# Sutton's Manager Readme **Technical Program Manager at Globalization Partners** # Motivation Just like me; this document will always be a work in progress. I'm growing and learning everyday.  **Important** : Inspired by several blogs/posts ([Example](https://hackernoon.com/12-manager-readmes-from-silicon-valleys-top-tech-companies-26588a660afe)) on the importance of a Manager’s README. This document is _NOT_ meant as a replacement for us getting to know each other. We’ll learn more about each other organically.  # My role At a minimum:  - Attract, retain, and grow high performing individuals and teams. - Set up our humans for success and autonomy. - Establish and maintain the standard for product delivery.  - Grow our business as a company - Enabling your growth as team members - Increasing the impact of our mission to change the approach and delivery of government contracting for millions of Americans. - Foster a culture of passion, innovation and collaboration leading to a track record for building quality products. # What do I value most? - I value people and culture over strategy. - I value striving for greatness, not perfection. - I value transparency and candor.  - My slack bubble is always green and my office is always open for my team.  - I don't do suspenseful or scary messages, [nohello.net](https://nohello.net/en/), if Im sending you a Slack it's Hi + Why - I trust you to talk to my manager and/or other senior management about anything you feel is relevant. You don’t need to clear it with me. - Feedback - I always want your feedback. Tell me when I’m wrong, tell me your ideas for how we can do better, and tell me if you're comfortable saying it.  - No surprises. Feedback and self improvement is and should be on going, constant, and private. There will be no feedback in your performance review that you’re hearing for the first time.  - I value small teams. - [Small teams create amazing things!](https://i.imgur.com/43z8Jsf.png) - I value Work/life balance.  - We work to live, not live to to work. You'll generally find me available between 8:30am - 5:30pm. Unless there's an incident/emergency; I don’t expect to communicate with you outside of these hours with respect to your local time. I try not to respond to e-mails or Slack during off-hours and  **under no circumstances expect you to unless it’s an emergency.** - I value Flex Time and a Remote Workforce.  - Banks, doctors, mechanics, etc... have limited schedules - you know your schedule and your work. - Be where you need to be: Need to meet our customer? Be there! Need to collaborate with a whiteboard and sticky notes? Be in the office! Need to go heads down on a task? Work from home!  - Remote Etiquette  - I try to; defer to the phone line first and assure everyone can hear the audio.  - I turn my video on for all calls. I do it so you know that I'm paying attention and interacting as if we were in the same room. You don't have to turn on your video, but know that I'll always appreciate it when you do.       - I value my time and your time. - All meetings are optional - no really - if you're in a meeting, ceremony, ect... and it's of no value to you; hop off! If there's a question or if you're needed; I'll ping you on Slack.   - I value [kaizen](https://www.leanproduction.com/kaizen.html#:~:text=Kaizen%20(Continuous%20Improvement)%20is%20a,a%20powerful%20engine%20for%20improvement.).  - It’s okay to fail, as long we learn the lesson and sharing our learnings.  - I value ruthless prioritization - [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MoSCoW\_method](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MoSCoW_method) - I value planning for failure - [ Fail like elevators. ](https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/elevator-plunges-are-rare-because-brakes-and-cables-provide-fail-safe-protections/2013/06/07/e44227f6-cc5a-11e2-8845-d970ccb04497_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.dc517c56f4ad) - I value the [Site Reliability Hierarchy](https://sre.google/sre-book/part-III-practices/) # My Assumptions - You’re very good at your job. You wouldn’t be here if you weren’t. I serve you, not the other way around. - You’ll let me know if you can’t do your job. One of my main responsibilities is ensuring that you’re set up for success. Occasionally things slip through the cracks and I won’t know I’m letting you down. - You feel safe debating with me. If it sounds like I’m disagreeing I’m most likely just playing devil’s advocate. I dislike Steve Jobs as an idealized manager, but I do appreciate his focus on not being right, but getting to the right answer. I don't want to be right, I want the team to be right. # # 1:1s **TL;DR :**  Very few things are more important than talking to you if you want to talk to me.  I’m big on 1:1s. I believe that these meetings are for you to set the agenda. These don’t need to be status updates unless you really want to talk about project status.  What would you like to talk about? What’s going well? Heard a rumor? Need clarification on something? Blocked? What’s bugging you? I'd love to hear as soon as possible. Pull me aside, shoot me a slack message, give me a call - please don't wait for our next scheduled 1:1 Feel free to put something in my calendar, don’t feel like you need to ask first. Is my calendar full? Send me a message and I’ll very likely be able to move something around. My recurring questions I'll ask during 1:1s: - How are _you_?  - What was a win that _you_ had since the last time we chatted?  - What was a challenge _you_ faced / are currently facing?  - How may I enable _your_ success?  # # Recommended Reading:  - 1:1s - [https://medium.com/@mrabkin/the-art-of-the-awkward-1-1-f4e1dcbd1c5c](https://medium.com/@mrabkin/the-art-of-the-awkward-1-1-f4e1dcbd1c5c) - Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) - [https://www.david-merrick.com/2017/06/26/dickerson-s-hierarchy-of-service-reliability/](https://www.david-merrick.com/2017/06/26/dickerson-s-hierarchy-of-service-reliability/) - [https://blog.alicegoldfuss.com...](https://blog.alicegoldfuss.com/how-to-get-into-sre/) - [https://landing.google.com/sre/sre-book/toc/index.html](https://landing.google.com/sre/sre-book/toc/index.html) -    Books that shape me as a manager - [Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peopleware:_Productive_Projects_and_Teams) - [The Mythical Man-Month](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mythical_Man-Month) - [The DevOps Handbook](https://smile.amazon.com/DevOps-Handbook-World-Class-Reliability-Organizations/dp/1942788002/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=Devops+handbook&qid=1561648607&s=gateway&sr=8-3) - [Delivering Happiness](https://smile.amazon.com/Delivering-Happiness-Profits-Passion-Purpose/dp/0446576220/ref=sr_1_3?crid=3BMDT994AFBX9&keywords=delivering+happiness&qid=1561648635&s=gateway&sprefix=Delivering+Hap%2Caps%2C132&sr=8-3) - [Dare To Lead](https://smile.amazon.com/Dare-Lead-Brave-Conversations-Hearts/dp/0399592520/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Dare+to+Lead+Brave+Work.+Tough+Conversations.+Whole+Hearts.%5C&qid=1553694788&s=books&sr=1-1&sa-no-redirect=1) - [Radical Candor](https://smile.amazon.com/Radical-Candor-Kick-Ass-Without-Humanity/dp/1250103509/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Radical+Candor+Be+a+Kick-Ass+Boss+Without+Losing+Your+Humanity&qid=1553695014&s=books&sr=1-1-catcorr&sa-no-redirect=1) - [Influence](https://smile.amazon.com/Influence-Psychology-Persuasion-Robert-Cialdini/dp/006124189X/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=Influence&qid=1567187749&s=books&sr=1-3)