It's all about the team. We exist to serve them!
The primary motivation behind creating this document is to establish a clear understanding of my management philosophy, expectations, and communication style. By sharing this information, I aim to:
- Enhance transparency and trust between us.
- Provide a reference point for our working relationship.
- Encourage open dialogue and feedback to foster continuous improvement.
- Set the stage for a collaborative and supportive environment.
- Writing and maintaining this document helps me refine my thoughts and hold myself accountable.
- For you to help me improve and hold me accountable.
By outlining my approach and values, I hope to lay a solid foundation for our professional relationship, allowing us to work together efficiently and effectively in pursuit of our company goals.
Please note that this document is not a substitute for personal interaction but a starting point for our professional relationship. We'll learn more about each other over time.
Hello, I'm Bruno. I was born in Porto, Portugal, and have since lived in Lisbon and London. I'm a father to two wonderful children and a partner to a fantastic woman.
Outside of work, my interests are diverse:
- Exploring new cultures through travel
- Appreciating global cuisine
- Connecting with people from various backgrounds
- Watching TV series, films, and docuseries
- Reading about technology, business, economics, and leadership
- Admiring high-performance cars
- Following sports like tennis, F1, and football (FCP and Chelsea FC fan)
- Taking rejuvenating walks
- Spending quality time with family and friends
- Coaching my son's football team
I'm known for being curious, forthright, trustworthy, pragmatic, a doer, "the coach", helpful, strategic, hard-working, and caring. I'm always eager to learn and grow, both personally and professionally.
As an Engineering Manager, my role is multi-faceted and revolves around a few key responsibilities:
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Fostering a Cohesive Team Culture: I strive to create a healthy culture that enable us to do our best work so that our company can achieve its full potential.
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Attracting and Retaining Talent: I aim to bring in and keep the best in the industry. I'm committed to providing an environment where you can do your best work, grow your skills, and feel valued and appreciated.
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Promoting Growth and Development: I'm dedicated to ensuring the growth and development of individuals and teams. I believe in setting clear expectations, providing feedback, and offering opportunities for learning and advancement.
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Representing Our Team: I represent our team within and outside the organisation. I work to ensure that our team's achievements are recognised, and that our needs and concerns are addressed.
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Influencing Decisions: I influence decisions that benefit our team and the organisation. Remember that a company is not a sum of all departments but a product of everyone's interactions. We can only win together.
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Setting Context and Expected Outcomes: I aim to provide clear context and expected outcomes so everyone understands what our company's needs and priorities. I believe in the power of alignment and shared understanding to achieve or exceed our goals.
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Fostering Ownership: I encourage everyone to feel like a business owner. I believe in empowering you to make decisions and take ownership of your work.
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Creating More Leaders: My goal is to create more leaders, not more followers. I'm committed to developing your leadership skills and setting you up for success.
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Resource management: Secure and manage resources allocated to us. I'm accountable for maximising the return of investment of our limited resourses. This includes not only the tangible resources such as tools, technology, and budget but also, and more importantly, the human resources - our team. I believe that our team members are our most valuable asset, and my role involves ensuring that everyone has the necessary resources and support to perform their tasks effectively and efficiently.
Remember, my role as a manager is to serve you and help you succeed. I'm here to provide support, remove obstacles, and create an environment where you can do your best work.
In my view, an exceptional culture, is where everyone feels valued, heard, empowered to excel, and we get things done at pace. Here are some key elements of the culture I strive to cultivate:
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People-First, Commercially Sustainable Culture: Balancing business needs with our people's well-being, creating a productive and supportive environment.
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Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI): Championing DEI, valuing diverse perspectives, and ensuring equal opportunities for everyone.
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Open Communication: Creating an environment where everyone feels comfortable expressing their ideas, concerns, and feedback.
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Collaboration: Emphasising teamwork and cooperation, working together towards shared objectives. Great things are rarely achieved in isolation.
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Innovation: Passionately pursuing technology and innovation, pushing boundaries and thinking creatively.
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Continuous Learning: Promoting lifelong learning, seeking new knowledge, skills, and experiences.
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Ownership: Taking responsibility for our actions, decisions, and outcomes, learning from our mistakes.
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Kindness and Respect: Treating everyone with kindness and respect, fostering a culture of appreciation and value.
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Creating Impact at Pace: Focusing on outcomes over outputs, prioritising meaningful results and delivering at pace.
