (Technical/Interpersonal) 59 | - Skill and description with time frame 60 | 61 | 62 | #### Q2 63 | 64 | Copy to [monthly goals document](monthly-goals.md) 65 | 66 | - **Component**: (Technical/Interpersonal) 67 | - Skill and description with time frame 68 | 69 | 70 | #### Q3 71 | 72 | Copy to [monthly goals document](monthly-goals.md) 73 | 74 | - **Component**: (Technical/Interpersonal) 75 | - Skill and description with time frame 76 | 77 | #### Q4 78 | 79 | Copy to [monthly goals document](monthly-goals.md) 80 | 81 | - **Component**: (Technical/Interpersonal) 82 | - Skill and description with time frame 83 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /templates/artifacts.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | # Artifacts 2 | 3 | The purpose of an artifact doc is to be a shared document with a manager and direct report that is regularly updated throughout the week. Using the goals that were agreed upon in the beginning of the quarter, there should be ~3 sections that the report should be working on in a given time space. 4 | 5 | The great thing about artifact docs are they provide a visible reminder of successes throughout the quarter for individuals, can quickly showcase what goal needs more work or needs refinement, and is a great shortcut for review season that combats recency bias :) 6 | 7 | ## Goal 8 | This should be an objective goal that you want to work on this quarter. Ideally it should relate to the engineering level that you're at or want to reach towards. Examples can be: 9 | 10 | - Participate more in technical decisions 11 | - Demonstrate autonomy in decision making for small to medium sized tasks 12 | - Improve collaboration with teammates or outside teams 13 | - Demonstrate leadership and communication skills across teams 14 | 15 | Under each goal should be a running list of examples (preferably linked to the original source) in chronological order. Subsequent quarters can be added above the past quarter to provide a running list of accomplishments that can easily be used during bi-annual review time. 16 | 17 | ## Template 18 | 19 | ### FiscalYear, Quarter Goals 20 | 21 | #### Objective goal 1 22 | - Example 1 23 | - Example 2 24 | - Example 3 25 | 26 | #### Objective goal 2 27 | - Example 4 28 | - Example 5 29 | - Example 6 30 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /templates/first-1-on-1-ics.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | # 1:1 Agenda 2 | 3 | * Where are you presently at in your career? 4 | * What movitates you? 5 | * What do you want to work on more? 6 | * What is your working style? How much information do you need in order to make a decision? How many projects do you like to balance at once? 7 | * What causes you stress? 8 | * What do you like from your manager? 9 | * What do you not like from your manager? 10 | * How do you like to receive praise? 11 | 12 | ### Links 13 | - [Manager README](https://github.com/dmleong/manager-resources ) 14 | - [How I will provide feedback to you](https://github.com/dmleong/manager-resources/blob/master/docs/expectations.md#how-i-will-provide-feedback-to-you) 15 | 16 | ### Action items 17 | - [ ] Action items 18 | 19 | # 1:1 Agenda 20 | * [Create next weeks meeting agenda](https://github.com/REPO/REPORT_LOGIN/issues/new?template=one-on-one-agenda.md&title=1:1%20Agenda,%20MM/DD/YYYY&labels=Agendas) (Right Click + Open in New Window) 21 | * [Zoom for 1:1](https://github.zoom.us/j/ZOOM_ID) 22 | * [Previous Agendas](https://github.com/REPO/REPORT_LOGIN/issues?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=is%3Aissue%201%3A1%20Agenda) 23 | 24 | /cc @REPORT_LOGIN @MANAGER 25 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /templates/first-1-on-1-managers.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | # 1:1 Agenda 2 | 3 | ### What is the team working on right now? 4 | - Notes 5 | 6 | ### Talk to me about your team: what are people's strengths and weaknesses? Who is doing well and who needs more coaching? 7 | - Notes 8 | 9 | ### What keeps you up at night? 10 | - Notes 11 | 12 | ### Where do you see the team in 3 years? 13 | - Notes 14 | 15 | ### What is your working style? How much information do you need in order to make a decision? How many projects do you like to balance at once? 16 | - Notes 17 | 18 | ### What causes you stress? 19 | - Notes 20 | 21 | ### What do you like from your manager? 22 | - Notes 23 | 24 | ### What do you not like from your manager? 25 | - Notes 26 | 27 | ### How do you like to receive praise? 28 | - Notes 29 | 30 | ### Where are you presently at in your career? 31 | - Notes 32 | 33 | ### What do you want to work on more? 34 | - Notes 35 | 36 | ### Links 37 | - [Manager README](https://github.com/dmleong/manager-resources ) 38 | - [How I will provide feedback to you](https://github.com/dmleong/manager-resources/blob/master/docs/expectations.md#how-i-will-provide-feedback-to-you) 39 | 40 | ### Action items 41 | - [ ] Action items 42 | 43 | # 1:1 Agenda 44 | * [Create next weeks meeting agenda](https://github.com/REPO/REPORT_LOGIN/issues/new?template=one-on-one-agenda.md&title=1:1%20Agenda,%20MM/DD/YYYY&labels=Agendas) (Right Click + Open in New Window) 45 | * [Zoom for 1:1](https://github.zoom.us/j/ZOOM_ID) 46 | * [Previous Agendas](https://github.com/REPO/REPORT_LOGIN/issues?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=is%3Aissue%201%3A1%20Agenda) 47 | 48 | /cc @REPORT_LOGIN @MANAGER 49 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /templates/monthly-goals.