# Steven Syrek's Manager Readme

**Engineering Manager at DeepL**

# Motivation for this document

The goal of this document is to reflect on myself as a manager in order to make it easier for my colleagues to get to know me and the way I work. I would like to start every professional relationship by transparently communicating what I believe to be my strengths and weaknesses, my preferences and antipathies.

# My role

As an engineering manager, I have two main jobs: keep my team happy and keep them delivering value for the company. I believe the best way to address both at the same time is to ensure they are growing their capabilities and taking ownership of their work. My belief is that autonomy encourages responsibility, quality, and satisfaction.

# My values

- Autonomy: for myself and for my team.
- Continuous learning.
- Non-transactional relationships.
- Collaboration and strategic partnership.
- Focus on value: in delivery and in personal development.

# My key strengths

- Reliability and integrity in work: if I say I’m going to do something, I will do it, and to the best of my ability.
- Honesty, even when it’s uncomfortable or doesn’t serve my interests.
- Empathy towards others and a desire to see people achieve their goals.
- Organizer of daily work, planner for long term objectives, and always looking to improve. I’m a follower of the [Getting Things Done](https://gettingthingsdone.com/) system.
- Learning quickly, listening, acting on feedback in a timely manner.

# How to communicate with me

- Slack is always preferable to email, but discussing important issues in 1:1 meetings, with an agenda prepared in advance,  is even better.
- Assume I don’t know what you’re talking about unless you’re certain I know what you’re talking about—especially for technical topics.
- Communicate clearly, in detail, and in good faith.
- Give me as much lead time as you can. Nothing frustrates me more than suddenly being required to do something by a deadline if I could have known about it sooner—especially if the deadline is arbitrary or, because I wasn’t informed,  I will end up doing a lower quality job.
- I prefer documents to slides and time for asynchronous thinking over trying to brainstorm everything in meetings.

# How to work with and motivate me

- Be clear about larger goals and expected outcomes, so I can participate effectively in the success of your agenda.

- Always be open and transparent about your intentions and actions, even if I disagree with them. I have a hard time trusting or respecting people who attempt to manipulate me.
- Take my requests seriously. If I have to follow-up on things frequently, I will assume my needs are not a priority for you.
- Keep me in the loop. I don’t need to have an opinion about everything, but I like to know what’s going on and why.

# Personality quirks

I used to be a teacher, so I have a tendency to talk a lot during meetings and can be prone to excessive pontificating. I also rush to fill awkward silences, usually with attempts at humor—work, in my opinion, shouldn’t be super serious all the time. I am generally transparent about my feelings and opinions no matter who I am speaking to and with no regard for reporting lines.

# Expectations: for my manager

## What can you expect from me?

- Reliably and independently driving my team’s initiatives forward.
- To be that guy you can always count on and don’t have to worry about.
- Extensive, frequent, and high quality communication.
- Unsatisfiable desire to constantly improve.
- I am a team player, but I reserve the right to challenge everything.

## What do I expect from you?

- Understanding and respecting my values.
- Useful and frequent feedback.
- You are available to listen but only offer solutions to problems if I ask.
- Give me time to think. Don’t ask for spontaneous decisions.
- An understanding of what is going on, who is doing what, and why.
- If you ask me to do something, make it clear what the value is.
- Treat me like a partner rather than a subordinate.

# Expectations: for my direct reports

## What can you expect from me?

- Empathy and understanding about your struggles.
- I will always try to put my team and its needs first and protect it from external interference, organizational politics, etc.
- Support for your career objectives, even if it means challenging you to be more ambitious.
- Constantly thinking about how to do things better and open to ideas.
- I will make sure you have time to develop your skills and knowledge.
- I will do my best to make sure your work is interesting and rewarding.

## What do I expect from you?

- Direct but respectful interactions.
- Collaboration and willingness to share knowledge, pair program, and actively reach out to other team members. Treat work in progress as belonging to everyone on the team vs. focusing on “my ticket.”
- Active, collective buy-in to team decisions (i.e. “disagree but commit”).
- Take ownership of your work: move tickets as needed, write documentation, make sure your code gets reviewed, do QA, ask for feedback, and in general keep pushing things forward.
- Take ownership of your personal development, and take advantage of the resources provided by the company to advance your career.

# Fun facts

- I am a black belt in [Aikido](https://kokikai.de/), a Japanese martial art of self-defense, and I teach classes in Berlin multiple times per week.
- I am the founder of the [Berlin Functional Programming Group](https://www.meetup.com/Berlin-Functional-Programming-Group/).
- Before entering the tech industry, I was for many years a teacher and a Ph.D. student in English literature.
- I have had many hobbies over the years, including hiking, cycling, camping, scuba diving, climbing, cooking, film photography, yoga, opera, and Japanese tea ceremony. Since moving to Berlin, I spend most of my leisure time playing board games.