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Alignment with Company Vision, Mission, and Core Values: Staying honest at all time to the company vision, mission, and core values.
Remember, culture is not something that can be imposed from the top down. It's something that we all impact through our actions and interactions.
At work, my approach has a unique combination of a few quirks:
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Always-On: I'm known for being all-in and always-on. I don't expect you to follow my example, and I recommend that you don't. That's just how I work best. Please note that you might receive messages from me over the weekends, late at night, or on holidays. It's just me being ON all the time. Please know that I don't expect responses during these times.
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Communication: I'm committed to open communication. I encourage open dialogue and am always available for discussion. However, my communication skills tend to fade out as I get tired. I can also be a bit lengthy at times. I know it can be annoying, so please call it out. I'm always trying to improve.
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Accountability: I hold myself accountable for my actions and decisions and expect the same from my team. I believe in taking responsibility and learning from our mistakes.
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Bias Towards Action: I'm heavily biased towards action. I believe in starting with small and quick iterations to prove (or disprove) our assumptions quickly (fail-fast to learn-fast) and make visible progress over lengthy strategic discussions. I have very little patience for apathy and indifference. If something is going on, let me know ASAP.
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Passion for Technology and Innovation: I enjoy staying up-to-date with the latest trends and advancements in the tech industry. I'm always looking for ways to apply these innovations to improve our work, company, and customer experience. Expect me to share all sorts of content, but don't assume I expect you to change the course of action or strategy.
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Zero Tolerance for Blaming and Politics: I have zero tolerance for blaming and politics. I believe in focusing on solutions, not pointing fingers. I strive to foster a culture of trust and respect where we can have open and honest discussions without fear of blame or political games. I put a high premium on developing solutions and taking accountability for the outcomes.
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Curiosity: I'm naturally curious and tend to ask many questions. This is not a sign of doubt or mistrust but rather a way for me to understand things more deeply and explore all aspects of a situation or problem.
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Challenging the Status Quo: Expect me to challenge the status quo. I'm not one to accept "this is how we've always done it" as a reason not to innovate or improve. I believe in questioning assumptions and exploring new ways of doing things.
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Decision Making: I expect quick, decisive and effective decisions. See in the Decision-making section.
I don't expect real-time responses, but I do expect timely follow-ups on our discussions. I value quick acknowledgements like "got it" or "on it" to confirm progress.
I often send FYI for your information, which typically doesn't require a response unless you have a simple question.
If you're CC'ed, a reply isn't expected, but feel free to respond if you wish. Just be mindful that you're joining an ongoing conversation.
These guiding principles are for both of us to follow as leaders and managers:
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Integrity, Honesty, and Authenticity: These are never up for discussion. They are the bedrock of our interactions and work.
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Service: You work for the company, not for me, and I serve you, not the other way around. We exist to serve our people and our company.
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Teamwork: We're one team. Our behaviours foster a cohesive, effective, and efficient team. We always assume the best intentions in everyone until proven otherwise.
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Transparency: 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 never to lie.
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Customer-Centric: Customers are at the front and centre of everything we do. The company we respect exists because of its customers.
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Action-Oriented: We have a strong bias for action. We thrive on getting meaningful work done (AKA impact).
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Excellence and Accountability: We first expect excellence from ourselves and only then from others, but we always hold each other's backs. We're committed to taking accountability and learning from our mistakes.
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Coaching and Growth: We coach individuals and teams relentlessly.
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Feedback: 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.
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Processes: Processes exist to serve us. We continually review their fit for purpose and ways to improve. Customers must never experience degraded service while waiting for our processes to complete.
I'll encourage you to foster growth and performance within your team.
In terms of terminations, ensure fairness and avoid surprises. Those leaving should do so with dignity intact. Remember, excellence is highly contextual!
Support and recognise your top performers. Let me know how I can help acknowledge their achievements.
Keep me informed about potential employee departures before they happen.
If your team norms differ from the company's, be clear about it. Varying norms are acceptable, provided they align with the company's and our team's core values.
Share your team management system with me, notably if it deviates from the broader organisation. This includes your approach to communicating vision, setting goals, fostering engagement, and any unique practices specific to your team.
As a manager, one of your most crucial roles is to recruit world-class talent. I encourage you to collaborate with me on your new hires, especially those reporting directly to you. While the final decision is yours, I hold veto power, which I will exercise judiciously. Expect more involvement from me in your first hire than in subsequent hires.
