# AurĂ©lien Girard's Manager Readme **Engineering Manager at Combo** # What is this document about ? This is my Manager README. Even it is a public document, this document concerns essentially anyone who reports to me. In this document, you will learn my roles, what I value most, my expectations, how a 1:1 must be handle and my personality quirks. I am quite proud of this document but it is evolving thanks to you. This document tells you the way I want to be with you. If you see that I am not doing what this document tell, please let me know, I will be pleased to talk about it with you. # My roles As a RH manager, my role is to make you happy in your job and in your career. This is my main focus. I will help you find the best for your career and will go with you in the way you wish. Even if I want you to be happy, it does not mean that I will accept each request from you. I need to be fair to every person in the team and tell you the truth on all I can see or feel about your technical skills or your behavior with other people. Also I will need at some point to judge your skills. To be a fair judge I will need some times to ask other colleagues, PO, etc... what they think about you. I will also validate your holidays, ask for formations or conferences. As an engineering manager, my role is to be sure that we develop better products, with a good level of code quality. I will let you solve technical issues with your colleagues, that is really important for me (I often say "I will not code this for you"). But If you cannot decide, I can decide for you. # What do I value most? **Your group culture** It is important that you help your peers and ask for help if you are stuck in some issues. You can fail, this is OK, but face the fail and stand up against it, then find a solution and you can ask for your peers. Everybody fails, what defines you is the way you react on a fail. If you see someone who has issues with something, go help him. **Your way to treat your weaknesses** You must be aware of what you are not, work on it and improve yourself. Everybody has weaknesses : You may not be a super developer, you may not be a good problem solver in cryptographic issues. It is OK. If you want to improve yourself in this domain, ask for help (see above point). **Understand is better than convince.** When one of your peer is stuck, please let him explain his problem. Ask questions about what he has already done to solve this issue. Ask questions to help him find the best answer, do not tell the answer at the beginning. Understand the beneath need and guide him through the good way of thinking. This will let him understand the way he must think to solve a problem and make him more and more autonomous. **Conflict handling** When you are in a team, there are always conflicts. The fewer the better. But there is a good way to treat conflict. - Stay professional: If you can be friend it is good, but you need at least to work together. So, you need to think about the best for your product and for the company. - Consider you may be wrong too: There is never only one good way to do things. Listen and understand each other, you will find a solution together. A colleague once told me : "Talk like you are right, but listen like you are wrong". You should follow this too. - If nothing works: Come see me, I am here for that too. # My Expectations **Transparence** I will let you know all I can say and I will be honest about all I think. In return I expect you to be clear with me and tell me honestly all you think about any subject (see 1:1s section below). If you have a real pain point, plan a 1:1 instantly or reach me out through slack, do not let this pain discourage you or slow down your work,  you will never bother me. **Respect** Everybody has the same place in my team. The intern will learn from the senior, but the senior may learn from the intern. Every discussion need every level of comprehension: If the intern did not understand, maybe the explanation is not that clear. What I expect is that you must be part of that talks and find your place, ask questions, and solve issues if you can. Always be kind to every person on the team, on the company and everybody else. **In work** Do your best to do the best quality code you can, but you need to judge if the cost value the time you spend on a development. Do not think like "if you need to change that in 3 years" think more like "can I refactor this if I need to?". Your code need to be simple to read, so it will be simple to understand for everyone. If you are stuck, ask your peers. Everybody has already been stuck and everybody will be pleased to help you. # 1:1s **Weekly 1:1s** There is no taboo in our One to One (work, people, money, personal issues...), you can talk about everything. Everything will stay between us. Usually, I lead the meeting. I like to ask opened questions and let you take your time to answer. I always let some space for your subjects. During this meeting we will talk about how do you feel under my management (I like feedbacks about my management), in the company, in your project, even in your life if you want to share it with me. I will take points of action, but you will have some too. **Extraordinary 1:1s** You can ask for a 5, 10, 30 minutes (or more) meeting any time you need to. I have a lot of meetings, so if I am not available at the exact moment, I will plan the time you need during my day. # Personality quirks **Talking too much ?** Even if I try to not talk too much during 1:1s, I may be too much concerned by a problem and talk too much. Please do not hesitate to tell me when it happens. **Too frank ?** I am a direct, frank and transparent person, some people don't like it. If it is your case, tell me. I will smooth it out, but be sure that I will always tell what I think. **Really personal** I like video games, movies and listen to music. I have a 3D printer. I have a youtube channel where I talk about code (did I mention that I love to talk about code ?). # Where to focus on your first 90 days? During your first days in my team, I want you to be focused on your communication skills. It is normal to not knowing our products at first. Ask people around you. You will have an assigned buddy. A buddy is a person who will follow you and will show you what we are doing. He will also explain you how to take days off, set up a meeting, etc... I will meet you every week until your validation to see how to adjust our collaboration and see if we fit together.