# Knut Holm's Manager Readme **Engineering Manager at Fishbrain** # Motivation for this document First off, welcome! If you’re reading this, I've most probably just became your manager or you are considering to join our company and the team I am currently managing. If you ended up here somehow else it's completely fine as well, I am glad you are curious to get to know me better. I wrote these lines as an ultimate cheat-sheet so you can get the most out of our cooperation; if you ever wondered how to use Knut as your manager, you will most probably find some useful information here. Despite of not being able to promise that this text is a fully comprehensive guide, I did my best for it to be. This document will be evolving and so will I! That also means I appreciate your feedback on this text in case you miss something here or find something a bit misleading.  # My role I work at Fishbrain as Engineering Manager of Web Utility team. Have you every wondered who is responsible for all the data visualisation in our map at [fishbrain.com](https://fishbrain.com)? Right, that is our work - among many other cool things. It can sometimes feel like we live only in the map but that's definitely not the truth! As our team motto says, we build great web features that keep our Anglers coming back for more. **My key responsibilities are:** - To ensure you have all tools and information you need for getting your job done and nothing blocks you - To ensure we as a team work on the right things in the right time - To ensure we are a team; we help each other, motivate and support each other, have fun together, celebrate success together and resolve problems together - To ensure you have plenty of chances to grow in your expertise and achieve your personal career goals # What kind of a leader am I? I don't like thinking about myself as a manager because I don't like telling other people what I think they should do; I rather try to make people around me taking ownership over things they do, as well as offer them help and guidance on their paths. I am a good servant of my team as well as a mentor and a friend. That being said, I am trying to use all the knowledge I have for helping people around me grow and whenever I end up working on something alone, I make sure I have a time afterwards to explain the stuff to everybody who wants to listen. Being around for my team members is always my top priority, because I believe I can multiply the effort of the whole team by knowledge sharing rather than me providing an individual contribution.  Last but not least, I feel strongly responsible for finding opportunities for all the team members and making sure that everybody has the equal chances when contributing to a team success. # What you can expect of me as your manager **Finding answers to your questions and helping you getting things done.**  If there is something which blocks or worries you, I would love to know about it so we can try to resolve it together. You don't have to hesitate reaching me any time for whatever reason; I prefer receiving couple of irrelevant questions from times to time over missing something truly important. I don't always know answers to all the questions right away, but I am quite good in figuring out how to get them. **Being always around and making time to talk to you.**  Doesn't matter if you want to brainstorm on something, pair program together, need a help or chat about terrible weather. I spend lot of my time on calls, but will get back to you on Slack as soon as possible - or you can just check my calendar and schedule a call with me, too. **Organising regular 1 to 1 meetings,**  because I believe it is an essential part of our work. This is a chance for us to discuss regularly what is going on, provide feedback on each other and get to know each other better. I don't have any strong preferences regarding how we should be spending this time; I always try to adapt the format and content to everybody in my team individually so it fits your needs. **Putting a strong focus on collaboration and team work.**  I love to pair program, organise MOB programming sessions and brainstorm together. Everybody in the team has their own indispensable role and can learn from the others as well as educate the others. I can be sometimes a bit annoying when trying to promote this concept so feel free to push me back a bit if you think it is too much and need some time to work alone :-) # What I expect of you **Asking questions.**  Seriously, I am paid for answering your questions! Do it often and whenever you want, but please respect I need to be on meetings sometimes so it can take some time until I am able to reach back to you; however, I will always do. **Speaking up when you are blocked.**  It doesn't help anybody if you are stuck with something and don't ask for help; you will be irritated and the team effort will be slowed down. I build our cooperation on trust, which means I will make sure to create a safe space for you to be able to say you don't know something and expect you will admit it when needed in return. **No gatekeeping.**  Whenever you discover something amazing or develop something which requires documentation, I trust you will share the information with others. There are no reasons why not to include juniors into more advanced conversations and there are no reasons why not to include seniors into more basic conversations.  **Telling me that I am wrong**  whenever you think so. I value immediate and honest feedback and rarely get upset when somebody tells me I am not doing what they expect from me. You don't have to put much fluffiness into the words; more the opposite, if you don't say directly why you are upset with me, I might end up thinking it is not a serious problem.  **Appreciate activities I am driving** , if you think they make sense and bring value to you. Otherwise I tend to think people are not interested in the given activity and you risk me stop driving it, even though you may like it. # Personality quirks - I am not a morning person at all and may sometimes have problems to make my first meeting in time, especially when working from home. Also my brain in the morning doesn't work as I wish, so it is better to plan important meetings with me after the lunch. - I sometimes tend to interrupt others on meetings when I think I have to say some amazing idea right now until I forget it. I apologise for that, it doesn't mean I am rude and not interested in what you are talking about. - I am usually very optimistic person who is often in very good mood so you will most likely hear me saying something like "that's not a problem at all" pretty often. However, when I rarely don't have a good day, I can be very irksome and those are days when it is better to let me be alone. Good thing is I don't have any state between these two. - I sometimes do stupid jokes when I see everybody on meeting is falling asleep; they have no other reason and sometimes they don't make sense at all, too. Don't worry if you don't get them, the important thing is you are hopefully not sleepy anymore :-D # What drives me nuts - Wasting my time. I don't have any problem to reschedule a meeting when you cannot attend if you let me know in advance, but I hate when somebody doesn't appear on meeting without declining an invitation or pinging me on Slack. I also don't like being on meetings just because they are planned when there is no more stuff to discuss. - People coming unprepared to meetings which require preparation and that was clearly defined. - Not answering pools and forms in a given timeline. - Forgetting about important stuff which should have been noted down and done. - Unnecessary paperwork and introducing processes for the sake of having processes. # What I value - Taking ownership and getting things done - Eagerness to grow and educate others - Transparent communication - Speaking up for somebody else when needed - People who can admit they did a mistake and learned from it - Taking care of each other - Optimism and (inappropriate) jokes # How I handle stress - I handle short term stress (up to two weeks) quite well and there is no need to worry about me - Mid term stress (up to two months) is still manageable for me, however I will more likely reserve more time for diving during evenings and weekends which helps me to relax - Long term stress is very risky situation for me because I try to manage everything until I just can't which is usually too late for doing something about it. If you see any of these signs, I am very likely under long term stress and I would appreciate if you try to talk to me about it and warn me to slow down: - Skipping lunch pauses and social meetings - Not talking about diving - Complaining about long TODO lists which I am not able to clear - Cancelling meetings often, feeling anxious even during 1-1 calls # Some personal things that can affect me - I live on the island with limited transport options, which makes my commuting harder. I like meeting in the office and attending after works, however a good planning is the key for me so I prefer knowing about such events in advance. There is a high chance I will need to commute by car so I appreciate if the meeting points have good parking options. - I am a passionate diver and I dive often after office hours, so I prefer having my schedule flexible. It is not rare seeing me working one day till 20:00 and another day finishing at 15:00. I appreciate checking with me before planning a meeting after 16:00 CET.