# Arvind Naidu's Manager Readme **Head of Engineering at Mindvalley** **_Working with Arvind_** > **_I'm on a mission to build the world's best self-sustaining and cross-functional engineering teams by managing cognitive load while pruning communication pathways and limiting scope to create unbeatable focus._** I’m an effective, empathic team builder who deeply cares about people, and I thrive on helping the people in my team be successful. I’m always interested in learning about interesting opportunities, and I am also available for consulting and coaching. # Motivation Manifesto **Inviting Vulnerability By Presenting My Own** > This living document is a way of **inviting vulnerabilities from other leaders by tabling and presenting my own**.   By being vulnerable, I do not mean sharing my deepest darkest secrets but rather acknowledging that I am new to this role - new to managing this team. It means being present with the team and letting them know their success is my utmost importance. Accepting the fact that everyone is fallible, I am always open to ** constructive measurable feedback**  and being **receptive to acknowledging it visibly and proactively**. # My Role **f(people, process, purpose) **- I am here to **improve the team, not carry it**. If I’m doing my job well, when I step away from the team for long periods of time, things will continue to function well, and adapt and improve. If we've worked together for at least 6 months - you would have seen significant personal growth in yourself. As much as I love technology - nothing compares to **seeing the people I work with become better versions of themselves**. # My Management Principles - **Family.**  Always comes first! - **Trust.**  Trust yourself, trust others. And trust doesn’t mean blind obedience or blind acceptance. - **Space.**  You should have space to succeed. Or fail. - **People over process**. In the end, people always matter most. Openness, caring, participatory management, and fostering trust-based relationships through clear communication help put people first in what we do. - **I’m here to serve and support people**. I’m here to help people, teams and organisations succeed. Setting clear expectations, goals, coaching people, and holding each other accountable helps us grow together. - **Processes.**  I'm a firm believer that process tools and mechanisms can drive people to produce better outcomes. I've been a systems builder and thinker all my life, and it's fair to say process is one of my strengths. I do my best not to overcomplicate it, though. When architecting engineering systems, I focused on an elegant and simple core that did “just enough” to work, then I optimised the hell out of it. I think about process the same way. - **Diversity and inclusion matter**. Striving to be more diverse and inclusive is the only right thing to do. Only diverse teams in inclusive organisations can build appropriate solutions to the problems that humanity is facing. - **Battle rhythms.**  Cadences for everything. The more routine, the less chaotic your life and your brain will be. More time and space for important, creative thinking. - **Make work visible.**  Self-promote. Make yourself visible. But don’t be a jerk – it’s possible to put yourself out there without losing your soul. - **Learning matters**. Organisations, teams, and people greatly benefit from continuously learning, and all of us need to keep learning from each other. - **Outward communication.**  Tone is important. Be impeccable with your word and tone. Use the power of your word in the direction of truth and respect for others. _Admittedly, I fail at this sometimes._ - **Firehose.**  I’m going to share a lot of information flow with you. This rarely comes with action items for you, and you don’t even need to acknowledge everything I tell you. I’m rarely going to shield you from “work in progress” decisions, even if it goes another way. It’s entirely your choice what you do with this information or not, and I strongly believe the more relevant context and understanding you have about what’s going on above and around you, the more business impact you can have in your work. - **Assertive but open-minded.**  I can sometimes come off as assertive or having strong conviction in my opinions, but I am very open-minded. I care more about arriving at the best outcome for the customer than I do about being right. - **Assumptions.**  I don’t like to make assumptions. Find the courage to ask questions (even dumb ones) and express what you really want. Communicate as clearly as you can to avoid misunderstandings or drama. - **Always do your best.**  This changes from moment to moment – it’s different when you’re healthy or sick, rested or tired, etc. Recognise and acknowledge when you’re not at your best, and forgive yourself. > **_When you’re tired, lie down._ > _The fool will laugh at you_ > _but the wise man will understand.__    >    - Lin Chi, Zen Master_** **Finally, I’m a checklist person** abiding by _The Checklist Manifesto_ **.**  I make no apologies for this. ## Communicating With Me **Be a human.**  Don't be afraid to show emotion. Be open. I'd prefer to just have a conversation as humans. In a 1:1, bring your unfiltered thoughts. Real talk please and let the outcome be measurable action items. **Team communication.