Demystifying Management

When you switch from an individual contributor role to a manager role, you might find yourself floating in a sea of uncertainty. What does success look like as a manager? How can you know if you’re doing a good job or not, with such a long feedback loop between your actions and their outcome? In this workshop, we’ll start to demystify management by talking tactics, articulating what you uniquely bring to management, and demonstrating how you can best support your direct reports. We’ll cover:

- Coaching, mentoring and sponsoring, and when to use each as a manager
- Identifying your management philosophy and expectations for your team
- Growing your teammates through feedback
- Navigating your team through uncertainty and surprising emotions
- Developing an internal barometer of success, and a network you can lean on as you grow

During each stage of the workshop, Lara leads the attendees through group exercises to practice skills like coaching, giving feedback, and goal-setting. Lara will also provide worksheets and plenty of resources for attendees to continue to grow and learn after the workshop.

Transcript

1. Demystifying Management Lara Hogan @lara_hogan larahogan.me/demystifying-management/
2. Management is a blend of mentoring, coaching, and sponsoring Lara Hogan • Demystifying Management
3. Mentoring
5. Mentorship: Giving advice, based on your experience
6. “Advice is just one thing a mentor gives. There are residual benefits from visible proximity and tangential relationships to be gained.” Kristy Tillman, Slack Head of Communication Design
7. Being a responsible mentor
8. Honesty Flexibility Reciprocity Active listening Mutual respect Personal connection Shared values Qualities of a successful mentor relationship:
9. Coaching
10. “The spirit of coaching is helping a person dump out their box of legos to help them find the two pieces they’ve been looking for together” -Paloma Medina
11. open questions reflection +
12. The power of open questions
13. The best open questions start with “what”
14. Reflections
15. • Can I reflect back what I’m hearing? • I’m going to reflect what I know to be true about you. • Let’s reflect on where you were this time last year.
16. You don’t need prior experience, or even any idea about someone’s universe to coach them.
17. Getting curious and actively listening
18. Level 1: Internal Listening
19. Level 2: Focused on the other person
20. Level 3: Whole environment
21. The #1 “recent trick” I hear during icebreakers is the power of silence during 1:1s
22. Sponsoring
24. Illustration by Catt Small
25. “Mentors give perspective, sponsors give opportunity.” Cate Huston, Mobile Lead at Automattic
27. The dashboards are slow today. Is there someone who knows how to fix that? Oh, Max fixed our dashboards before. Maybe ask them? Sara’s also been doing a lot of perf work recently. Ask her too?
28. Center for Talent Innovation
29. Center for Talent Innovation
30. A sponsor confers a statistical career benefit from 22%–30% Center for Talent Innovation
31. Being a sponsor
32. Marginalized people are over-mentored, and under-sponsored
33. With a sponsor, women are • 70% more likely to have their ideas endorsed • 119% more likely to see them developed • 200% more likely to see them implemented
34. What can you do?
35. Examples of sponsorship as a manager or leader: • Give promotions and raises • Give visible/public recognition • Assign tasks and projects • Suggest they do blog posts, company talks, open source work
36. What’s the purpose of a 1:1 with your direct reports?
37. Manager Disseminate information Develop a relationship Identify goals/ career trajectory Unblock them Get status updates
38. Manager Direct Report Disseminate information Hear rumors, news, strategy Develop a relationship Does my manager care about me? Identify goals/ career trajectory I want to keep growing my skills Unblock them Get status updates I might need help getting unblocked
39. Manager Direct Report Disseminate information Hear rumors, news, strategy Context Develop a relationship Does my manager care about me? Trust Identify goals/ career trajectory I want to keep growing my skills Growth Unblock them Get status updates I might need help getting unblocked Problem Solving
40. Context 5-10%
41. Context Wrap-up 5-10% 5-10%
42. Context Trust Growth Problem Solving Wrap-up 5-10% 5-10% 80-90% How to spend each 1:1
43. Context Wrap-up Trust, Growth, Problem Solving:
44. Context Wrap-up Trust, Growth, Problem Solving:
45. Debrief: Mentoring, coaching, sponsoring
