# Hannah Mills's Manager Readme

**People Operations Manager at ATS Global**

 **Motivation behind this document**  
  
We all have different ways of working, and we all have different expectations, needs and preferences in order for us to perform to the best of our ability. 

I would like to share my ReadMe to help you to understand me, my preferences and my expectations. Not only will your understanding help me to do my best work, but I hope that by understanding how best to interact with me, this will allow you to do your best work, too!

**How best to interact with me**  
  
I'm not keen on emails - my personal belief is that they are great for information only, but tasks can often be lost within emails. I do send emails when I need to make multiple people aware of important information, but I prefer to use **Microsoft Teams** for daily communications.

- If you need to make me aware of something but don't require my input - emails are fine for me.
- If you need something from me that is not urgent - Teams is best for me. I can then prioritise your request.
- If you need something from me that is urgent - send me a Teams message and if I don't respond within the timeframe that you need me to, feel free to call me on Teams instead.  

**What do I value most?**

**Trust**  
Trust is my most important value, and it is something I had not actually realised until my own manager recognised how losing trust in others affected me at work. I don't ever want to micromanage anybody, and with trust in place, I don't have to. 

**Honesty **  
Honesty builds trust and is at the foundation of great relationships. Sometimes being honest means that we can't always deliver good news, but being honest is kinder than being dishonest. I like to know where I stand with people and value honesty as a way to achieve that. I also commit to always being honest with others, too. You will always know where you stand with me.

**Positivity **  
As an optimist, I sometimes struggle with pessimism, negativity, complaining, and when people assume failure will be the end result. I am a glass half full person and believe in the power of positive thinking. If we want something enough, work hard for it and ensure we are kind to others along the way, I believe success is very possible. 

**Accountability**  
 I believe that we are all responsible for our own actions, including how we perform at work and how we interact with other people. If I say I am going to do something - I do it. If I cannot - I follow up. If I make a mistake - I own up to it, apologise to whomever it impacted, and I try to learn from it. I don't believe others should be negatively impacted by others inability to plan and prioritise. 

**My quirks and preferences**  
  
I have a busy brain and sometimes this results in me  **talking quite fast.**  Feel free to ask me to slow down, I won't be offended.  
  
I struggle with **long paragraphs**. If you are sending me lots of information, bullet points are always a good way of capturing my attention as this ensures that I don't miss the message you are delivering.

If I ever send you an email/Teams message **out of hours** , please don't feel the need to respond. I'm not contacting you out of hours because I need something from you, I just choose to work during hours that suit me best and some days, that might be during an evening. That said, I will always try my best not to contact you after 5:00pm.  
  
**What am I working on to be a better manager and colleague?**  
  
I spent much of 2018-22 working in a standalone position without colleagues in similar roles to lean upon for support. I got very used to being the only person responsible for my function and as a result, my default is to get things done and sometimes, I forget that I have others around me who can contribute better ideas. Since becoming part of a wider HR team again, I have definitely started to recognise that there are other people around who want to be involved, and I am learning to let go and trust others to achieve great results.

**My expectations**  
  
I will never expect anyone to work beyond their normal working hours. Work life balance is important to me, for myself and others around me. I feel we can do our best work when we are well rested and when we have time to do the things outside of work that we enjoy, and that includes spending time with our loved ones. 

Whilst we all have contractual hours to work, start and finish times and locations are not important to me.  Providing we are able to deliver against what is expected of us, then I think we should be able to choose our hours and work location. 

It is important that we are able to discuss our frustrations, but it's equally important that we take action to resolve them rather than going over the same problems and not achieving anything in the process. If you come to me with a frustration or a problem, I will be happy to listen, but I will also expect you to have thought about ways to deal with the situation so that we can make an action plan and resolve it! My belief is that we can sometimes get caught up in complaining, when the time could be better spent solving the problem that is causing us to complain!

**Feedback**  
  
I care what people think, and I am always looking for ways I can improve as a manager and challenge myself to do better. I will invite the feedback of my team members and colleagues often, and encourage you to be open and honest with me. If I do something well, tell me so I can do more of it. If you think there is something I could improve, please let me know. We all have blind spots.

_ **This is a living document that will change as I learn more about myself and how we can best work together.** _