Establish a regular, systematic process for reporting your progress against the plan. This should include status (RAG), risks/mitigations, assumptions, and issues/blockers. Share these updates with me weekly. I value data and well-considered mitigation actions.
If something remains RED for more than a couple of weeks, it will become my focus, and I expect you to actively work towards turning it GREEN.
If the company has a delivery department or similar, I expect you to collaborate closely with them. You are accountable for the quality and accuracy of your team's reports.
As a manager in technology, one is required to manage it.
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Service Continuity is Paramount: Our top priority is ensuring the continuous operation of our services. We prioritise security, availability/consistency, scalability, reliability, and regulatory compliance. We also focus on resolving defects that hinder customers from using our core functionality or deriving maximum value. We uphold these priorities even when it's uncomfortable.
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Complete Solutions through Iterative Development: We design, build, and maintain complete solutions. We favour quick, short iterations that enable and encourage experimentation. We believe this is the best way to manage risk and better serve our customers.
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Value Completed Work: We value work completed over work in progress. Software that is operational and accessible to the customer is more valuable than software still in development. We take immense pride in 'what' and 'how' we deliver software. Quality Assurance, Security, Operations, engineering culture, and outcomes are everyone's responsibility.
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Embrace Failure and Experimentation: We encourage intentional 'failing-fast' and experimentation within a controlled and acceptable scope. This approach accelerates learning, and we ensure that these learnings are shared across the team. However, we never compromise our customers' trust and maintain a zero-tolerance policy for blame.
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Tactical Moves and Tech Debt Management: We acknowledge that tactical moves and tech debt management are necessary at times as a means to serve our customers better. However, we maintain a high threshold for approving such moves.
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."
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, etc. Just-in-time escalation is usually more efficient.
I love to work through problems together if it's helpful to you.
I'm often busy, but I'm always available when needed. Here's how to best reach me based on the urgency:
- Emergency: Find me in the office -> Call me -> Text me -> Slack me -> Email me. Please do whatever you need to get my attention.
- Urgent Matter: Text me -> Slack me -> Email me.
- Important Matter: Slack me -> Email me.
- Business as Usual (BAU): Email me -> Slack me -> Book a meeting.
If you propose a meeting or discussion, please initiate by finding a time in my diary and scheduling the appointment. If I suggest a discussion, I will do the same. Avoid saying, "let's discuss" without following up promptly with a proposed time.
Our 1:1 meetings are weekly, lasting 30-45 min. These sessions are primarily your time and agenda. We'll use them to discuss your well-being, needs, personnel issues, professional development, and performance reviews. We can also explore strategic questions, seek advice, provide context, and exchange feedback.
We'll document performance formally every quarter and hold a 1:1 retrospective to improve our discussions. We'll maintain a private online document to compile notes from these meetings, aiding retrospectives and tracking progress.
Tips for Effective 1:1s:
- Continue from where we left off.
- Prepare your topics beforehand.
- I often use the OSCAR model and the FUEL model to guide our discussions.
- Don't expect me to have all the answers or solve your problems. I'm here to help you navigate your path.
Note on Career Development: Your career is your responsibility. You're best placed to know how you want to grow. I can provide feedback, help you reflect, set objectives, and offer guidance. I'll strive to provide growth opportunities, but it's up to you to seize them. Continuous growth and development are non-negotiable.
I keep myself in check by filling out 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 |
Here's what I'll be looking for in performance reviews:
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Role Model: Live the company culture and values. Your behaviour should inspire others.
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Coach: Actively listen, help individuals and teams gain self-awareness, set objectives, and unlock potential.
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Caring: Show genuine care for your team's growth, success, and well-being.
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Global Thinker, Local Actor: Focus on culturally conscious solutions in everyday decisions. Think in systems systems thinking. A problem anywhere is a shared problem, and a win anywhere is a shared win!
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Business Leadership: Foster ownership and focus on outcomes. Establish a practical decision-making framework for your team(s).
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Results-Oriented: Be productive and strive to make a significant positive impact on the team, the company, and our customers.
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Communicator: Be effective in conveying information and ideas.
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Talent Manager: Hire world-class talent, support career development, set clear expectations, and recognise great work.
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Technical skills: Have the technical skills to influence the team(s) and deep dive when needed.
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Collaborator: Work effectively with others across the company.
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Decision-Maker: Be reliable in making decisions and using company resources properly.
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Culture Builder: Foster an influential, inclusive, productive and healthy Culture.
Remember: we run companies, manage processes and things, and lead people!
