Inspired by Chuck Groom's post.
This document will always be a work in progress.
Last updated: 1/2/2019
- It helps me identify and refine my values, strengths, and opportunities as your leader
- It will help you understand me better right off the bat, which will help us work better together in the future :)
| Enable Target's Supply Chain UI Strategy | Lead Happy and Productive People |
|---|---|
| Responsible for the long term health, value, and vision of the Supply Chain UI technical components at Target. | Attract and retain a culture of learning, innovation, trust, and collaboration. |
| Represent the engineering team and platform in organizational discussions and decisions. | Serve team members by removing blockers that prevent them from making progress towards professional and personal goals. |
| Manage cross platform priorities and ensure we have the right skills on each. | Provide context to connect the dots and maximize team member impact. |
| Share credit and provide recognition for platform successes and wins, be accountable when the platform falls short of expectations. | Be tenaciously committed to the growth of each individual. |
Important: If you feel I am not meeting any of these responsibilities, please let me know as soon as possible.
There are very few things that are more important to me than talking to you.
Heard a rumor? Need context or clarification on something urgent? Please reach out as soon as possible - do not wait for our next scheduled 1:1. I have chosen to sit in the team pod to ensure I am approachable and available whenever you need me.
For ad hoc (non-urgent) questions - ping me on Slack to reduce the amount of context switching.
Otherwise, in person/video chat is my preferred method of communication for longer conversations. There are far too many nonverbal factors at play that can be missed without visually seeing each other.
If you will miss one of our normal team meetings or 1:1s, please alert me/the team. I am a natural worrier, and will assume the worst unless I hear from you.
As mentioned above, the time I spend with you is the most important aspect of my role. Due to the large number of individuals I meet with on a recurring basis, I have adjusted my 1:1s to 1x per 2 weeks. I would love to meet with you more frequently if you are interested. If so, please let me know.
I believe that 1:1 agenda topics should be driven by the team member.
If you do not have any specific topics, I would suggest we talk about:
- What work you are enjoying / excited about
- What work you find most challenging
- How your work aligns to the overall team/org strategy
- What can I help you with?
We will also use this time to discuss performance. If I am worried about your performance, I will let you know. Additionally, I admire when high performing individuals seek additional feedback on their performance - please challenge me/you to think of 'stretch goals' for you to continue growing!
I am a firm believer that every individual drives his/her own career. You set your goals. You set your priorities. Let me know how I can help you achieve them.
It is very important to me to be self aware of my strengths and weaknesses. I use various tools to continue collecting and assessing these. I'd love to share more about my process if you are interested! Here are a couple that I am aware of:
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High emotional intelligence. (for better or worse), I have always had strong empathy for others. I can sense when things are going well and when something is wrong. I enjoy using this strength to dig in further when an individual seems to be holding back.
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I genuinely care about people. At the end of the day, no one is going to be seriously hurt because of the work we do at Target. Your health, family, and personal lives come before work, always. If I ever notice you sacrificing any of these important aspects in your life for the sake of work, I will say something to you immediately. Sometimes people don't notice they are doing it, and I believe it is my job to prevent this.
I care very much about learning the values that are important to you; your family, hobbies, and interests. These things inevitably impact the 40 hours/week that we spend together, and I think it's silly to disregard (and not celebrate) the unique qualities that make you extraordinary!
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Recognition. I love recognizing people for great work. As I learn more about you, I will start tuning the way I recognize you (to large audiences, to leaders, 1:1, to our team Slack channel, etc). Please let me know if I am recognizing you in ways that make you uncomfortable and I will adjust.
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I actively work on creating relationships outside of our team. I believe this is critical for success at a large organization like Target. I encourage you to do the same as much as possible.
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(Claiming as a strength) - I practice Servant Leadership and will continue to research ways to improve my skills and spread ideas to other leaders. The tldr of Servant Leadership: I work for you, not the other way around.
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Silence makes me uncomfortable. I strongly believe that my role of listening to you is much more important than talking. I understand this is counterproductive, and am working on it. I know many people need some time to internalize and take longer to respond, so please call me out if I am talking more than I listen. When I am caught off guard, feeling unprepared, or posed with a question that I need more time to think through, I freeze up a bit and find myself filling the silence with unproductive thoughts. I'm doing my best to take pauses and ask for time to carefully articulate my ideas before responding.
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I am driven by the desire to please people. It is unnatural and uncomfortable for me to say 'no' or share bad news. Obviously this is required of my role, and I have been forced to practice different techniques that still enable me to help everyone. Specific examples that I am especially cautious of are: overpromising priorities to other teams or leaders, overpromising opportunities, career advancements/compensation to you, and overextending myself by not protecting my time.
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I didn't grow up as a developer However, I will never say "I'm not technical" because that isn't true.
- I will not be the leader to conduct code reviews or even teach you the best practices of modern software development. We have very strong Lead and Principal Engineers who I will partner with to ensure you are growing from a technical perspective.
- I will ask you questions that will make you think differently about how you implemented something.
- I will ask you what value your code provides the team and organization.
- I will continue asking questions so that I can effectively speak to all of the technical components with you, our partners, and leaders.
- I will connect you with resources to improve your skills and achieve your goals.
- I will provide suggestions and pose questions if you are stuck (while keeping in mind that the process of exploring solutions and hitting dead ends is a great way to grow as a developer.)
- I will ask you to translate those learnings ^ into English to share with your teammates.
- I will ensure that you have a great balance of challenging, exciting, and (some) mundane work.
- I will ask you to communicate problems and concerns regarding a particular implementation or decision as soon as possible.
- I will ensure that you have as much context as I can ethically share in regards to high level decisions and strategies.
- I will partner with our Principal Engineer to share context on the organization's technical vision and how our team can enable these strategies.
- (if you are comfortable), I will ask you to speak on behalf of your work to senior leaders.