# Z L's Manager Readme

**Head of Product, Engineering and Data at minden.ai**

# Motivation for this document

I wrote this memo to provide a guide on how I operate.

Please treat it as a reference and as a promise on how I will conduct myself at work, and what I expect from you.

Do help me be accountable for my promises and call out anything that might be missing from this document. 

With your input and feedback, I will be able to improve.

---

# First things first, sports teams, not family

You will notice that I like to use sports terms at work e.g. "I would like X to quarterback this.", "We gotta skate to where the puck is going, not where it has been".

I started playing basketball at the age of 10 and played on the school teams in my primary and secondary schools. I was never the best player - typically in a team of 12, I was the 11th or 12th player. That means I had more bench time than game time. 

**Even though I was a fringe player on those teams, playing basketball during those formative years have shaped my leadership style. **

I think of the teams I lead as sports teams, not as a group of friends or as a family unit - I don't evaluate my family or friends' performance nor do I have to let them go if it doesn't work out. 

But that doesn't mean that we cannot have a great and close relationship. What it does mean is that I might have to "swap, trade, and bench" in order to have the best team on the "court".

There is resonance in thinking of teams as sport teams instead of as family. In the book written by Reed Hastings about Netflix's culture, ["No Rules Rules: Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention"](https://www.amazon.com/No-Rules-Netflix-Culture-Reinvention/dp/1984877860), he writes that

> [**But if Netflix wasn’t a family, what were we?** A group of individuals looking out for ourselves? That definitely wasn’t what we were going for. After a lot of discussion Patty suggested that we think of Netflix as a professional sports team.](https://smrize.com/books/no-rules-rules:-netflix-and-the-culture-of-reinvention-46/we-are-a-team-not-family-23)  [Initially this didn’t sound very profound. The metaphor of team for company is just about as tired as the metaphor of family.   
>   
> But as she kept talking, I started to see what she meant:](https://smrize.com/books/no-rules-rules:-netflix-and-the-culture-of-reinvention-46/we-are-a-team-not-family-23)[I just watched _Bull Durham_ with my kids. On a pro baseball team, the players have great relationships. These players are really close. They support one another. They celebrate together, console one another, and know each other’s plays so well that they can move as one without speaking. **But they are not a family. The coach swaps and trades players in and out throughout the year in order to make sure they always have the best player in every position**](https://smrize.com/books/no-rules-rules:-netflix-and-the-culture-of-reinvention-46/we-are-a-team-not-family-23)   

You can see the influence of playing team sports throughout this document and if you ever find yourself wondering why I am doing something that is not captured in this piece, you might get your answer by asking if that is something a competitive sports team will do =)

---

# What I value most in my teammates

## Ambition for the team over personal ambition

I like ambitious teammates/colleagues but teammates whose ambition is for the team and not just ambition for their own careers. 

One of my favorite NBA coaches, Steve Kerr, said it best 

> [All the guys I hire for the staff are cut from the same cloth," Kerr says. "They're all unselfish and committed to the team but ambitious and hardworking.   
>   
> **I think ambition can go two ways. You can be ambitious and be part of the team, or you can be ambitious for your own career. I like people who are ambitious for the team.** ](https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/15148955/on-top-nba-world-steve-kerr-found-struggling-just-stand)

## Earnestness over hip

I like earnest people because earnestness is long term and comes from the core. 

> [Earnestness is highly underestimated. It comes from the core, while hip is trying to impress you with the surface. "Hip" people love parodies. But there's no such thing as a timeless parody, is there? **I have more respect for the earnest guy who does something that can last for generations, and that hip people feel the need to parody.**  
>   
> Randy Pausch ](https://www.businessinsider.com/why-its-better-to-be-earnest-2015-2)

## Missionaries over mercenaries

I prefer [missionaries over mercenaries](https://svpg.com/missionaries-vs-mercenaries/). 