- Everyone has a strong sense of belonging.
- Take control of, and responsibility for, own our own destiny in alignment with the company 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
- Team health and everyone's well-being is high.
- We're strong contributors to the company's objectives/goals.
- Customer's quantitative and qualitative feedback about the software we ship is positive, e.g. NPS, active usage, etc.
We have several rituals to foster team cohesion, alignment and collaboration. As a manager, we are part of multiple teams. These rituals apply to my direct reports team. Note these rituals are not set in stone. We'll continuously explore and adapt to find what works best for us.
Weekly flash reports are shared with all direct reports. They should be clear, 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
- Worth mentioning: anything that doesn't fit in the above topics but it's worth sharing
Held on Monday mornings, these meetings are a team effort, not solely mine. They serve to share context, ensure alignment, foster idea exchange, and nurture team cohesion. The chairperson, a role that rotates every two weeks, manages the agenda and meeting minutes. The meetings follow a guideline structure:
- Overview (5-15 min): I'll share updates on KPIs, progress, and business or cross-departmental information.
- Team Round (5-10 min): Any team member would like to highlight anything on the Flash Report
- Deep Dives / Swarming (30 min to 1 hour): Time for problem-solving discussions, new initiatives, or strategy talks.
- Review of Action Items: We'll review the action items.
Once a month, we have a 4-hour meeting on a Friday afternoon. We check in as a team, conduct a monthly retrospective, groom and prioritise the team backlog, and discuss any significant topics. The chairperson manages the agenda and meeting minutes; pre-reads are shared at least one day in advance. On-site attendance is mandatory.
Each quarter, the monthly meeting is replaced by a full-day meeting. We conduct a team check-in, team retrospective, review team health checks, retrospect on OKRs, work on next quarter's objectives, groom and prioritise the team backlog, and discuss any significant topics. The chairperson manages the agenda and meeting minutes, and pre-reads are shared at least two days in advance. We'll have lunch or dinner together, and on-site attendance is mandatory.
This section provides insights into my thought process and viewpoints on various topics. It's designed to help you understand my expectations and how I approach them.
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, being 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, not a position.
In a business setting, impact refers to the positive or negative outcomes that a company's actions, products, or services have on its stakeholders, including employees, customers, investors, and the environment. When I refer to impact it's implicit that I'm refering to positive impact. To be a bit more specific, I expect everyone to thing about their own impact as:
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Consistency: Are you able to deliver work that matters not just once but does so sustainably over time?
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Velocity: What's the rate at which you deliver impact, not just the cumulative impact you have achieved.
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Ownership: Think long term and take ownership of what and how you deliver impact in line with the company objectives.
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Accountability: Everyone is accountable for delivering impact. More senior levels are held more directly accountable for the business impact of their decisions and actions.
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Materiality: You deliver what you've said you'll deliver on the time you committed to.
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Force multipliers: We're accountable for impact individually, but what would happen if you actively help your wider team create impact? What happens when we radiate positivity?
Trust and developing trust is a vast topic. Still, I broadly think about trust in the terms:
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Empathy: Their success comes first. One will not trust you if it is thought that you care more about yourself than about them.
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Logic: If it doesn't make sense or lacks rigour, chances are one will not trust your judgement.
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Authenticity: If one feels they're not getting access to the "real" you — to a complete accounting of what you know, think, and feel — chances are they will not feel safe around you and therefore not trust you.
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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.
Feedback is crucial to our collective growth. I actively welcome it.
My preference is for feedback that is:
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Prompt - Provided close in time to the event or behaviour.
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Objective - Focused on observable actions, not intentions or assumed motivations.
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Direct yet Kind - Honest and transparent without being harsh.
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Specific - Detailed enough to be useful for improvement.
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Actionable - Offers clear guidance on how to improve.
To foster a feedback-rich culture:
- I commit to providing feedback frequently.
- Please inform me if my feedback to you is unclear or unhelpful.
- Notify me promptly if you feel underserved by my coaching.
- I will continually refine my own feedback skills.
When offering feedback:
- Explain why positive feedback was earned to reinforce the desired behaviour.
- Focus on the situation rather than the person.
- Offer constructive suggestions to enable growth.
Effective feedback requires:
- Psychological safety to exchange feedback without fear of punishment.
- Low effort to provide feedback conveniently.
- Visible impact to incentivise ongoing feedback.
