# Adamme Mak's Manager Readme

**Director, IT at Stellar Health**

This is a work-in-progress, just like me

# Why

The following is a user guide to me and how I work. It captures what you can expect working with me, how I like to work, my personal values, and some of my nuances. My managers/peers all have different work styles - no expectation to mimic my style or routines. My intent is to accelerate our working relationship with this document. This is NOT meant as a replacement for actually getting to know each other.

# About Me

I was born and raised in the Midwest (North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin). I attended the University of Wisconsin Stout, majoring in IT Management and dual minoring in Computer Science and Business Administration. Technology is what I’ve always tended towards and I’m drawn to the amazing things humans can do with it. Through technology, all things truly are possible - with enough time and resources :) 

Outside of the office I spend a lot of time absorbing knowledge from Movies, TV Shows, and Audiobooks - and I love a good [Root Beer](https://www.adammekearney.com/rootbeer). 

- Job: Senior Manager, IT. Growing my team to scale and inspire them to do their best work. I am accountable for the decisions the team makes, even if I’m not the one making them most of the time. 
- Goal: Champion productivity, efficiency, user experience, and continuous improvement. Strive for every employee to be as productive as possible through technology.

- Background: I have experience in company sizes of 100, 1,000, and 100,000 employees; all in different industries, development stages, and funding stages. I’ve worn many hats; IT Support on large teams, solo IT Support, IT Product Manager, and Manager. I constantly challenge myself to understand the unique context of an environment to identify appropriate solutions that make sense for this environment. If you ever feel I’m thinking about a context that is misaligned, please raise it to me. [linkedin.com/in/adamme](https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamme/) | [adammekearney.com](http://adammekearney.com) 

# My Values

(In no specific order!)

- Have Fun: Always have fun no matter what you're doing. A little play every day. Just because it’s called ‘work’ doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy doing it together. Play and laugh together. I’ll make sure to schedule dedicated fun time each quarter for our team to bond as well.
- Continuous Improvement: Challenge everything and be open to being challenged. If you see something to fix, go fix it. I believe in the compounding awesomeness of continually fixing small things. I believe quality assurance is everyone’s responsibility and there are bugs to be fixed everywhere… all the time. 
- One Route: Approach everything with a strong customer-service-oriented attitude. If issues/requests are incorrectly routed to our team, help guide them to the correct place.
- Safe Space: It’s everyone’s job to help foster an environment of psychological safety and mental health. Connect with respect. 
- Relax and enjoy: Take time for yourself. This is easier said than done, especially with the constant flow of work, but life is short, and we all know the work will continue. Self-care matters! I take vacations and you should too!

# My Calendar

- My Calendar is Yours: You are always welcome and encouraged to drop a meeting on my calendar, we’re not limited to scheduled 1:1s. If you’re having trouble finding time just message me and I’ll make time.
- Lunch: I block out time for lunch so I make sure I eat, but if something is urgent feel free to reach out.
- Modify Event: Guests can edit my calendar events by default, feel free to adjust our meetings as needed.

# Communication Preferences

- Punctuation: I almost always punctuate my sentences but I don’t mean to come across as curt. 
- [Nohello.net](https://www.nohello.net): Please don't just say “Hey” or “Hello” in chat since I often only have less than a minute to check messages. Include the context so my first response is helpful.
- Response Time: I respond to emails within 24 hours, and usually within 3 hours. If I’m in back-to-back meetings all day I will likely not respond to you immediately in order to stay present in my meetings, but I will always respond or schedule a response before I sign-off for the day.
- Business Hours: I try to schedule emails/Slack to not send outside of business hours, but if I forget, I don’t expect you to respond until the next business day. Your work/life balance is important. You can Slack me 24/7 whenever you need though.
- Face-to-face: If it feels like we’re having trouble communicating, I will always err on the side of, “let’s hop on a video call and hash this out.” Nothing beats face-to-face in-person communication, but our next best option is face-to-face video.
- Debate: I want you to feel safe debating with me. I find that ideas improve by being examined from all angles.

