# Immánuel Fodor's Manager Readme

**CTO at Trendency**

# Introduction

This page is my personal `README` to let you get to **know me better** and give a head start of our relationship.

When you check out a new project, the first thing you probably do is to read its `README` file to understand its **purpose** , how it **operates** , what can you **expect** from it, where to **get help** , and so on. I hope after reading this document, you'll have a clearer picture of me about the same aspects but **as a person and as a manager**.

# How I view success

Many years ago, when I started my career, I was more of a **striker** , if we think of football terms. It's a great responsibility: either you score a goal when you get the ball and cheer with the whole stadium, or you miss it, and then you'll be replaced after a few errors.

As time passed by, I slowly transitioned into a **midfielder** , where my joy comes from recognizing opportunities and giving the ball to others who will have a chance now to score it.

Even though I'm not a football fan, this is a story of **enabling others, valuing teamwork over individual performance, and celebrating together** in the end when we've won the game.

Some of my personal values in Pirates vs. Ninjas style:

- **Openness** over passive-aggressive comments
- **Living and feeling individuals** over cogs in the machine
- **Fun joint discovery** over executing commands blindly
- **Learning by doing** over frontal education of axioms
- **Generosity** over being cheap

And some technical points:

- **Automation** over repetitive and dull manual work
- **Microservices** over rigid monoliths
- **Interpreted script languages** over compiled code
- **Open-source software** over black boxes invading privacy
- **Finding a new tool** over hacking an existing one

# How I communicate

I'm more of an email person as the inbox can act as a simple **to-do** list, and I feel I'm more persuasive over email when I have the time to gather and polish my thoughts than in person. My way of thinking when writing an **email** is to avoid any loose if-else statements and handle **every question** that might arise later. Therefore my writings can be  **long** when I feel the need to write long and explain in detail. If you don't have the time to read it right away, mark it as **unread** , and please read it later that day.

In working hours, you can expect me to reply to **chat** messages **within an hour** as I might have a meeting or doing focused work but it's usually half an hour or less.

These days I prefer self-development activities **in my free time** to being online on social media, but you can surely find me on [Linkedin](https://fodor.it/mgrreadmein), [Instagram](https://fodor.it/insta-mgrreadme), [GitHub](https://fodor.it/mgrreadmegit), [my blog](https://fodor.it/mgrreadmeit) and on several other platforms.

# Things I do that may annoy you

I've experienced, read, seen many things over the years, I also have opinions about those, and I like talking enthusiastically. Nevertheless, I'd also like to **learn about your views** , and I'm willing to change my mind if you prove to me otherwise.

**I'd never make you feel bad deliberately**. If I accidentally tell a joke, a phrase, etc. that disturbs you, I might not think ahead and said it too quickly, but you can be sure that I did not intend to hurt you. Please tell me about it afterward, and I'll **pay attention** not to make the same mistake again. If I need to tell you bad news, I also feel myself out of my comfort zone, and I approach you with **empathy**.

Oh, and have I mentioned a couple of long emails? 😀

# What gains and loses my trust

**Optimize** workflows to handle things as **efficiently** and as **transparently** as possible, and you can be sure that I'll have my respect towards to you.

On the other hand, if you're being **bureaucratic** , **making change hard** , **prioritizing tradition and outdated concepts** over learning and growth, we'll have a hard time to get on the same page. To show an example, I spend at least an hour every day to read and keep myself **up-to-date** about tech news, industry and leadership **best practices** , and I also like getting **hands-on** experience with enabler tech. I can only recommend doing the same, you're never too late or too old to learn something new that can bring us further.

However, learning is just one thing, you can still be a bad person if you have all the knowledge in the world and not willing to share. **Always grow and always make others grow**.

# My strengths

Since 2017, I get up at **4:30 AM** every day, even on the weekends, and [here is a blog post](https://fodor.it/onfejlesztes-hatekonysag) (in Hungarian) about how my wife and I got this habit. Changing the daily routine gives me **productive hours** before doing work, so I can direct my focus to personal development activities. _(Update: as I transitioned into the CTO role, I needed to give up this habit in 2021 Q2 but it had a crucial role in getting this job!)_

I'm more of an **E-shaped** person who knows **a little of everything** (turn the letter E 90 degrees clockwards), rather than a T-shaped who is an expert of one thing. I felt confused over not being an expert in anything for quite some time before I realized, this is the **superpower** in management, so I've been trying to **broaden** my field of view since then.

Integrating systems to work as a distributed complex machine is my favorite part these days, maybe that's why I have a [homelab](https://www.reddit.com/r/homelab/) to experiment with **DevOps** and system administration. Among many things, you can ask me anything about virtualization, containerization, container orchestration, CI/CD, and I'll be **glad to help**.

# My growth areas

I like **helping others** and don't avoid getting my hands dirty in everyday tasks. Still, I also need to focus on **high-level objectives** , so I might just show you the way in a specific problem, and let you walk the path, like a **mentor** does. But I'd be happy if you could tell me what the final **solution** was, I'm genuinely interested!

These days I'm into **Kubernetes** as a new hard skill (took the CKA exam in March, 2021), and also **organization development** , **product development** , and how to **build a successful company** with few available resources.

Side-note to this learning obsession: My workplaces were always for-profit agencies, startups or e-commerce giants where I was trained to grow, grow, grow, get better each year, have more customers, earn more, optimize, repeat. Hence, I might have a blind spot to just **live in peace and achieve zen**. I'm not this person, so I either need to find a way to accept people who find mediocrity enough or I need to help them get better as stagnation or falling behind are not options for me :) To the Moon! 🚀

# How I give and receive feedback

I like regular **informal** 1-on-1s (at least bi-weekly) when we discuss things without following formal dance steps and getting things done while feeling safe and honest. So I'd go on a walk with you or go shopping instead reserving a meeting room. It can also depend on the circumstances, e.g., too cold or rainy.

1-on-1s are _your_ sessions, and [there is an excellent article](https://fodor.it/your-1on1-guide) on this topic, I'd like you to read. There is [another one](https://fodor.it/manager-1on1-guide) for me as a manager if you'd like to know the other side.

Besides, just write me **anytime about anything**.

# What I expect from people I manage

I'm here to make your life **easier** , not more difficult. I'm here to let you work according to **your best** and allow us to **grow further**.

Meanwhile, we have products, projects and a company we need to make successful. I believe that it can only be if everybody who's working on it is **balanced** , **interested** in what we do, and equally **involved** in the making. The results will come naturally if the foundations are **firm**.

A picture of a police officer enforcing the law could not be further from me. Instead, I'll try to show you why playing by our conventional policies is **beneficiary** for all of us. Oh, and I don't like to make rules, but I love following **patterns** that might become **practice** or making **suggestions** that we can all **agree** on to develop.

You know the meme: **modern problems require modern solutions** , that's why I suggest [thinking outside of the box](https://fodor.it/think-outside-of-the-box) when you can.

Working **out of office hours** can be terrible for your health, I try to avoid it as much as I can. When there is an emergency, I state it, otherwise, feel free to reply on the next workday morning.

_Note: You're reading the third iteration of this document, please feel free to give me feedback on how I could improve it more._