Dan @ Hudl — Manager Readme

Dan @ Hudl — Manager Readme

Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash

Overview

This is an introduction to me as a manager. It’s meant to capture some of my management philosophy, style and values. The “readme” portion of this doc (below) is meant to be read from the perspective of one of my direct reports. This gives me and my team a shared understanding of how I see my role and something that they can hold me accountable to.

What is this all about?

This “readme” is meant to capture some of my values and thoughts to help provide an understanding of my role and the manager-report relationship from my point-of-view. I expect you to have your own views, goals, values and communication style that I hope to understand as we build on our relationship (inside and outside the one on one). Where we lack alignment, it’s my responsibility to understand those differences and adjust to your style as necessary.

Mission

Broadly, I want to make Hudl the best place for engineers to work. I enjoy working at the organizational level to support improvements in process and how we work. Personally, I want to make an impact on each reports’ career growth. I’m here to help you succeed.

Values

In order to do your best work, you should enjoy the work you do. Every day is a choice of how to spend your time, including where you work. Your work comprises a large percentage of your waking hours and I want that time to be personally meaningful.

I value having time away from work and seek to be “where my feet are”, present and focused when at work and the same when I’m at home.

I value transparency. It’s a primary reason I joined Hudl and something I appreciate from its founders today. Transparency is valuable when times are good but clear transparent communication is critical during times of uncertainty or crisis (like the COVID-19 pandemic).

I value continued learning. When I’ve experienced a lack of growth, over a period of time, it is a sign that I need to make some sort of transition.

I value working with a great team. “Great” to me means:

• established trust
• dependability
• psychological safety
• the ability to have conflict, disagree and commit
• accomplishing more as a group than we can alone
• serving a purpose that we each find personally important

I value diverse and inclusive teams and support retaining those teams through fair pay and promotion practices. With the knowledge that talent is equally distributed around the world but opportunity is not, I continuously seek to understand my biases and recognize my privilege.

I value your feedback. Feedback is a gift, an opportunity to grow and learn more.

Style

Management Style

I trust you and believe that you have the answer to your problem within you. For that reason, I will do a lot of listening and asking questions in one on ones to hear what you think. I’m also willing to listen if you want to vent or rant about anything — our 1:1 is a good venue for those conversations too.

• caveat: If you want advice you might have to ask. Sometimes I’ll offer advice, but I’ll usually ask if that’s what you want first.

Assume Positive Intent

I aim to assume positive intent and want you to do the same with me and others you work with. This does not mean that you should avoid being candid, rather take a moment to inspect your perception of the situation is aligned with their intentions (e.g. “When you say X, I’m interpreting that as Y” and let them confirm or correct your view).

• caveat: If you’re concerned about your safety or inequities in the workplace it’s not necessary or advised to make that assumption, please raise any of those concerns to me.

Transparency

As I mentioned before, I value transparency and will default to being transparent with you.

• caveat: There may be times when I have information I can’t share so I may just not comment or suggest a better time to discuss

Feedback

Feedback is a gift. I value your feedback on how I can serve you and your goals better. I’m also committed to helping you grow. If there’s something I can do, or stop doing, that would work better for us then please let me know (in whatever format is most comfortable to you)

• caveat: My default mode is ruinous empathy, but I know feedback done well requires both caring personally and challenging directly — that’s what I strive to do.

Growth

My career growth has been opportunistic, rather than goal-focused. The opportunities I’ve taken and the ones I’ve passed on were based on their consistency with my values. My career growth plan is not yours. I want you to grow in a way that’s comfortable for you. If you’re strongly motivated by specific goals or somewhere else on that spectrum let me know.

• caveat: I’ve messed up on this before by not pushing people as much as they wanted me to. I’ve learned that I have to be more intentional with reports that are motivated in ways that I’m not.

Logistics

One on Ones

The frequency, duration and agenda should be driven by what you want from this meeting. By default I’ll start with 30 minutes weekly, but over time this can change based on your needs (e.g. hourly weekly or 45 minutes bi-weekly). This is your time to discuss your long and short-term interests, get feedback, talk about growth opportunities, ask clarifying questions and identify anything blocking you from performing your best.

Timeliness

I like to be punctual, I hope that you do too :)

• caveat: I have been known to miss approvals. If you have an expense or other request that’s outstanding beyond a day, let me know as I probably just missed it.

Availability

Let’s talk about anything that’s on your mind at any time and with whatever medium is most comfortable for you.

• caveat: I’m probably available most evenings and weekends, but likely won’t respond unless it’s urgent.

Vacation Policy

What does Hudl’s “unlimited vacation” mean? For me, it’s a convenience for the business to alleviate tracking and a convenience for the employee to provide flexibility. Use your best judgement. It’s not a free license with literally infinite time off, nor is it a “nice theory” where in reality you get no time off because the job never stops. I aim to take 4–5 weeks per year and want you to take the time that you need to refresh. My expectation is that you’ll take a minimum of 3–4 weeks.

Conclusion

Writing this document has been helpful for at least some of my direct reports to help build trust. It has served as a good conversation starter to clarify my values and those of my reports. I’d encourage other managers out there to give it a try, even if only as a self reflection exercise.