In my experience. I have observed that there is a positive correlation between "missionaries" and "ambition for the team" and, a positive correlation between "mercenaries" and "personal ambition" (see "What I value most: Ambition for the team").

## Forgiveness over permission

Many decisions that we have to take are [two-way doors](https://aws.amazon.com/executive-insights/content/how-amazon-defines-and-operationalizes-a-day-1-culture/) vs one-way doors and I believe that speed matters in business - [many decisions and actions are reversible and do not need extensive study.](https://www.amazon.jobs/content/en/our-workplace/leadership-principles) 

Therefore, I prefer that you ask for forgiveness than for permission, provided that I trust that your ambition is for the team (see "What I value most:  Ambition for the team").

I also believe that "forgiveness over permission" is a key principle for level 5 leadership (see "How I lead: level 5 leadership).

---

# How I lead

## Culture eats strategy for breakfast

I believe that culture is the single biggest lever that any leader has because [culture eats strategy for breakfast](https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescoachescouncil/2018/11/20/why-does-culture-eat-strategy-for-breakfast/?sh=27ab36611e09). 

Therefore, shaping and maintaining a team's culture is one of my highest priorities, if not the highest priority.

One of the biggest driver of culture is the folks we bring onto the team. 

Therefore, I believe in [hiring slow and firing fast](https://hbr.org/2014/03/hire-slow-fire-fast), even when the work is overwhelming and pressure to hire quickly is strong. I have made the mistake of hiring fast and firing slow and it was very painful.

If you and I are building a team or company from scratch, you might be wondering I insist on certain principles or mechanisms (see "How I manage: Principles and mechanisms") or as I sometimes like to say, we need to avoid taking on this organizational debt i.e. compromises in culture that are analogous to [tech debt](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technical_debt) in engineering. 

Furthermore, having been on two founding teams for two different startups, I believe that shipping a 1.0 is as much as it is about a first release as it is about building a enduring culture. 

The following excerpt from Michael Lopp's blog says it best:

> [That’s what you’re really building in 1.0. A lasting, interesting culture which, if you’re lucky, continues to produces great products....](https://randsinrepose.com/archives/1-0/)[Think of your five favorite companies and think about what made them successful.   
>   
> Yes, they probably had a great 1.0. Think Apple ][. Think of the first time you saw Netscape.   
>   
> Those products are the end result of people killing themselves to get the damned thing out the door, but they weren’t just creating that product.   
>   
> **Their work defined the culture of the company and that is what modeled their future success**  ](https://randsinrepose.com/archives/1-0/)

## Inspire and influence

I believe in inspiring you with the vision, whether company, product or engineering, and influencing you to execute the vision. I am stubborn on the vision but flexible on the details [a mantra I picked up at AWS](https://www.forbes.com/sites/johngreathouse/2013/04/30/5-time-tested-success-tips-from-amazon-founder-jeff-bezos/?sh=2789585370ca).

## Autonomy, ownership and earning trust

I believe that for an organization to last (see "How I lead: Level 5 leadership"), the teams within it need to have autonomy and ownership.

I trust that you will get the job done and I know that you will make mistakes / have oversights along the way. 

That's good with me because that's how I learn too, by doing, experimenting, reflecting and adapting. 

What's important is that we have a [growth mindset](https://medium.com/stanford-magazine/carol-dweck-mindset-research-eb80831095b5) .

As long as your oversight or mistake is not due to a lack of effort or due to you putting your personal ambition over the team ambition (see "What I value most: Ambition for team"), I will back you all the way and provide you with air cover.

With the autonomy and ownership provided, you have to continue earning and keeping that trust. 

I must trust that you can learn, trust that you are competent enough, trust that you are putting the team ambition over your personal ambition and trust that you are putting in the work to become better.

## Feedback is a gift

I believe that feedback is a gift ([a mantra at my  business school](https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/insights/carole-robin-feedback-gift)) and if I am screwing up and you are not telling me, it means that you have given up on me. 