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | ## Monthly Goals 2 | 3 | [Personal goals for 2018](annual-goals.md) 4 | 5 | ### Monthly growth planning check-in 6 | 7 | This month I worked on: 8 | 9 | 10 | - **Component**: (Technical/Interpersonal) 11 | - Skill and description with time frame 12 | 13 | Example: 14 | 15 | - **Operational Excellence**: (Technical) 16 | - Get better at code review by participating or pairing with others in code review at least once a week 17 | - **Communication**: (Interpersonal) 18 | - Improve communication with team members by participating in more team conversations, technical or interpersonal, to improve team cohesion. Speak up in regularly recurring team meetings ~once a week or participate in Slack conversations in public team channel ~3x a week 19 | 20 | 21 | _Please be sure to note any additional emotional labor that has happened throughout the month. Those count towards your Interpersonal goals!_ 22 | 23 | ### Assessment 24 | 25 | _Based on your monthly goals above, you are currently at:_ **[exceeds expectations, meets expectations, or does not meets]** 26 | 27 | ### Goals reassessment 28 | 29 | _What areas need improvement?_ 30 | 31 | - **Component**: (Technical/Interpersonal) 32 | - Skill and description with time frame 33 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /templates/one-on-one-agenda.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | # 1:1 Agenda 2 | 3 | ### What can we talk about? 4 | - [ ] Discussion items 5 | - [ ] What's on your [ugh list](https://medium.com/@robertwiblin/ugh-fields-or-why-you-can-t-even-bear-to-think-about-that-task-5941837dac62)? 6 | 7 | ### What can we celebrate? 8 | Difficult task you accomplished, work you're proud of, kudos you've gotten. 9 | - [ ] :tada: 10 | 11 | ### What are your goals for the week? 12 | Tasks you've committed to working on within your team's radar or within your own project plan. 13 | - [ ] _Task 1_ 14 | 15 | 16 | ### Goals 17 | Anything that we need to update for your goals? Additional emotional labor that needs to be recorded? Dependencies that need to be updated? 18 | 19 | 20 | ### Action items 21 | - [ ] Action items 22 | 23 | # 1:1 Agenda 24 | * [Create next weeks meeting agenda](https://github.com/REPO/REPORT_LOGIN/issues/new?template=one-on-one-agenda.md&title=1:1%20Agenda,%20MM/DD/YYYY&labels=Agendas) (Right Click + Open in New Window) 25 | * [Zoom for 1:1](https://github.zoom.us/j/ZOOM_ID) 26 | * [Previous Agendas](https://github.com/REPO/REPORT_LOGIN/issues?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=is%3Aissue%201%3A1%20Agenda) 27 | 28 | /cc @REPORT_LOGIN @MANAGER 29 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /templates/quarterly-goals.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | ## Quarterly Goals 2 | 3 | [Personal goals for 2018](annual-goals.md) 4 | 5 | ### Quarterly growth planning check-in 6 | 7 | This quarter I worked on: 8 | 9 | 10 | - **Component**: (Technical/Interpersonal) 11 | - Skill and description with time frame 12 | 13 | Example: 14 | 15 | - **Operational Excellence**: (Technical) 16 | - Get better at code review by participating or pairing with others in code review at least once a week 17 | - **Communication**: (Interpersonal) 18 | - Improve communication with team members by participating in more team conversations, technical or interpersonal, to improve team cohesion. Speak up in regularly recurring team meetings ~once a week or participate in Slack conversations in public team channel ~3x a week 19 | 20 | 21 | _Please be sure to note any additional emotional labor that has happened throughout the month. Those count towards your Interpersonal goals!_ 22 | 23 | ### Assessment 24 | 25 | _Based on your monthly goals above, you are currently at:_ **[exceeds expectations, meets expectations, or does not meets]** 26 | 27 | ### Goals reassessment 28 | 29 | _What areas need improvement?_ 30 | 31 | - **Component**: (Technical/Interpersonal) 32 | - Skill and description with time frame 33 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /templates/staff-eng-1-on-1s.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | # Staff engineer 1:1s 2 | 3 | Staff engineers require a bit more high level questions in order to maximize time together and see what needs help in your organization that you may not be seeing. These heavily inspired by this [great article](https://leaddev.com/culture-engagement-motivation/how-slowly-build-trust-your-staff-engineers) and [Plucky 1:1 cards](https://shop.beplucky.com/products/the-plucky-1-1-starter-pack). 4 | 5 | - How do you spend your time? And given how you spend your time, what gives you energy vs what drains your energy? 6 | - How do you scale your impact? What strategies are you working on to scale your impact as a very senior engineer within the org? Are there engineers that you’d like to grow to be the next in line, etc? 7 | - Are there any technical decisions that came back to haunt us? 8 | - Is there misalignment anywhere? 9 | - We’re always trying to do the best thing when we innovate and evolve our platform; is there a role or position that you would like us to hire to help you ‘be the best’? 10 | - Are there any interesting documents that outline recent retrospectives or incident post-mortems that I should read up on? 11 | - What can we do now that would make our lives better in six months? 12 | - How can I help? 13 | - Who is the most stressed out person in the team/org? 14 | - What has worked well in the past? 15 | - If you had a month to fix whatever you wanted, what would you fix? 16 | - How is morale on the team? 17 | - Is it clear what your role is on the team? In the engineering org? 18 | - Do you feel like it's clear how to succeed as a staff engineer in the wider engineering organization? 19 | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------