# Josh Carter's Manager Readme **Engineering Director/Operations Manager at OCV, LLC** # Hey it's Josh Carter here This is my Manager README, a document that helps introduce you to my management style, philosophy, and expectations. The intended audience is primarily anyone who reports in to me, though anyone is free to read it - or even provide feedback on it! I urge you to hold me accountable to my promises, and to call out anything that might be missing from this document. Without your guidance, I will not be able to improve as a manager or help drive the team to where it needs to go. # As your manager If you report to me, here’s my thoughts, philosophies and expectations that you might find helpful. > My job is to help you do your job as efficiently as possible.  My success is shown best when you succeed in your role.  My goal is to help you grow and prosper here.  It is always fun when we are all successful while learning and creating a great product.  I'm here to advocate for you and the team within the company.  I will be your accountability partner and hold you to the high standards I'm sure you're capable of.  I believe in working together to achieve amazing things. I will do everything I can to help be clear when talking with you.  I speak fast with a lot of words, so if you need clarification on anything, please ask.  There is no such thing as a dumb question for me, just ask. In regards to response times, I can not always guarantee an instant response. If something is time contingent, please reach out again whether that is in person or digital means (Phone/Slack/E-mail/etc).  If you have to ask me again, don't feel like I am going to feel that is disrespectful or bothersome.  My job is for you to succeed at your job, and if you need me, get with me. My values are: - We have each others backs - We work on impactful projects - We have fun succeeding - We have open communication in all facets # # Personality quirks I like to say I am a child of chaos. The more things I am in the middle of, the more energized I am.  I love to have fun in what we do and don't take myself too seriously, as we are all always growing and learning. I'll end with my sports motto as I was always taught: "How do you spell fun?" with the team response of "W-I-N".  # # Good to know I am always running around all over the place and always look like I am on a mission.  Don't feel like you can't grab me for a question or rope me into something if you feel I need to be involved. Also, if I am in a meeting with you, whether that is 1:1 or a large group, and you don't feel like I am paying attention when needed, let me know politely and I will gladly reset on my side to make sure you have all of my focus. I am married with two young boys so when I'm remote you may hear them in the background or may see them on the screen if we are on an internal meeting. # # Timeliness Timeliness (aka  arriving to things on times and wrapping things up on time) is something that I am always working to get better at myself.   If I am running late to something we are on, call me out on it as by no means is my intention to do that but it is absolutely possible. My expectation of you (and myself) in regard to timeliness follow: - When you are supposed to clock in for work, whether that is 8-5, 8:30-5:30, 9-6, be there within 5 minutes, you never know who is waiting on you to get in the door.  If you are running late, stay on for those extra 5 minutes at the end of the day or make them up easily at lunch. - Show up for meetings when they are supposed to start, as there are always more meetings that we are all in, so lets show up on time, focus on what we need to do, and move on to the next thing so we don't create a domino effect. - If you are running late to start the day or a meeting, shoot me a slack message if you should be in within 15 minutes.  If you are pushing 15+ minutes behind to start the day, please put in flex time to make up for that.  Remember, you never know who is waiting on you to get in to ask you a question. # Focus Focus is the last thing for me to hit on here.  I am always bouncing around and may not be at my desk, as I try to sit in the areas where I am focused at that time.  Please be cognizant of those who are at their desk (in person or remote) trying to focus on what they are working on.  By all means, you are not going to be focused/working 100% of the time, and that is fine.  Take that break for a minute, but **please** do not rope in others who are focused at that time.  If you need to do something more, try to take a walk, go to the break room, etc. to help not pull anyone else's focus. # # Remote call expectations I know remote calls (Zoom/Google Meet/Microsoft Teams/etc) are more commonplace now than ever before.  With that said, I know a lot of the times cameras aren't always on but my expectation is your camera is on 80% of the time.  