46. Managing energy drain (and feel some success!) Lara Hogan • Demystifying Management
47. Flickr: statelyenglishmanor
48. IC ⇨ Manager
49. Flickr: simontingle
50. You Direct Report Thing you never see Management is high latency!
51. • “I don’t feel productive like I used to” • “My manager isn’t really supporting me” • “I can’t tell what success looks like” • “I have no idea how to learn this stuff”
52. Manager crew (Manager Voltron!)
53. Growing your crew
54. Be on the lookout for people who: • will push you out of your comfort zone • have different levels of experience than you (both more experience, and less experience) • have experience in a different industry • are good at the things that you’re terrible at
55. 1. Do great work 2. Find someone who knows your work 3. Know how you want to grow 4. Keep them updated
56. 1. Do great work 2. Find someone who knows your work 3. Know how you want to grow 4. Keep them updated
57. 1. Do great work 2. Find someone who knows your work 3. Know how you want to grow 4. Keep them updated
58. 1. Do great work 2. Find someone who knows your work 3. Know how you want to grow 4. Keep them updated
59. 5. Give back!
60. Lean on your Manager Voltron for goal-setting, goal-measuring, and feedback.
61. Manage your energy drain
62. 1. Defrag your calendar 2. Delegate messy and unscoped projects 3. Say no
63. Color-code your calendar based on the kind of energy you’re using
65. Analyze: • How much context-switching you’re doing each day • How much you’re drained at the end of each day
66. Defrag based on that analysis
67. Decide when to do it (or delegate it) Do it now! Say no Delegate it Urgency Importance
68. Decide when to do it (or delegate it) Do it now! Say no Delegate it Urgency Importance
69. images.containerstore.com/medialibrary/pdf/tips/gorgeousGiftPresentation.pdf
70. Decide when to do it (or delegate it) Do it now! Delegate it messy and unscoped Say no Delegate it Urgency Importance
71. A messy, unscoped project: • hones folks’ problem-solving abilities, • forces them to lean on more people around them, and • stretches them far faster into new leadership skill sets
72. Gift-wrapped version Create a case study about... Measure these metrics... Present it at... Run it by... Flickr: Vincent_AF
73. Bare-bones version Just make this thing... and get other people to care about it. Flickr: z287marc
74. Just right Here’s what success looks like… Here’s who your stakeholders are... And here’s a pro tip... Flickr: 30478819@N08
75. • Tell them how and in what medium you will support them • Tell them that you expect this to be a stretch for them (and that’s the point) • Release yourself from decision-making
77. Say no
78. Decide when to do it (or delegate it) Do it now! Say no Delegate it Urgency Importance
79. • What does my Manager Voltron think I should say no to? • What do my reports think I should say no to? • What are things I spend time on that don’t match my goals or roadmap? • What things do you even avoid delegating to your reports, because it doesn’t feel worth their time?
81. Give yourself permission to not check in on your progress for a bit
82. What was a recent ‘Hulk’ moment?
83. Brain Chemistry
86. Don’t worry, I got this!
87. Core Needs 6 palomamedina.com/biceps/
88. Belonging Community, connection 1
89. Flickr: whisperwolf
90. Improvement/ Progress Progress towards purpose, improving the lives of others 2
91. Choice Flexibility, autonomy, decision-making 3
92. Equality/Fairness Access to resources & info, equal reciprocity 4
93. Predictability Resources, time, direction, future challenges 5
94. Significance Status, visibility, recognition 6
95. Belonging Improvement/Progress Choice Equality/Fairness Predictability Significance
96. Humans are bad at feedback
97. We can get better at giving and receiving feedback.
98. Good feedback is specific and actionable.
99. Feedback equation
100. observation of a behavior impact of behavior question or request + +
101. Create space.
102. Ask about your reports’ preferred feedback medium and timing
103. Remember to give positive feedback too!
104. Prep your own brain to receive feedback.
106. Setting Expectations Lara Hogan • Demystifying Management
107. Groups of humans are amazing
109. Forming
110. Forming Storming
111. Forming Storming Norming
112. Forming Storming Norming Performing
113. Forming Storming Norming Performing
114. Set* expectations to improve predictability and stability * and in the future, iterate on