As Randy Paush said in his "[Last Lecture](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji5_MqicxSo)",

> ** ** [**"You may not want to hear it but your critics are often the ones telling you they still love you and care about you and want to make you better." **](https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/430312-when-you-re-screwing-up-and-nobody-says-anything-to-you)

What this means is that I will give you feedback and I expect you to do the same for me.

## Level 5 leadership

I strive to be a level 5 leader, as described by Jim Collins, as ["the most powerfully transformative executives possess a paradoxical mixture of personal humility and professional will. They are timid and ferocious. Shy and fearless. They are rare—and unstoppable." ](https://hbr.org/2001/01/level-5-leadership-the-triumph-of-humility-and-fierce-resolve-2)

I am driven to build lasting companies and organizations and I believe level 5 leadership is crucial to building last organisations (I also believe that causality is hard to establish for the really important stuff in life because of the lack of counterfactuals but I would still like to believe that).  

A highly respected level 5 leader whom I have the opportunity to work with, once said at an office party, that he hopes that after he retires in 10 years' time, he would be invited back to celebrate the second unicorn that the company has built.

I don't hope to be invited back, after I retire. I am happy if I can read about the second unicorn in the press and know that I helped to make that happen =) 

---

# How I manage

## Principles and mechanisms

I manage teams through principles and mechanisms. Principles guide our behavior and decision-making and [mechanisms converts inputs into desired outputs on an ongoing basis](https://www.factoftheday1.com/p/february-10-mechanisms-at-amazon).

Principles and mechanisms go hand-in-hand, as Jeff Bezos said [good intentions don't work, mechanisms do](https://twitter.com/david_perell/status/1382137879455956993?lang=en).

I have a preference for the agile principles ([manifesto](https://agilemanifesto.org/) and [principles](https://agilemanifesto.org/principles.html)) and the agile mechanisms (regular standups, grooming, showcase and retrospectives) because it has worked for me in the past. 

Another of my favorite mechanism is input metrics and the accompanying weekly business review (WBR).

## Input metrics over output metrics and WBR

I believe that [you can't improve what you don't measure](https://www.forbes.com/sites/theyec/2018/12/04/you-are-what-you-measure/) and this emphasis on metrics might seem foreign to you.

As a former colleague said to me, "By the way, after joining AWS I realized where your style is coming from! When we did some early discussions on [project xxx] you were very focused on measuring success metrics etc. every statement here [AWS] need to support with some facts and metrics".

I also subscribe to [Define-Measure-Analyze-Improve-Control (DMAIC)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DMAIC). 

Many organizations preach the use of metrics and DMAIC or use them ineffectively and it wasn't until my time at AWS that I saw how to use metrics and DMAIC effectively. 

Amazon divides metrics into two types: controllable input metrics and output metrics and focuses on input metrics because it is controllable. [Furthermore, Amazon thinks about its metrics in two broad ways:](https://www.holistics.io/blog/how-amazon-measures/)

- [First, it defines and tweaks each metric according to particular metric lifecycle.  
](https://www.holistics.io/blog/how-amazon-measures/)
- [Second, it presents its metrics in something called a ‘Weekly Business Review’ meeting, or a WBR meeting — which is fractal: top leadership does a full-company WBR every week, followed by every department and operational team on down.](https://www.holistics.io/blog/how-amazon-measures/)  

It's hard to describe the effectiveness of Input Metrics and WBR without experiencing it and the best account of it that I have found, is in "Chapter 6 Metrics: Manage your inputs, not your outputs" of [Working backwards by Colin Bryar and Bill Carr](https://www.amazon.com/Working-Backwards-Insights-Stories-Secrets/dp/1250267595). 

Because Input metrics and WBR are the best manifestation of data-driven decision making that I have experienced, expect me to introduce Input Metrics and WBR.

For the product teams I lead, the definition of Input Metrics is an iterative process by itself and starts from working backwards from the customer.

