# Roger Deetz's Manager Readme

**Vice President of Technology at Springbuk**

# Roger’s ReadMe

Welcome to the team! I’m excited to work with you. To get us off to a good start, I’ve written down some things I think will be helpful for you to know. Take a look, ask any questions you have, and if there is anything you’re not sure about, let’s talk.

## My Leadership Mission

To create teams, develop people, and motivate them to do quality work building valuable things.

## My Role

I get excited building great products, and I am motivated to help people do their best work. The most important part of my role is to help you be successful as you run your team. I will do that by:

- Collaborating with you to define “the mission” for your team
- Give you context and direction so you can make decisions
- Provide cover from other parts of the company so that you and your team can focus on your mission
- Share my experience and perspective as what works best when getting teams to perform
- Be a sounding board for your ideas and advocate to implement good ideas
- Help with communication to/from other parts of the company
- Giving feedback to you to help you improve
- Understand your own personal career goals and help make a plan to get you there

I may still “build” on occasion. I do that because I enjoy it, and to keep my skills sharp, and to stay connected with how the teams work. I’m not doing that because I think I know better, or because I don’t trust you. I will try to be realistic and self-aware of how much time I can truly apply to building; I don’t want to get in the way or be a blocker, so if you see that happening, call me on it.

## Your Role

I expect that you are the captain of your team. Captains don’t do all the work, captains don’t make every decision, but captains are--at the end of the day--accountable for what happens on the ship. As such, you will be my point of contact for the team. I might ask you “what’s the status of this thing?” or “why did we do it that way?” When I do that, I’m not expecting that you know every answer off the top of your head, but I do expect that you’ll be able to find out. Other things that are part of your role:

- You are accountable for the health of your team; if people are struggling, your first priority is to help them, and if you feel like you need help, let’s talk it out
- Give your team context and direction so they can make decisions
- Give feedback to your team members to help them improve
- Speak up for the team’s needs
- Share your good ideas for what is working on your team with your peers, and...
- Ask your peers for what is working well on their teams
- Get your team where they want to go in their career

## How We Work Together

We will have a weekly team meeting. This meeting brings your peers together so we can keep the department running well, share what is going on, and solve problems together. This is not a “status” meeting for projects; it is a time for important work.

We will have a biweekly 1:1. In our 1:1, I want to know how you’re doing, and how your team is doing. I don’t mean “what is the status of your project”, I mean how are you doing? We might talk about status-y things, but that’s not the point. The points are:

- Do you feel like you can do your best work? If not, what can we do about that?
- Is your team healthy? What can we do to make them healthier?
- Are you improving? What can we do to help you improve?
- Are we making this place a little better than last time?

I know there is a lot on my calendar, so we may only have time scheduled every other week, but my top priority is being there for you, so if you need an ad hoc 1:1, go ahead and schedule it. I will make it happen.

We will have a quarterly professional growth check-in. This is somewhere between a 1:1 and an “annual performance review.” Neither one of us should wait for this quarterly meeting to provide feedback or raise issues, but we will take a little extra time every three months to have a deeper discussion on how you can grow professionally. 

I may occasionally attend your team meetings as an observer and to stay connected to the work. When I do that, I will try to remain “in the background” and if I have feedback I will deliver it to you in a different setting. If you think my attendance is distracting or counterproductive for the team, let’s talk about it.

## Things I Value

- Give it to me straight. We can solve just about any problem, but only if we are honest about what is going on.
- If you identify a problem, great, but please also bring your ideas for solutions. 
- When there are conflicts between people, my first question will be “have they tried to work it out with each other?” This applies to members of your team, or between you and anyone else.
- I have a bias towards action. I do believe in “measure twice, cut once” but after we’ve measured twice, let’s go for it… I don’t have a lot of patience for revisiting decisions we have already made, unless…
- … we have new information (this is important). Just because we chose a path, once we learn more, we should feel free to change the path if it makes sense for what we know now.

## My Schedule and Priorities

- I may occasionally work nights and weekends. I do this because I enjoy my job and because I chose to. I don’t expect that of you, so if I send you a question or idea on a Saturday, don’t feel like you need to respond RIGHT AWAY. I probably did that because it crossed my mind. We can deal with it Monday.
- However, sometimes after-hours work may be required. Hopefully this is rare, but if it is, I will be clear. “Hey this is one of those times I need an answer right now / we need to finish this by tomorrow / whatever.” I take that responsibility seriously, so if I ask it’s because we really have to.
- I try to take care of myself (sleep, exercise, vacation). It is important to me that you do as well. Take advantage of time away. I will keep an eye out for burnout, but I need you to let me know if you are feeling it. We can work through it.

Of course this does not cover every possible situation we will face together. But, we were all hired to be problem solvers, so I strongly believe “we can figure it out”. I’m happy you are here and I look forward to working together.