115. Predictability: What can someone joining the team expect their day to look like? What should they expect their teammates to be doing?
116. Stability: What do you as a manager value? How do you think about and approach managing the team?
117. Your team knows what behaviors are healthy It’s easier to give feedback when behaviors fall outside those expectations
118. You’ve clarified what your team should expect of you It’s easier to give feedback when behaviors fall outside those expectations
119. “If [your teammates] know what you believe and expect as manager, folks will feel more confident that any behaviour of yours that’s not aligned is likely unintended and something you’d be eager to hear about and fix.” - Katie Womersley
120. Manager README “The less that is implied or mysterious about you, the safer and more trusting others will feel” - Katie Womersley
121. What can your direct reports expect of you?
122. Managers who report to me should expect of me: • Routine feedback, related to career progression • I’ll try to unblock you from problems you’re working on • I’ll share my worldview and what I’m working on, so you have broader context • A weekly 1:1 with you • Skip-level 1:1s with your direct reports
123. Hold me accountable
124. What do you expect of your teammates?
125. You may have expectations about: • How they approach problems • How they communicate • How they hold others accountable (including you!) • How they treat their teammates
126. Managers who report to me: • Give me a heads up when your spidey sense is going off • Have weekly 1:1s with your reports; be explicit about their career progression and feedback. • Routinely reach out to your team’s stakeholders. • Develop a peer network for yourself. • Demonstrate a healthy work-life balance.
127. Focus on outcomes Get curious about (and prioritize) what their needs are
128. Repeat these throughout your reporting relationship • During 1:1s • When giving feedback • When setting goals • When hiring someone new
129. How will you be held accountable?
130. There’s an inherent power dynamic
131. “Is there anything I can be doing differently or better?”
132. “Here are some avenues to give me feedback; choose whichever feels most comfortable”
133. With your mouthwords: • Acknowledge the power dynamic • Acknowledge whenever you’ve messed something up • Acknowledge when you’re going to miss the expectations you set
134. Management/Leadership Philosophies
135. “Humans already have the answer(s) inside themselves; I help find them.” - me
136. “Optimize for long term relationships.” - Jason Wong, Senior Director of Engineering
137. “People do what makes sense to them, so most problems can be solved by providing additional context” - Rafe Colburn, Senior Director of Engineering
138. “Strong back, open heart.” - Jerry Colonna, who introduced it to... - Chad Dickerson, former CEO, now coach
139. "The strength of the team is each individual member. The strength of each member is the team." - Phil Jackson, former head coach of Chicago Bulls - also Jill Wetzler, Director of Engineering
140. First 1:1 Questions
142. Document + share your readme with your reports. Iterate as you learn more!
143. Team charters and docs
144. VMSO Vision, Mission, Strategy, Objectives
145. Vision: The dream; a team's true north. Mission: Overarching objective of the organization. Strategy: How an organization navigates its competitive landscape to achieve its objectives. Objectives: Measurable goals aligned with mission and strategy.
147. Document: • Team meeting cadence and purpose • Team Slack channels and email lists, and their purpose • Work hours expectations • Team ground rules (“stay curious!”) • Teammate roles and responsibilities
148. Communication Guides: • whole-team-example@etsy.com for emails that should go to all managers and engineers within Product Infrastructure (rare!) • whole-team-managers-example@etsy.com for emails that should go to all eng managers within Product Infra (rare!) • For individual teams, check out the Product Infrastructure teams communication guide
150. Meeting Description Who should come Meeting Goals Ground rules Timing
152. Product Manager owns the story of “what” Tech Lead owns the story of “how” Product Manager + Tech Lead scope and estimate project work
153. Responsible Accountable Consulted Informed
154. Responsible: TL + EM Accountable: EM Consulted: Teammates, PM, Director Informed: Everyone else
155. Treat those as living documents.
156. Open Q&A! You can always email me: lara@where-with-all.com This workshop’s slides and resources: larahogan.me/workshops/setting-expectations/