For the engineering teams I lead, my preferred Input Metrics are the[4 Key Metrics of deployment frequency, lead time for changes, change failure rate and time to restore service](https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/devops-sre/using-the-four-keys-to-measure-your-devops-performance). I like them because they were derived from a [6 year "scientific" study](https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/devops-sre/the-2019-accelerate-state-of-devops-elite-performance-productivity-and-scaling).

## Proof by contradiction

Sometimes, you might see me debating against my preferred position. This is intentional.

I believe that [proof by contradiction](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proof_by_contradiction) is the most powerful proof in logic - it establishes the truth or the validity of a proposition, by showing that, assuming the proposition to be false leads to a contradiction.

By assuming that a proposition is false or taking that stance, I am in fact [working to disconfirm my belief](https://www.amazon.jobs/content/en/our-workplace/leadership-principles).

If you are ever confused and need a decision, just call me out explicitly and ask what's my preferred position. 

## Bayesian thinking

Sometimes, you will hear me say that, I don't have a strong opinion about a matter because my prior is pretty flat or you might hear me say that I believe in something more strongly, because my prior is pretty peaky.

And sometimes, you hear me say that I have changed my mind about a matter because I have received new information / data so my posterior is updated.

I was first introduced to Bayesian inference when I worked on my master thesis at ETH Zurich as I was fortunate enough to work with the leading research group on the [Bayesian Brain theory](https://www.fil.ion.ucl.ac.uk/team/theoretical-neurobiology-team/). It opened my eyes to the elegance and beauty of Bayesian inference and I have since incorporated some of it into my life.

Bayesian inference covers many aspects but at work, you will mostly see me applying the following:

1. Being explicit about my priors or assumptions. It's fine and normal to have priors or assumptions - we just wanna be aware of it and be cognizant how it is influencing our decision-making
2. Collecting data to update my posterior or my beliefs
3. Changing my mind or updating my posterior with new information or new data

 

## Micromonitor, not micromanage

I micromonitor but don't micromanage. 

As one of my b-school lecturers, Robert Siegel wrote in his book, ["The Brains and Brawn Company"](https://www.amazon.com/Brains-Brawn-Company-Organizations-Physical/dp/1264257775)

> _ **But like any good Systems Leader, he knew that micromanaging could be fatal.**  The only way to support the entire company was to focus his time and attention where they could do the most good at any given moment, trusting his team to help him direct his focus. “I view my job as thinking about the future. I don’t think that I would leverage my platform in my role if I were knee deep into today’s operations._  
>   
> _ **So I have smart executives who work with me, and I do not micromanage. Instead, I micromonitor. That means that at any point when I need to know the details, I get the details that allow me to go deep.**  And then I look for trends and patterns, and I test whether those are anomalies or in fact represent a problem.  _  
>   
> _Tyson took feedback seriously and would do one of those “deep dives” when a complaint from a patient or frontline worker reached his desk. He stressed to his staff that it was more important to understand the source of any problem than to hide it or ignore it._  
>   
> _ **Like many empathic leaders, he was strongly opposed to shooting the messenger. “I’ve built a culture where everyone understands this is about being on the same team. This is not about gotcha.”** _

Input metrics and wbr are a key mechanism of my micromonitoring (see "How I manage: Input metrics over output metrics and WBR").

---

# 1:1s

I firmly believe in 1:1s and I always make time for 1:1s with you, even when it may seem unlikely with my schedule. 1:1s are a key mechanism for me to solicit feedback (see "How I lead: Feedback is a gift").

For the first five years of my career, none of my managers did 1:1s with me. So, when I started 1:1s with my direct reports a decade ago, I searched for good principles in conducting 1:1s.

