Meetings:

1:1 Meetings

Weekly conversations. Typically range from 30 minutes to 1 hour. I view this as your weekly time with me. You drive the agenda.

Team Meetings

Weekly conversations with the team. Typically 30 minutes on Friday morning with a follow up email. These outline what the current team goals are, how we are performing, if there are any large changes/pivots, and what the team should be focused on for the following week.

Expectations:

Accountability

Accountability in the workplace is critical to success and is a two way street of responsibility. I will do my best to provide clear, achievable goals, standards, and deadlines. You need to do your best to execute.

If outcomes are not being met, I promise that I will look inwardly for a solution, as long as you do the same.

Fail fast

Fail gracefully

Failure is a part of life and the scientific process. At some point, experiments will fail, I will fail, you will fail. It’s OK to fail. What is not OK to me is when we don’t learn from those failures and end up making the same mistakes again. If we fail, I’d prefer to fail fast – where we cut an experiment or project after clear signs it’s not salvageable.

Don’t let failure overwhelm you, failure is how we learn.

Group consensus

As a seasoned manager, I know that I’m not the most knowledgable person for a particular process, experiment, or scientific nuance. That’s not my job. I have the larger context (business, sales, financial, etc). That’s why I prefer to have buy in from stakeholders on decisions.

For those on my team(s) I will provide a safe space for people to vocalize their ideas, opinions, and opposition. I promise to listen with an open mind. If we do not come to a consensus I do expect you to respect the decision I make.

I aspire to be hands off

I trust you to do your job (be accountable) and inform me as the needs arise. If I ask you questions, ask for roadmaps, ask for data, figures, financials, etc – it’s so I understand what we’re doing as a team so that I can act accordingly and relay that information to others in the company.

Feedback

I give feedback a lot. I coach a lot. I mentor a lot. To me, giving and receiving constructive feedback and making sure you are in alignment with the team, mission, and company goals are a cornerstone of professional success.

I also strongly encourage / empower you to provide constructive feedback for myself as you manager or your manager’s manager. I am always looking to improve. Management is a two way street.

Professional Development

I have been blessed by great professional development throughout my career, and I strive to pay that forward with coaching, mentoring, and opportunities.

I value your professional development, let’s work together to make sure that we are hitting your goals, as they align with company goals.

The power of teamwork

I truly believe in the power of teamwork. It’s cheesy I know. I give sappy, inspirational speeches about digging deep, trust, and the power of teamwork. I will say phrases like, “We support you” and “I appreciate you” unironically. A team that trusts each other can do anything, including saving the world.

Communicate

I believe that it’s on you to engage in communication internally. Communication is not a one-way street, do not wait for me to ask you questions or for progress reports – be proactive and communicate with me.

Companies have internal channels (slack, teams chat, email, etc) – post on these channels, talk about your science, show cool photos, engage with folks – particularly when it comes to something that’s mission focused.

Remind me

Do yourself, and me, a favor and please remind me and/or follow up with me. What may be critical to you, may be one of 10 things critical to me that week. I appreciate when people are proactive like this, and wish people did it more often.

Defender & Advocate

Sometimes at fast-paced startups or large companies individual contributors are asked by others (not their manager) for a request. If this poses a problem to your work, please tell me. My job is to make your job possible and easier.

In addition to defending your time, I also serve as an advocate to leadership. I will always do my best to represent you, your words, your science, accurately, with passion, and with appropriate credit.