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The Manager's Path

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The Manager's Path

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Highlights

  • Especially as you become more senior, remember that your manager expects you to bring solutions, not problems. (Location 309)
  • Asking for advice is always a good way to show respect and trust. (Location 312)
  • The odds of you spending all of your time answering questions are slim compared to the odds that your intern will go off in the absolute wrong direction because he didn’t ask enough questions. (Location 397)
  • Senior engineers can develop bad habits, and one of the worst is the tendency to lecture and debate with anyone who does not understand them or who disagrees with what they are saying. (Location 618)
  • A best practice in many engineering teams is to create a set of onboarding documents that are edited by every new hire as he gets up to speed. He edits the documentation to reflect processes or tools that have changed since the last hire, or points that he found confusing. (Location 1117)
  • Regular 1-1s are like oil changes; if you skip them, plan to get stranded on the side of the highway at the worst possible time. (Location 1137)
  • The default scheduling for 1-1s is weekly. I encourage you to start with weekly 1-1s and adjust the frequency only if both of you agree that this is more than you need. Weekly means that you talk frequently enough to keep the meetings short and focused, and it gives you room for the occasional missed week. (Location 1147)
  • Mondays and Fridays are bad days for 1-1s because people tend to sometimes take long weekends and miss these days. I prefer to do 1-1s in the morning before things get busy, in order to avoid having the schedule slip or being forced to reschedule due to other things coming up. (Location 1150)
  • Some people assume that good relationships require very little attention, and spend all of their time on their bad relationships. But there are plenty of people, myself included, who feel a strong need for regular 1-1 time even in good relationships. (Location 1166)
  • Keeping your 1-1s regular through times of uncertainty will help stabilize your team and slow down the rumor mill. (Location 1172)
  • Make sure there are nuances that deserve verbal communication in the 1-1 setting. (Location 1183)
  • Empathetic leaders can sometimes allow themselves to get sucked into an unhealthy closeness with their direct reports. (Location 1193)
  • Quarterly is frequent enough to give the topic attention without it feeling like all you talk about is career development. (Location 1200)
  • when someone does something that needs immediate corrective feedback (insulting a colleague, missing a critical meeting, using inappropriate language), don’t wait for the 1-1 to provide that feedback. (Location 1205)
  • When something goes well, don’t save up your praise (Location 1209)
  • Sharell knows that this project needs to ship on time, but instead of sitting in on every meeting and tracking every detail, Sharell works with Beth to determine which meetings she should attend, and helps Beth understand which details to escalate to Sharell. (Location 1253)
  • The hardest thing about micromanagement is that there are times when you need to do it. (Location 1260)
  • if micromanagement is your habit, if it’s your default approach toward leading your team, you’ll end up like poor Jane, accidentally undermining the very people you need to be growing and rewarding. (Location 1262)
  • When you feel like you want to micromanage, ask the team how they’re measuring their success and ask them to make that visible to you on an ongoing basis. Then sit on your hands if you must, but wait a week or two to see what they give you. (Location 1283)
  • anything. If you want to know the status of work, look at the version control system and the ticketing system. If you want to know how stable the systems are, subscribe to information about the alerts, look at the metrics, follow what has happened in on-call. (Location 1294)
  • Continuous feedback is, more than anything, a commitment to regularly sharing both positive and corrective feedback. (Location 1344)
  • For you, as a new manager, getting into the habit of continuous feedback is training you to pay attention to individuals, which in turn makes it easier to recognize and foster talent. (Location 1348)
  • Sometimes it helps to have a goal, so task yourself with regularly identifying people who deserve praise. Adopting a habit of positive recognition forces you to be on the lookout for things to praise, which in turn causes you to pay attention to what individuals are bringing to various projects. (Location 1364)
  • thing you can recognize about someone on your team. (Location 1367)

public: true

title: The Manager's Path longtitle: The Manager's Path author: Camille Fournier url: , source: kindle last_highlight: 2017-04-22 type: books tags:

The Manager's Path

rw-book-cover

Metadata

Highlights

  • Especially as you become more senior, remember that your manager expects you to bring solutions, not problems. (Location 309)
  • Asking for advice is always a good way to show respect and trust. (Location 312)
  • The odds of you spending all of your time answering questions are slim compared to the odds that your intern will go off in the absolute wrong direction because he didn’t ask enough questions. (Location 397)
  • Senior engineers can develop bad habits, and one of the worst is the tendency to lecture and debate with anyone who does not understand them or who disagrees with what they are saying. (Location 618)
  • A best practice in many engineering teams is to create a set of onboarding documents that are edited by every new hire as he gets up to speed. He edits the documentation to reflect processes or tools that have changed since the last hire, or points that he found confusing. (Location 1117)
  • Regular 1-1s are like oil changes; if you skip them, plan to get stranded on the side of the highway at the worst possible time. (Location 1137)
  • The default scheduling for 1-1s is weekly. I encourage you to start with weekly 1-1s and adjust the frequency only if both of you agree that this is more than you need. Weekly means that you talk frequently enough to keep the meetings short and focused, and it gives you room for the occasional missed week. (Location 1147)
  • Mondays and Fridays are bad days for 1-1s because people tend to sometimes take long weekends and miss these days. I prefer to do 1-1s in the morning before things get busy, in order to avoid having the schedule slip or being forced to reschedule due to other things coming up. (Location 1150)
  • Some people assume that good relationships require very little attention, and spend all of their time on their bad relationships. But there are plenty of people, myself included, who feel a strong need for regular 1-1 time even in good relationships. (Location 1166)
  • Keeping your 1-1s regular through times of uncertainty will help stabilize your team and slow down the rumor mill. (Location 1172)
  • Make sure there are nuances that deserve verbal communication in the 1-1 setting. (Location 1183)
  • Empathetic leaders can sometimes allow themselves to get sucked into an unhealthy closeness with their direct reports. (Location 1193)
  • Quarterly is frequent enough to give the topic attention without it feeling like all you talk about is career development. (Location 1200)
  • when someone does something that needs immediate corrective feedback (insulting a colleague, missing a critical meeting, using inappropriate language), don’t wait for the 1-1 to provide that feedback. (Location 1205)
  • When something goes well, don’t save up your praise (Location 1209)
  • Sharell knows that this project needs to ship on time, but instead of sitting in on every meeting and tracking every detail, Sharell works with Beth to determine which meetings she should attend, and helps Beth understand which details to escalate to Sharell. (Location 1253)
  • The hardest thing about micromanagement is that there are times when you need to do it. (Location 1260)
  • if micromanagement is your habit, if it’s your default approach toward leading your team, you’ll end up like poor Jane, accidentally undermining the very people you need to be growing and rewarding. (Location 1262)
  • When you feel like you want to micromanage, ask the team how they’re measuring their success and ask them to make that visible to you on an ongoing basis. Then sit on your hands if you must, but wait a week or two to see what they give you. (Location 1283)
  • anything. If you want to know the status of work, look at the version control system and the ticketing system. If you want to know how stable the systems are, subscribe to information about the alerts, look at the metrics, follow what has happened in on-call. (Location 1294)
  • Continuous feedback is, more than anything, a commitment to regularly sharing both positive and corrective feedback. (Location 1344)
  • For you, as a new manager, getting into the habit of continuous feedback is training you to pay attention to individuals, which in turn makes it easier to recognize and foster talent. (Location 1348)
  • Sometimes it helps to have a goal, so task yourself with regularly identifying people who deserve praise. Adopting a habit of positive recognition forces you to be on the lookout for things to praise, which in turn causes you to pay attention to what individuals are bringing to various projects. (Location 1364)
  • thing you can recognize about someone on your team. (Location 1367)