There are times where you need to do something else or jump off and back in, or you have another reason to need it off (sick/distracting environment/driving/etc). There are a few situations where I expect your camera on if at all possible: - If you are the facilitator of the meeting, I expect your camera to be on. - If it's your first time meeting with someone on the call, I expect your camera on. To give some background around this, there are a few reasons why having your camera on helps make a better meeting: - Holds you accountable and focused - Creates better engagement in the meeting - Allows you to read the room better and see body language - Builds the connection between the team (especially if people aren't in office typically) # Work/Life balance You will see/hear me up late nights sometimes wrapping up things or working on other projects through slacks/emails/etc.  Don't worry about me as I love what I/we do and like to jump around on ideas that pop in my head at that given time. Just because I am working extra or late, don't feel obligated to work crazy hours or respond when I reach out on things during odd hours. I do expect you to stay on top of the items on your plate, work your hours that we agreed upon, and pitch in if we are in a pickle or on a tight timeline. # # 1:1 meetings 1:1s are really important to me. I believe that these meetings are for you to set the agenda. - What's on your mind? - Is there anything I can help you with, or that you need from me? - Do you know your priorities? If not, do you want me to help prioritize them? These meetings don’t need to be status updates unless you really want to talk about project status or if there’s something you’d like to show me. If there are things that I want to ask you, I’ll do it, but this is your time. The duration at this time are a monthly basis as 20 minutes on my schedule, but don't feel obligated that this is the only time you can come talk to me on things that are priorities in your mind. Also, please bear with me if I miss or reschedule. I promise it does not mean I don't care about you or don't want to have a conversation, it may just be as simple as I got roped into something from a company perspective I needed to be involved in. # My calendar looks scary, but I’m here for you! If you need to talk to me outside our usual meetings and see a good time on my calendar, please schedule something (you don’t need to ask first). If there’s urgency and you can’t get a meeting with me for a while, send me a message on Slack or by email and I’ll make time. If something is on fire and I'm in a meeting or somewhere else busy, please slack me and I will follow up as soon as I can. Determine if things are "above the line" or "below the line" problems and rope me in with the appropriate level of communication.  What does "below the line" mean? Is it something that is going to sink the ship? ![](https://s3.amazonaws.com/managerreadme/images/Screenshot 2023-02-14 at 10.19.55 AM.png) # # Process and software development I strongly believe in putting people over process and changing process to accommodate our needs and goals. I value in getting something done over sticking to processes which slow us down.  I will help run our agile process with our 2 week sprints where we can bite off the right amount of focus.  But I will note, I have agile lowercased, I'm not calling it SCRUM.  We need to utilize the things out of that process that helps but is not a burden to our current systems. These are my values: - I value transparency about what’s happened, what’s happening, and what’s going to happen. The good, bad and the ugly. - I value iterations. It doesn't have to be perfect the first time but needs to have the required items from the specifications checked off. - I value learning and sharing knowledge to make our team better. - I value your time and don’t want you to do any process that is neither beneficial to you nor required by law, policy, etc. # # Iterate, iterate, iterate We get better by doing and by trying, so figure out the smallest thing you can do, try it quickly and learn from the experience. Rinse and repeat :) It’s better to take action and do _something_ than to do nothing while you think about it for too long. A process is meant to continue to evolve as our knowledge and resources grow. # # Diversity of Thought We get better by growing together.  If something doesn't make sense to you, let me know and I may be able to provide context on why the way it is and we can make changes if they need to happen or to make them more efficient. # Feedback is very important to me I strongly believe in an open culture of feedback and improvement. Where possible, I think you should provide direct feedback, but anonymous feedback is better than none. I’m dedicated to giving you clear and timely feedback and hope that you’ll give me the same. I believe that great feedback requires three attributes: - **Safety**  (you should feel safe to give and receive feedback) - **Timely**  (provide feedback as soon as possible) - **Constructive**  (giving/receiving feedback should have a positive impact) Please let me know if I’m doing poorly on any of these attributes and I’ll do the same! # Bring me bad news sooner rather than later If things aren’t going well, let me know as early as possible. It gives us both the opportunity to take positive action (whatever might be needed) sooner. # # Transparency I value transparency and will be as open with you as policy, legal and broader company/personal sensibilities allow.