# Personal Nuances

- Introvert: I’m an extroverted introvert. I usually listen more than I talk. I’m an internal thinker and often quieter in large groups and like to take notes while people talk. Do not confuse my quiet with lack of engagement
- Small Talk: I prefer not to be asked about my weekend, vacation, or holiday break unless about something very specific. It comes across as disingenuous to me since it’s become a common social habit - like saying ‘bless you’ after someone sneezes.
- Noise: I can’t focus without silence or rain sounds. If you see me wearing earbuds while not in a video call, I’m drowning out background noise.
- Accent: I have residual aspects of a Wisconsin accent - eg. I say “bag” the way you may say “beg”.

# For My Direct Reports

It’s going to take a solid quarter to figure this place out. This is a complex place full of equally complex humans. Take your time, meet everyone, go to every meeting, write things down, and ask all the questions.

## 1:1s (One-on-ones)

- We’ll have a 1:1 every week for at least 30 minutes. This meeting discusses topics of substance, not updates.
- 1:1s are very important to me because they are dedicated space for you to talk about anything and everything you want.
- They are meetings primarily for you, and only secondarily for me.
- It’s not a tactical or status meeting, unless you want to talk about that.
- 1:1s are flexible -- they can shift and change to fit around our shifting schedules.
- Don’t save urgent matters for a 1:1!
- The best 1:1s focus beyond the moment: Your career development, team strategy and opportunity, the greater company, etc. Feel free to come with a topic you’d like to discuss. I’d love it if you spent a few minutes beforehand preparing so that we can get the most of our time. 
- I serve you, not the other way around. I’m always available to assist. Ask me.

## Feedback

- Feedback is a Gift: More than any other factor, candid and compassionate feedback is central to a cohesive high-performing team. What should you do with feedback? Consider it. Acting on it is not required. You’ll receive a lot of feedback. Most of it will be good, some of it won’t be. Like everything else, please think about each piece critically and decide whether to act on it or not.
- Radical Candor: Feedback is best received in the context of psychological safety; I want you to know, both intellectually and experientially, that my primary desire is for you to be happy and fulfilled.
- Timely: Feedback should happen as real-time as possible; I will strive for this.
- Ask For It: If you’d like specific feedback on something let me know! I’m happy to provide an outside perspective.

## Team Expectations

- Have each other’s back, but hold each other accountable.
- Assume positive intent.
- Constantly learn.
- When no decision is truly “bad”, disagree and commit. If you feel adamant about a solution but aren't gaining buy-in, improve your argument.
- Always question if you don’t understand. Always understand “Why are we doing it & Why now?” Don’t assume that people who talk with confidence are necessarily right. Being busy is not the desired outcome, we want to do the right things. 
  - [How to ask good questions](https://jvns.ca/blog/good-questions/)

## How You Can Help Me

- Do Amazing Work: This is the expectation. Let me know if there is something preventing you from accomplishing this.
- Disagree: The best solutions come from a healthy level of debate. We need to be able to separate our ideas from our egos. I’ll challenge your ideas with the goal of coming to the best possible solution, I hope you’ll challenge mine.
- Tell Me When I Screw Up: This is very important. I screw up and sometimes don’t notice. I need to know or I’ll likely do it again.
- Communicate: One of my jobs is to provide context. Are you missing some? Let me know and I’ll fill you in or go find out.
- Give Me Feedback: Be honest with me, you won’t hurt my feelings! I value your input and you probably have more context than I do on any situation which leads to different definitions.

## Your Development

- Your Career is Yours: You know best how you’d like to grow and in what areas. I can provide feedback and an outside perspective. At the end of the day, it is your career. You set your goals. You set your priorities. Let me know how I can help you achieve them.
- I’ll Help: I’ll do my best to provide growth and learning opportunities, it’ll be up to you to seize them. Let’s work together on this.

# Management Influences

- [Radical Candor](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29939161-radical-candor)
- [Work Rules](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22875447-work-rules)
- [Thanks for the Feedback](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18114120-thanks-for-the-feedback)
- [Who Says Elephants Can’t Dance? ](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/603985.Who_Says_Elephants_Can_t_Dance_)
- [The First 90 Days](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15824358-the-first-90-days)
- [The Righteous Mind](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11324722-the-righteous-mind)
- [Stanford Innovation and Entrepreneurship Program](https://online.stanford.edu/programs/innovation-and-entrepreneurship-program)