Eventually, I found them in [Ben Horowitz's "The Hard Thing about Hard Things"](https://www.amazon.com/Hard-Thing-About-Things-Building/dp/0062273205) and have been using them since

> [While it is quite possible to design a great communication architecture without one-on-one meetings, in most cases one-on-ones provide an excellent mechanism for information and ideas to flow up the organization and should be part of your design.  
>   
> ](https://a16z.com/2012/08/30/one-on-one/)[Generally, people who think one-on-one meetings are a bad idea have been victims of poorly designed ones. The key to a good one-on-one meeting is the understanding that it is the **employee’s meeting rather than the manager’s meeting**. This is the free-form meeting for all the pressing issues, brilliant ideas, and chronic frustrations that do not fit neatly into status reports, email, and other less personal and intimate mechanisms.  
>   
> ](https://a16z.com/2012/08/30/one-on-one/)[If you are an employee, how do you get feedback from your manager on an exciting but only 20 percent formed idea that you’re not sure is relevant, without sounding like a fool? How do you point out that a colleague you do not know how to work with is blocking your progress without throwing her under the bus? How do you get help when you love your job but your personal life is melting down? Through a status report? On email? Yammer? Asana? Really? For these and other important areas of discussions, one-on-ones can be essential](https://a16z.com/2012/08/30/one-on-one/)

I also have a list of questions for 1:1s that I have experimented with and refined over the years (questions 3 to the end of the list are borrowed from [Ben Horowitz's "The Hard Thing about Hard Things"](https://www.amazon.com/Hard-Thing-About-Things-Building/dp/0062273205)). 

- What can I do to unblock you?

- Do you have any feedback for me? (see "How I manage: Feedback is a gift")
- How are you doing? / How's your family doing?
- If we could improve in any way, how would we do it?
- What’s the number-one problem with our organization? Why?
- What’s not fun about working here?
- Who is really kicking ass in the company?   
- Whom do you admire?
- If you were me, what changes would you make?
- What don’t you like about the product?
- What’s the biggest opportunity that we’re missing out on?
- What are we not doing that we should be doing?
- Are you happy working here?  

---

# My personality quirks 

## I keep strange hours

I will send emails or slack messages or whatsapp messages at odd hours and **I do not expect you to reply immediately. That's the power of asynchronous communication - you reply when you want to**. I am typically engaged in meetings during the day so the only quiet time I have tends to be after-office hours. And I have weird sleeping patterns too - I sometimes wake up at 2am or 4am or 6am.

---

# One last thing...

The intensity that I bring to teams is both a strength and weakness and I am conscious of it. I figured this intense personality was borne out of playing competitive basketball during my formative years. 

For a large part of my working career, my intensity is both a blessing and a bane and has sometimes led to the perception that I don't care about feelings or people. That perception couldn't be further from the "truth".

It wasn't until I saw this interview by Michael Jordan on "The Last Dance" in 2020 that I feel "understood" for the first time.

Watching this [video](https://vimeo.com/417745814) or reading the following transcript of the video might give you an insight to how "intense" folks such as me feel

> [Through the years, do you think that intensity has come at the expense of being perceived as a nice guy?   
>   
> **Winning has a price and leadership has a price.**   
>   
> **So, I pulled people along when they didn't wanna be pulled.**   
>   
> **I challenged people when they didn't wanna to be challenged.**   
>   
> I earned that right because my teammates who came after me didn't endure all the things I had endured. Once you joined the team you live a certain standard that I play the game and I wasn't gonna take anything less.   
>   
> **Now if that means I had to go in and get in your ass a little bit? Then I did that. **  
>   
> **You ask all my teammates, the one thing about Michael Jordan was he never asked me to do something that he didn't fucking do.**  
>   
> When people see this they're going say 'he wasn't really a nice guy, he may have been a tyrant'  
>   
> **Well, that's you, because you never won anything. I wanted to win, but I wanted them to win and be a part of that as well.**  
>   
> Look, I don't have to do this and I'm only doing it because it is who I am. **That's how I played the game, that was my mentality.**  
>   
> \*starts tearing up, holding back tears\*  
>   
> If you don't want to play that way... don't play that way. Break.](https://twitter.com/tpimbw/status/1260373620125306881?lang=en)