**  With me and within this team, say what you mean. Radical candor and transparency is the most effective way to solve the hard problems and be the best possible team. I need you to play devil’s advocate or be the courageous voice of dissent. The canary. This makes us wrestle with ideas that make us uncomfortable. I expect and ask for good conflict. Sometimes, I'll be the catalyst for conflict ("poke the bear" or "bring up the elephant in the room") when I think it's lying under the surface. **Bringing problems.**  Tell me the problem. Tell me how you’re thinking about it. Tell me some ideas on what you could do about it. Tell me what you’d like me to do. # Personal Quirks I live in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. I grew up in a small town called Melaka. When I’m not working or spending time with my mentees, I enjoy building cars, racing them _(legally, of course)_ and drinking good coffee_ _. # Myers Briggs / A Bit About Me I’m labelled as a “Mentor” in the Myers Briggs model. [Or a “ **Protagonist** ” according to 16 personalities](https://www.16personalities.com/enfj-personality). 👈🏻 Describes me to a T. [![16 Personalities](https://s3.amazonaws.com/managerreadme/images/Screenshot 2020-06-10 at 12.48.29 PM.png "16 Personalities")](https://www.16personalities.com/enfj-personality) While I generally test extroverted, I have learned to be more introverted when needed at times. I’m frustrated by: - **Restrictions** - For example, I'm frustrated by policies that restrict the use of tools that would increase productivity or collaboration. Or the idea that only those with certain titles are able to contribute ideas in their respective areas. - **Being told how to work** - Because I like to try new processes that aim to solve pain points, I can be frustrated by being directed to use specific methods rather than achieving specific results. - **Anything slow** - For example, I'm frustrated by bureaucratic processes that slow down decision making. Or manual processes that could be automated.  I irritate others by: - Sometimes doing my own thing - Not communicating (though, I make extra efforts to offset this) - Shooting from the hip - Appearing anti-social and cold # 1:1s I do 1:1s biweekly (depending on the number of direct reports). We keep 1:1 topics on a project management tool we use, and I encourage you to add topics to this whenever they cross your mind. I will setup notifications for updates, so the further in advance I see the topic, the more prepared I can be to discuss it. I expect you to drive the session. I will often come with questions, though - in the event we do not have pre-existing topics. I generally try to alternate between personal development and tactical topics every other week. Or a blend within a single session. # Skip-Levels I do skip-level 1:1 meetings with engineers on a revolving basis, with 2-3 per week. Generally we cover: - Career Dev - EM - PM & Design - Product - Arch - Quality - Team Dynamics - Process It’s critical to our success that we create an environment where anyone can feel safe criticising their manager. We want everyone to grow, and often the best mechanism for that is being transparent and honest about your boss. The goal of these meetings is to give the engineers a time and place to do that. A secondary goal of these meetings is for you to get to know me, and vice versa. Or to get to know more about the business and our strategy. # Communications **Schedule.**  My official working hours are:  **10am-6pm GMT+8 Monday-Friday**. After 6pm, I'm generally unavailable as I am working on personal projects unless I am on-call. I also often work on weekends except when I have my racing season on which requires me to travel. **Calendar blocks.**  My calendar runs my life, and if there is an open area on my calendar, assume it’s free to schedule something with me. If you see a calendar item with a prefix `[Moveable]`, you may schedule over it with an important call. If I invite you to a call marked `[Moveable]`, you can move it to another open block on my calendar at your leisure. If you're scheduling an interview, you can schedule over any `[Moveable]` or `[Blocked]` event. **Communications.**  I am in meetings a lot, but I strive for the following response times (think of it as SLAs): - Phone calls and texts immediately. - Slack messages first thing in the morning or by the end of the day. - Email beginning or end of the week. If I _email_ or _Slack_ you during off-hours, I  **do not**   **expect**  a response. If you do respond, I will not hold it against you for “working off hours”. If I _text message_ or _call_ _you on the phone_ during off-hours, I  **do expect**  a response because that means there is an urgent customer emergency -- solvable with a proper on-call rotation within the teams. # Other Resources My [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/naiduarvind/) profile. My [Twitter](https://twitter.com/rvine_naidu) profile. My [Github](https://github.com/naiduarvind) profile. I blog on [The \*bility Engineer](https://thebility.engineer). The [public talks I have given](https://github.com/naiduarvind/me). You can find what I'm reading on [Jira](https://thebilityengineer.atlassian.net/secure/RapidBoard.jspa?projectKey=TBE).