To summarise, feedback is welcome and expected to flow frequently in both directions on our team. This open, growth-oriented approach will elevate our individual and collective performance. Please help me continue improving as a feedback provider.
Distinguishing between a plan and a strategy in business is crucial for several reasons:
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Understanding the Business Environment: A strategy assesses the current environment of a business, both internally and externally, and establishes future goals and targets. It describes the strategies it will implement to reach them. A plan, on the other hand, describes the foundations of a company, its capabilities, the industry and market(s) in which it operates, and how it generates revenues.
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Flexibility and Adaptability: A strategy is flexible and open for adaptation and change when needed, allowing a business to respond effectively to changes in the market or industry. A plan, however, is more rigid and doesn't allow for deviation. If a plan doesn't work, you move on to a different plan.
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Resource Allocation: Plans typically focus on the resources we're going to spend, which are more comfortable because we control them. A strategy, on the other hand, specifies a competitive outcome that we wish to achieve, which involves customers wanting your product or service.
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Long-term Vision: A strategy provides a long-term vision and direction for the company, while a plan focuses on specific tasks and objectives. Understanding the difference between the two can help our company align its short-term actions (plan) with its long-term vision (strategy).
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Competitive Advantage: A strategy is about making an integrated set of choices that position the organisation to win, while a plan is about laying out projects with timelines, deliverables, budgets, and responsibilities. A strategy can help a company gain a competitive advantage in the market.
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Risk Management: A strategy allows the company to anticipate and prepare for potential challenges and risks, while a plan focuses on achieving specific objectives. Understanding the difference can help us manage risks more effectively.
Often, one uses both terms interchangeably, which makes progress more challenging. Very senior people have misled me because they didn't understand the difference and really like the word strategy :)
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 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.
If you don't know where you're going, any road will get you there. - Lewis Carroll
Plans must prompt commitment by the stakeholders.
A plan without commitment is nothing more than a wish list. - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Things usually don't go according to plan, and that's expected.
Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth - Mike Tyson.
It's about thinking ahead that prepares us better for when "you're punched in the mouth".
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
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. Innovation requires discussion when it requires work that impacts the company's immediate objectives and/or other teams. Please write it down so that we can have an asynchronous conversation.
This happens too often to me, so here goes my advice: If you are thinking of preparing a session about the "process of innovation", go back to the whiteboard and think deeply about what innovation vs novelty is and how it actually happens! Go to first principles! Then let's have a talk.
I empower you to make decisions independently. Involve me when you need guidance or a sounding board.
Note: Follow the link for more context
We embrace a DRI model where ownership is clear:
- Decisions are yours or mine, not both.
- You don't have to reach a consensus or 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 doesn't mean decisions are made recklessly or in isolation. Expect to explain your rationale and be challenged respectfully.
For major decisions, I recommend creating a decision memo with the following:
- Clearly define the problem and constraints
- Set measurable success and failure criteria
- Gather options with pros/cons and risks/mitigations
- Anticipate stakeholder questions
- If the decision is yours, make it on the first page. Otherwise, establish a reasonable timeframe for the decision maker to decide.
I'm happy to discuss options collaboratively but empower you to make the calls within your scope. We will continuously improve our judgement through learning and experience.
Notes:
- We need 60-70% of the data to decide whether to correct course quickly. Otherwise, we should clear a high bar before committing resources.
- While my default and mechanisms are to include you, sometimes you might not be included because decisions must be made at the right level. The right level is dictated by the company structure and processes.
Leverage both intuition and data in deciding. Data lends rigour, while intuition provides perspective. Rigour is our baseline.
Sometimes, not deciding is the right call when done deliberately pending more info.
Healthy dissent is expected, particularly on tough choices. Share counter perspectives respectfully with alternatives. If overruled after discussion, commit professionally to the chosen path.
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 offline, and come back later with good arguments.
I suggest you conduct a retrospective for every significant successful or failed decision. Better when you include stakeholders. It's a powerful tool to learn.
Effective communication is the linchpin of our operations. It can either propel us forward or impede our progress. Clear and open communication nurtures trust, alignment, and overall efficiency. I am committed to communicating candidly, directly, and empathetically. Past experience taught me that most issues stem from inadequate or infrequent communication. Thus, we must prioritise clear and frequent communication.
Kindly strive to communicate in a considerate, clear, concise manner and directly address the subject matter. I'm actively working on these aspects myself, recognising the importance of valuing everyone's time.
