The first 90 days of a new hire matter as much for you as it does for them. Get started on the right foot by providing documentation on your management style.
I’ve had periods of managerial stability in my career and periods where I didn’t even know who I was reporting to. In the twelve-month period from 1/22 to 1/23 I ended up reporting to four different people, including one CISO, one VP of Engineering, and two CPOs. That was… a lot.
Every person you report to is as unique as a fingerprint. To have any hope of building an effective relationship you must learn about them and get to know their values, style, and preferences. For example, I had one manager that wanted a one-pager filled with discussion points prior to every 1:1. I continued this practice for my next manager…and they never read it. Instead, each week they simply wanted a verbal update on how they could best support me and my teams.
The core problem isn’t so much that every manager is different. Instead, the problem is that it takes TIME to understand them. That time can vary from weeks to months in duration. What would you pay for a magic wand that you could wave to cut that time in half? No joke – what would that be worth?
What if it cost nothing? What if all it took was 1-2 hours of effort to fill out a doc template?
The Manager README doc is a widely-known management tool, but it is one that I have only seen rarely in practice. In short, the goal is to put a doc in front of your new reports during their first week that empowers them with information about you, your role, your expectations, your quirks, and more. It contains all the little nuggets of wisdom that someone would learn across dozens of 1:1 meetings, all condensed into a few pages of text.
Here is my README. It is far from perfect. Parts are incomplete, and some sections are getting a bit dated. Still, it is a great doc for me since it consistently delivers on its purpose: generating high-quality conversations with my direct reports. When you finish reading mine, maybe consider writing your own.
https://github.com/prefrontal/README
Some other READMEs to check out:
https://hackernoon.com/12-manager-readmes-from-silicon-valleys-top-tech-companies-26588a660afe
A site to write and share READMEs:
Photo: A help kiosk at Los Angeles International Airport, being as useful as it can.