# Alex Ezell's Manager Readme

**Director of Platform Engineering at Nurx**

I would like this document to serve as a way to understand a bit about how I work and the expectations that I come to work with every day. I want it to be a shorthand way for you to learn what it’s like to work with me and how I approach certain situations and scenarios. It’s not a complete picture of who I am but it does contain some commitments to which you should hold me accountable.

This should be a living document in that it will change as my knowledge, comfort, experience, and exposure changes. Additionally, I ask for your feedback on this document so that I can make it more complete and more helpful.

## What I do

This definition is a work in progress as I adapt to the team and to what the organization needs from me. That said, in general, I will take on at least two overarching goals:

**Grow each team member.** Grow and enhance the skills, experience, and careers of the team members.

**Increase impact.** Lead the team to processes and activities that deliver higher quality work faster.

There are a lot of details that go into those goals and there will likely be other goals over time. Ultimately, I believe we are most successful when we are delivering quality software that meets the changing needs of the organization and allows each team member to grow in ways that are important to them.

Some activities I will engage in to drive that result are:

**Help identify your motivations.** I will work with each team member to understand their motivations for their current work and their desires for the future. This will primarily happen in 1:1s that we will have each week (to start).

**Identify new opportunities.** I will focus on identifying, protecting, and advocating for opportunities for team members to take on larger roles in projects, collaboration, or other activities that meet their growth goals.

**Make work easier.** I want to help streamline the team’s working processes be they functional systems like how we manage epics, tickets, sprints, etc. or be they more philosophical like how we collaborate with each other and other teams, for example.

**Provide context.** I will be a conduit of context between the team and the rest of the organization. I should help the team understand how their work fits into the larger goals of the organization and how decisions by the organization might affect their work.

## What you can expect of me

**Provide an outside(ish) perspective.** I will ask sometimes naive and simple questions to help ensure we are looking at all sides of an issue. I may prod you to defend your answers in a “teach me why that will work” fashion.

**Thank you.**  I believe that thanking someone for their efforts is important. When you achieve something or just lend a hand to me or a teammate, expect me to say thanks.

**Support you.** If you need help or you’ve made a mistake, tell me as plainly and as quickly as you can. I will get the support we need to move forward. Successes are “you did a great job” and mistakes are “we failed to predict this.” I won't take credit for your effort and I won't let you bear the burden of mistakes alone.

**1:1s.** I will be scheduling weekly or biweekly 1:1s with each team member. Some of these might be skip-level as we bring on other managers/leaders. Any topic is appropriate. If action items come from those meetings, I will email them to you after the meeting. These meetings will have [varying levels of confidentiality](https://medium.com/@royrapoport/the-1-on-1-disclosure-framework-bec6118402ce). If the time for our 1:1 is inconvenient for you, please ask to move it. I would prefer to move it to another time or day than to skip it.

**Be your advocate.** I want our teams to be known as a reliable, predictable source of quality improvements to the systems we touch. I will promote your work, individually and as a team, to all that I can. Part of advocacy is protection. I will try to protect our team from unnecessary churn in our work and our processes.

## What I expect of you

**Patience.** I’m new. While I’ve managed software teams for a number of years, every team and organization is different. I will ask dumb questions. I will make mistakes. Please be patient.

**Teamwork.** I want us to have shared goals and to work collaboratively towards them. Notice I’ve not used the word family. You don’t choose your family and so some things get by when they really shouldn’t. We are a team and that requires that we respect, trust, and help each other.

**Take your time.** Yes, our teams have commitments and goals that are tied to larger initiatives. However, taking our time to provide quality, thoughtful work is immensely important. We can work on the speed of delivery without rushing. I recognize the tension this can create and am not so naive to think we won't have to "knock something out" on occasion. Ideally, we will develop systems and processes that allow us to deliver predictably and reliably.

**Take time off.** You are of no value to the team if you are tired, irritable, sick, or fed up. Take care of yourself and be the best you can be while you are working. Over the last year, we've all had some incredible anxiety pumped into our lives by the pandemic, the election, and other sources. We have a generous time off policy here at Nurx. Let's make sure we work with each other to enjoy it.

**Transparency.** No matter the situation, good or bad, please share your status with me and our teams. We can help navigate and advocate but only if we know what’s happening.

## What I value

This is a tough one to summarize but in my working life, I’ve found three values that I appreciate time and time again.

**Honesty.** Tell the truth but be gentle with it. True honesty is really a lack of fear of reprisal. I commit to respecting your truth and never using it against you.

**Humor.** I love to laugh and I find most things in the modern world to be a bit ridiculous. We are working on serious problems and our patients' medical care can be in the balance. I don't take that lightly. I still think there is space to laugh at our foibles, share our worlds, and find the brightness that outlines our challenges.

**Humility.** I used to be a teacher and the first lesson I learned was that I had to be as much a student as a teacher. If I can approach each day and each person as an opportunity to learn, possibly by teaching, I think we’re better off.

## Providing Feedback

**P**** ositive feedback.** I will typically provide a simple thanks as positive feedback in public and acknowledge what specifically made it successful so we can all learn. In our 1:1, we can take that time to ensure there are more opportunities for you to succeed in a similar way. If you thrive on more thorough or public feedback, let me know. I want to highlight people in a way that makes them feel fulfilled.

**Negative feedback.** I will provide negative feedback as close in time to the negative event as is possible without sacrificing privacy. This is to avoid surprise and make sure the feedback is actionable as quickly as possible. I will provide specifics about what was negative. I will work with you to find ways to avoid the behavior in the future or alternative strategies for dealing with similar situations. The specifics of this will always be between you and I unless I indicate differently.

**Giving feedback to me.** I welcome all feedback. I like feedback that’s written, in-person (video), or just a chat message. I might ask you to get on a call in case there’s a chance for a misunderstanding but start the conversation in any way you feel comfortable. If you don’t feel comfortable coming to me, ask a teammate to represent you or speak to my manager who can provide the feedback to me anonymously.

## Personality Quirks

We all have them. Here are a few of mine:

- I’m from the deep south of the US so I might use phrases or words that make no sense.
- I find humor at times that shouldn’t be humorous. I’m working on not letting this show.
- I often listen and think deeply before responding, sometimes hours or days after a conversation. I’m not ignoring you or discounting what you’ve said. I’m absorbing it.
- I’m highly empathetic and notice a lot of facial expressions and body language. I may ask you about your feelings based on that. I’m not being nosy but trying to understand the situation and your response.
- I ask open-ended questions and expect no particular answer. It’s a conversation, not a test.
- I often entertain two diametrically opposed ideas in my head at the same time. I recognize the paradox but am untroubled by it. It can be frustrating for people who want me to pick a side.