Empathy plays a pivotal role, given that we may not always understand the constraints, emotions, and commitments of others without engaging in sincere and compassionate conversations. Instead of making assumptions, let's initiate conversations.
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 first 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-communication can be beneficial when it seems prudent, especially during hectic periods. If people start feeling overwhelmed by the volume of information, they should voice their concerns.
Efficient communication involves choosing the proper forums for information sharing. Strive for data-driven communication, as it leaves less room for misinterpretation and emotional bias.
Leverage your business acumen to craft narratives that address and solve problems, making your communication more impactful.
If you're unsure if you should share something, ask before sharing. Failing to do so will have a net negative impact on trust.
Opinions have their place, but it's essential to distinguish between opinions and statements of fact. Be explicit when expressing your opinion ("IMO") as opposed to presenting evidence-based information ("evidence shows"). This helps provide context and clarity to your audience, contributing positively to group discussions.
I often seek your thoughts rather than opinions, as understanding your thought process is valuable. Aligning our conclusions is the outcome.
Ensuring stakeholders are fully engaged is paramount. Avoid situations where commitment is one-sided and others are merely involved. Remember the story of the Chicken and the Pig when considering shared commitments. Stakeholders should be as invested as you are.
If you encounter challenges in gaining buy-in, consider reading Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High and How to Win Friends and Influence People. These resources can help you navigate complex communication situations and build stakeholder trust.
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
Note: I am not a native English speaker and continuously work to improve my language skills.
Effective communication avoids vagueness, verbosity, and ambiguity. These issues can lead to misunderstandings, erode trust, cause inefficiencies, and foster resentment. We must actively combat these tendencies.
Use universally understood language, steer clear of acronyms, and eliminate weasel words. Prioritise brevity and specificity.
Examples of words to avoid include "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 leave room for interpretation.
Leadership is a vast and deep subject that is key to the company's long-term success. 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.
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.
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.
It is not advisable! I'll not question your judgment 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.
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 aligned with the company 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, 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 an Unreasonable leader is low.
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. If you're a team lead, you might be required to write code 20% of your time.
Dive Deep Leaders operate at all levels, stay connected to the details, audit frequently, and are sceptical when metrics and anecdotes differ. No task is beneath them. Amazon's 14 leadership principles
In the realm of software engineering, craftsmanship is a revered practice, yet its ultimate purpose lies in serving the customer.
A fundamental question I always pose is this: If a team member were to receive an alert at 4 a.m. on a Friday due to an incident, could they, by 4:30 a.m., confidently identify, test, and deploy a hotfix driven by a profound sense of duty? If this scenario seems unlikely, it's imperative that the team works towards a state of readiness that enables such a response.
In the pursuit of meeting customer expectations, there are instances when tactical decisions become necessary. Managing technical debt is crucial to avoid a burdensome future tax.
Careful attention must also be given to Non-Functional Requirements (NFRs). A system's value diminishes if it falters under specific circumstances, especially during high user demand. Similarly, jeopardising customer privacy holds little merit.
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 critical 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: a post-mortem, retrospectives, sharing findings with the Engineering group, etc.
Concisely, we don't have Dev/Feature/Project teams (full stop).
Yes, even if we're discussing 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!
The ideal scenario involves having no dependencies whatsoever. It's crucial to proactively eliminate dependencies. I'd prefer having two identical components over none or one that significantly delays progress.
Teams should possess the capability to accomplish their objectives independently, without the need for external coordination. In cases where this isn't feasible, I anticipate proactive efforts to establish interfaces that facilitate efficient inter-team coordination. Concurrently, it's imperative that we aggressively eradicate inter-team dependencies. Preserving teams' ownership and autonomy is paramount to meeting our customers' expectations swiftly, and we must ensure that our organisational structure is never reflected in our customer-facing products.
Please get familiar with Amdahl's Law and its extension to Universal Scalability Law and how it applies to coherence penalty for humans.
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This README reflects my personal management style and beliefs, and it should not be interpreted as representative of the practices or philosophies of other managers at our company. While you may find similarities between this document and others you've come across, any resemblances are either coincidental or a sign that I found certain words or ideas particularly well-expressed.
Please note that this document is dynamic and will evolve over time. If you notice discrepancies between my stated beliefs and practices and my actions, I encourage you to bring them to my attention. Such feedback will help me better serve you and our organisation.
Remember, this README is not a substitute for personal interaction and mutual understanding. It's a starting point for our professional relationship, and I look forward to learning and growing with you.