# Steve Grant's Manager Readme

**Engineering Manager at TCGplayer**

# Intro

Hello! I'm Steve (he/him) and just wanted to give you a quick introduction to my core values, thought processes, and overall insight into my headspace. If something is worth saying, it's probably worth writing down.&nbsp;Besides that, I want you to hold me accountable to everything I've written here; I&nbsp;think transparency and honesty are the only ways to have effective leadership, build trust, and create a safe place to make awesome things.&nbsp;

# My role as a supervisor

First and foremost,&nbsp; **you** are the ones doing all the hard work. My role as a leader is help you become the best version of yourself as possible. You're going to build great things,&nbsp; solve tough problems, and lead teams of those doing the same; my goal is to get any hindrances (myself included) out of the way.

- **Inclusion**** :&nbsp;**your voice and opinions are important. You are a valuable member of the team and I want to ensure you can express yourself, provide feedback, and contribute unencumbered to the work we do. My ultimate goal is to listen and understand.
- **Let me deal with red tape** : you are too smart and&nbsp;your time is too valuable to spend it dealing with corporate red tape, political arguments, and administrative tasks.&nbsp;
- **Get you what do you need:&nbsp;** what do you need to make your job better, more efficient, or easier? Would another monitor help? Too much on your plate? Hate this project? Tell me so I can work on fixing these!
- **Find opportunities:** once I know your personal goals, I&nbsp;want to figure out how we can achieve them. Are you working in IT but your goal is Data Science? There's a path there, and I&nbsp;want to find the projects and people to help you find those stepping stones.
- **Provide context**** :** it's easy to lose motivation and focus when we don't understand why something is being asked of our team. I&nbsp;want to make sure you understand how your contributions affect our product and the world we live in.
- **Ensuring work/life balance:** are you maintaining a healthy work/life balance? Sometimes kids get sick, sometimes you need a random Thursday to pursue your hobby, and sometimes you want to get away. Good! Don't be afraid to take that time. You taking PTO accomplishes 3 very important things:&nbsp;
  - gives you a much-deserved break from work
  - points out how important you are to the organization when your capacity loss is felt
  - shows us any gaps or single-point-of-failures we have. And when you're not working, don't work! Most things&nbsp;that come through Slack or e-mail do not require an immediate response.

# 1:1s

1:1s are&nbsp;your meeting. This shouldn't be about status updates; we can discuss that in standups or a quick Slack message. What do you want to do with your career?&nbsp;How is your work/life balance? How is your home life? I believe part of a supervisors job is helping clear the path for your own personal growth and helping you achieve your goals; this meeting is to align you and I on what those are.&nbsp;

Please come prepared with questions, thoughts, or some other agenda. If you don't have anything, I'll try to keep the conversation flowing as we navigate your growth.&nbsp;

# Personality quirks

- I tend to have a short attention span and find that taking notes helps immensely with my productivity. When we're in discussions, you might notice me typing; rest assured, I'm not distracted.&nbsp;just trying to record what we're saying so I&nbsp;can reflect and process it later on.  
- I always want to respect everyones&nbsp;time, which manifests itself as&nbsp;starting and ending on time. I get life happens and things can push you late; no problem. Just know that the agenda will kick off as scheduled; but that agenda will likely include a couple minutes to catch up.
- I&nbsp;think self-care is very important and everyone should block off some time to avoid meetings, take care of themselves, and have some focused work time. I'm a firm believer in No-Meetings-Fridays.
- I understand everyone has different working hours. I normally check e-mail and Slack between 8am and 5pm EST. Sometimes I work earlier or&nbsp;later and try to schedule the Slack messages to arrive during your working hours. Just let me know your preferred hours so we can align our asynchronous communications.
- I&nbsp;want to respect everyones core working hours and I'll try to keep every meeting between 9am and 4pm EST.&nbsp;  
- I love my time with my family and I'll take as much PTO as possible to ensure I&nbsp;can maximize that time. While on PTO, I'll be unreachable. I will leave clear communication lines in my absence and trust the organization to respect those boundaries.&nbsp;&nbsp;