# Holly Davis's Manager Readme

**Delivery Director at Deeson**

# My motivation for this document

Hi Ella! You're joining Deeson in very unprecedented times and I wanted to do something that might make your remote onboarding a little easier. I hope this helps.  

# My role

I started at Deeson in Feb 2017 as a Delivery Manager and later moved into the leadership team as Head of Delivery. Since merging with [The Panoply](https://www.thepanoply.com/), my job title has changed to Delivery Director but my role and responsibilities still remain largely the same. 

My job role can be summarised by these two impacts. You can view [my job scorecard](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1VGgPaFD-3KLtyJkfExXFH_aBufCPJJSqT_Uql_dRXmM/edit#gid=563912097) here. 

- You take responsibility for the successful end-to-end delivery of all agency projects.
- You ensure we have high-quality relationships with clients.

I work as a Delivery Manager on some of our key accounts including the Imperial War Museum, Middlesex University and Southbank Centre but I'm also responsible for onboarding new starters into our ways of working, training our clients in how we work and support the wider team with project delivery. 

I'm also an escalation point when we hit issues on projects. You can see what accounts I'm directly accountable for [here](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1zsnMMTmj_Jcz34EfVtrKy7WuPG5CGxbY09GQbRM5waU/edit#gid=1262807767).

# What do I value most?

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! Please treat it as a reference and promise on how I will conduct myself as a manager, and what I expect from you.

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.

# My Expectations

If you've got a question, please feel free to Slack me. I'm happy for you to tell me you don't need these or you need more, they're there to ensure you can always access me if you need to, not for me to "check up on you" or micro-manage what you're working on. 

If you need to speak to me about something else or would like more of my time for something, don't hesitate to book in some time in my calendar when I have a free slot. 

My expectations of you: 

**Listen**

I'm not expecting you to have all the answers, so don't feel like you need to! In your first few months, be curious, ask lots of questions. There are no silly questions. Be like a sponge and soak as much as you can up, that's going to be the quickest way to learn and how team love someone who asks questions and checks their assumptions early and often. 

**Provide context**

It's useful to provide context when asking a question or when discussing a problem you're facing, it sets the scene and minimises the opportunity for misunderstandings.

**Be concise **

You'll see that we spend a lot of time on Slack when sending a Slack message or any communication to our clients, read it back to yourself first and make sure it makes sense before hitting send.

**Where possible, tell me what type of 'help' you are looking for? Coaching vs mentoring vs advice vs a listening ear as a peer etc...**

At different times you'll want different things from me as your manager, sometimes you'll want me to just listen and other times you might want me to provide you with the answer or to coach you. By knowing what sort of advice you're seeking - it'll help me provide the right support. 

**Be explicit with what you need from me **

Similar to the above, if you need something from me, be explicit and feel free to chase me.

**Share work in progress**

As an agency, we value showing work in progress - as you're working feel free to ask for feedback early to sense check you're on the right track.

**Flag concerns/issues early**  
Mistakes happen and things do go wrong but the quicker they're raised, normally the less damage done and the easier they are to rectify. Don't panic if you do something wrong, we learn by 'doing' but if you're worried or have a niggly feeling about anything - voice it loudly and clearly.  

# 1:1s

During your probation period, we'll have more regular check-in's, we'll do these weekly at first and then over time, we may choose to do these less regularly. 

This end of week check-ins is an opportunity for you to reflect on how you're doing, to receive and give feedback and to ask any questions or raise any concerns. 

Each month, we'll do a longer 1:1 using the format [here](https://handbook.deeson.co.uk/working-at-deeson/one-to-ones/), it's always worth spending some time ahead of your 1:1 preparing for it so you get the best out of the time. 

**Don't wait for a 1:1 for feedback, if you want me to give timely feedback, ask me in the moment.**

# Personality quirks

A little bit about me and what you can expect! 

**I'm calm and not easily flustered **

Hopefully, you'll find me approachable and responsive, I'll always try and make myself available. 

**I'm a slow thinker**

I'm not always brilliant at thinking on my feet and generally quite reflective, I sometimes like to take things away and think about them properly before responding. If that's the case, I'll be explicit and always let you know when you can expect a response.

**I'm an empathetic leader**

I'm sensitive but this makes me emotionally intelligent and I value strong working relationships. I hope I'll become someone you can trust, rely on and feel comfortable sharing stuff with. 

# Where to focus your first few months?

We've put together an onboarding trello board for you to work through but know that success in the current climate looks different.  

Be kind on yourself, you haven't got an office full of people where you can get immediate responses and building relationships will take longer. 

I won't be measuring your impact on the number of hours you've logged. Find your own pace and don't put unnecessary pressure on yourself. 

**Some good things to focus on:**

- Focus on the key projects you'll be working on first and immerse yourself in those as much as you can.
- Start building relationships by booking in 1:1's with some of the team (perhaps start with getting to know the other team members in your pod). You can also join our daily lunchtime meetings and the end of the week all company round up.  
- Get stuck in, don't be afraid to ask a team member if you can pair with them, observe a ceremony e.g. a demo or retrospective for another project or book in a meeting with someone you'd like to get to know better or learn something from.  
- Some of our Slack channels are pretty active, feel free to have a nosey around and join the conversation.

- Read our [new starter](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_WxMU-yazuGRzM8ZVH9YqQQreHaHrUc7EAKRmLjvg_U/edit) reading list. 
- You may want to write a blog post about your onboarding or share your own [user manual](https://docs.google.com/document/d/14g1XrSVEs4KXJbM8bUfUahHa79tTEjXF-RQbELnIhNA/edit) (both optional)

Once again, welcome to the team. We're really glad to have you here 💯