💡 Manager traits: Do you do what you say you will do? Do you make something happen? Do you make things move?

The organization’s view of your manager is their view of you. Thus, it is vital to find a good manager to work under.

A successful organization is built of layers of people that are glued together with managers.

Between each layer is a manager whose job is to translate from one layer to the next in both directions. He knows what his employees want. He knows what his manager wants, and he’s able to successfully navigate when those wants differ.

If you’re sitting in a meeting where you’re unable to identify any players, get the hell out. This is a waste of your time. With agenda detection, you can figure out who they are, and what they want, get it for them, and get the hell out of the way.

💡 A common tactic of a good pro is to not acknowledge that they’re the pro.

Give them a plan.

Annual review → What an employee needs to do to grow.

Who stays and who goes?

Mandate: Decide, Deliver, and Deliver(again)

Decide: when to employ the mandate and understand what the consequences are.
→ When the debate is no longer productive, it’s time to make a decision.
→ Allow the team to argue as long as possible.

Deliver: Explain to the team that a decision has been made.
→ This is the decision and further debate is not necessary.
→ They cannot leave the room thinking there’s wiggle room in what you decided.

Deliver(again) ”damage control”: take the time to individually express your reasoning to the concerned parties, both the winners and the losers.

💡 Your team is always telling you what they need to know.
→ Your team is going to tell you what they need.

💡 Your job is not just to be an information conduit; it’s also to employ a policy of aggressive silence.

Performance review

Manages are hubs of communication. The better they communicate across these sphere boundaries, the more people they can communicate with, and the more data they have, which consequently leads to better decision-making.

💡 Stay flexible.
→ Staying flexible is the only stance to adopt when constant change is the only constant.

With smaller teams doing more for less, removing yourself from the code strikes me as a bad career move.

💡 The definition of a healthy business is a business that is growing; making more money each year.

→ Their job is not to define the product roadmap, their job is to get things moving, and if things aren’t moving, you need to get some more wood.

💡 The process is the product.

Fact 1. Hurry yourself.
Fact 2. No one is indispensable.
Fact 3. Process defines communication.
→ The process is the means by which your team communicates. Whether this is via a wiki, e-mail, or the hallway, any team needs to define a means to share information.
Fact 4. Each layer shapes and moves those near it.
→ If the new folks aren’t testing the pitch, they either don’t buy it or don’t get it. If your engineers aren’t arguing about the way they develop software all the time, they’re becoming stagnant.

💡 Structured thinking kills thinking, but unstructured thinking leads to useless chaos.

Google knows you’ve got to take time to think. It is rumored they ask their employees to spend one day a week working on their own projects.

💡 Management is the care and feeding of the invisible. You’re doing your best when it appears the least is happening.

Status report writers, knowing they have a larger audience are going to work harder.

💡 By getting more information to more people, you’re helping the organization communicate more efficiently.

• Everyone on the team needs to interview every candidate.
• Interviewing is a team sport.
• You need to have an interview feedback meeting

💡 Invasion of the zone is akin to some primal activity that required the brain to wire itself for an immediate, irrational response.

💡 Meetings are power struggles between those who want something and those who don’t want to give it to them.

💡 You can’t ship product overseas. You can only ship process.

Action items – Things you should write down. Failure to follow up on action items results in a gentle erosion of your credibility.

Administrative assistant – Your best friend as a manager. Admins are heavily tapped into corporate machinations and are often able to work miracles when it comes to getting stuff done.

Agenda – The things that must occur for any given meeting to be completed.

Board of directors – The CEO’s boss. They can fire the CEO. They tend to set broad corporate policy and have amazing powers of invisibility.

Director – Middle management. These are usually the last managers that are in touch with what the products actually do.

Focal review – A yearly meeting with your manager where your performance is evaluated. It’s often seen as a vehicle for justifying raises and bonuses, which overshadows the opportunity to convey actual constructive career advice.