# Nadav Cohen's Manager Readme

**Director of Engineering at Forter**

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# Motivation for this document
 | ![Why am I Doing This?](https://s3.amazonaws.com/managerreadme/images/why.png "Why am I Doing This?") |

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I'm writing this README, because I wish all of my managers had come with a user manual :) 

Another way of saying this is that I care about your success as someone reporting to me, and giving you clarity into how I operate (and fail) will hopefully boost your chances of doing a great job in your role.

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# My role
 | ![](https://s3.amazonaws.com/managerreadme/images/role.jpeg) |

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My role is to at least create the conditions that allow my organization to thrive. That typically means doing things like hiring and retaining world-class talent (that's you), and then listening to you about what you need to get your work done in the best way possible. Also, my role is to listen to everyone else in the company and let you know what they need from us. Some folks call that setting context. I just call it my job.

I don't believe in hiring smart, talented and motivated people only to then spend my time telling them what to do. And since you are reporting to me, it typically means that in some areas I have more experience than you. So, sometimes I will still need to direct you to a particular goal, or set an expectation on some behavior or on some deliverable. I typically do that when the urgency, risk or context of the situation seem to merit it.

If you disagree with my directions or expectations, tell me. If I don't change my mind, then make a note of your objection in the conversation, and then bring this up again at a retrospective later on, so we can review when the urgency, risk or context have changed, and we can all learn. I make mistakes all the time, and I know that I learn best after the emergency and not during. 

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# What do I value most?
 | ![](https://s3.amazonaws.com/managerreadme/images/moving_motivator.png) | |

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I value empathy, trust and collaboration. I enjoy working together on problems and challenges. I _want_ to collaborate with you on the shared work that we have. That doesn't mean we'll pair program together, but it does mean that we'll figure out how to make our ideas into reality. 

I believe that creativity drives better results than stress or urgency, and creativity requires safety. This may not be the ethos of others, so I do my best to bring it into my org. I also believe that effectiveness trumps efficiency, and I want us to focus on doing the right things at the right time rather than optimizing sprint velocities. 

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# What I need from you

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![](https://s3.amazonaws.com/managerreadme/images/yougotthis.jpeg)
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I need you to fail some of the time. Yes, you read that right. I need you to fail sometimes, because I need you to take risks, and failure is in the nature of taking risks. I fail regularly, so don't worry about it. We'll work together on tuning the risk profile to best match your career goals, your comfort zone and the results required by our work.

You should be learning, adapting and continuously looking for places to improve your own work and/or that of our organization. 

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# 1:1s
 | ![](https://s3.amazonaws.com/managerreadme/images/blog-1-on-1s-for-engaged-employees-how-good-managers-run-them-header.jpeg) |

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Our 1:1s are where I give 100% of my attention to you and your career. They are not the place to discuss the team's sprint struggles or the latest production outage. They are the time to talk about whatever is happening in your world today in the context of your career development arc. If you don't have things to talk about, I'll likely poke you with endless open ended questions. 

I've done 1:1s while walking outside in the park, sitting at some cafe, or playing ping pong/pinball/billiards. If you have a wild idea for a 1:1 that isn't in a two person meeting room in the office, I want to know about it!

# What to expect of me

| **I am a mix of several cultures, so expect me _not_ to behave in culturally expected ways.** | 
![](https://s3.amazonaws.com/managerreadme/images/mix_culture_hands.jpeg)
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| Always assume positive intent with me. I promise to do the same with you. | ![](https://s3.amazonaws.com/managerreadme/images/assume_intent.jpg) | |
| I have strong beliefs, lightly held. Show me a better alternative, and I'll likely change my belief. | ![](https://s3.amazonaws.com/managerreadme/images/strong_sticky.jpeg) | |
| I can talk too much and constantly wish I could be more concise (if this README could be half its length...) | ![](https://s3.amazonaws.com/managerreadme/images/2015-07-07-short-and-concise.jpeg) | |