Background
At my previous company, Binti, it was expected that every employee write a user guide to help others interact, work with, and give feedback to new team members. I found the practice super helpful when learning about a big team, but challenging to write about myself in a very self-reflective and enlightening way. Your user guide should shift and adjust as you, your role, and your internal workings shift and grow. Here is my user guide, I hope you enjoy it, and I can’t wait to read yours!
Basics
Pronouns: He/They (I am not at all masculine internally but I understand how hard it is to look at me and think anything besides “him” so I don’t insist on gender neutral language in my direction. I’m non-binary and still figuring out what that means to me. Happy to talk about it, just ask!)
Current location: Charlotte, NC?
Spouse: Jessica (aka boss lady)
Kids: a LOT… six kids from age 7 to 21 years old?
10ish am Eastern to 8ish pm Eastern with lunch and kids things sprinkled in. If you are ever in doubt if I am available just message me!
Communicating With Me
Please do:
- Reach out freely, I don’t pay much attention to title or position, just that your voice and opinion matter. If you wonder if something is worth bringing to me, please stop it. Just message me via Slack. I promise not to bite or bark.?If something is urgent and I don’t respond via Slack, text me directly, again I always prefer communication and over communication and would be sad if someone held back or felt uncomfortable messaging me
- Get on my calendar for both important and unimportant things. I want to hear about your day, or something eating at your brain, or a conundrum you’re in, or just what you think should change.?
- Complain at me directly. Seriously. Especially if it’s something I personally did or caused or let happen. I need to know and I’ll always be grateful for your honesty.?
Please don’t:
- call me sir… if it's part of your normal speech patterns (looking at you southerners!) I get it but I’ve never felt comfortable with it
- Don’t hold on to feedback or corrections when you feel the need to speak up. I thrive on tough feedback and will respect you immensely for bringing things to my attention.?
- Don’t ever be afraid to remind me if I owe you an answer or action! Just assume I need your prodding to get something you need. I’ll try my best to not need it, but you’ll always be thanked for reminding me.?
My Working Style and Superpower(s)
- I believe very strongly in the inverted leadership pyramid, wherein the leader sits on the bottom and their main role is to support and enable those who “work for.” This means that my first priority is making sure that my team is well informed, has clear priorities, and open paths to communicate as needed. If at any time, you feel like these priorities aren’t being met, please let me know!
- My superpower is understanding complex problems/situations and finding viable solutions/paths. In practice this means that I love doing “pairing sessions” where I sit with someone facing a complex situation or problem and talk through the best next steps or solutions. As such, if you are ever in a bind I am always available to talk through tough situations!
- I use exclamation points too much!
- Finding an 80% solution now is better than a 100% solution a day too late. In other words, I rarely will spend time over-analyzing a situation to the point of exhaustion when time is short. This necessarily means that, in the absence of 100% surety, mistakes can be made (see next point).
- I embrace risk and failure as necessary tools for growth! I talk about my own failures (it's a long and often hilarious list) a lot and celebrate and reward risks that end in failure on my teams.?
- I don’t take myself too seriously, and I will be the first to point out my mistakes and weaknesses publicly.
Random Things?
- Hobbies- driving kids to places like endlessly, reading science fiction, Starfield (XBox), attempting to work out while the boss lady (see above) does it better, swimming, writing articles
- Fav Books- I listed these out here, look for the titles and reasons in the comments
- Things you can ask me about if you want to get me talking for hours on end- Afghan War, Iraq War, pacifism, why EVERYONE needs a therapist, mental health, social work, foster care and adoption, Christopher Nolan films, working in a kitchen, Bolivia, leadership theory
- Here are some things I felt so strongly about I wrote articles
A human. A mother. A solver. A superwoman. This isn't Star Wars, I don't have a deathstar, but I will attempt to blast your traditional view of the sales/exec relationship into extra dimensional space
6 个月And now I am writing my users guide!
That's a fantastic approach to welcoming and integrating new members into a team! ?? As Maya Angelou once said, "Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better." It's all about learning and growing together. On a related note, if your team is passionate about growth and making a significant impact, you might be interested in our upcoming sponsorship opportunity for the Guinness World Record of Tree Planting. It's a great way to unite and strive for something extraordinary together. Learn more here: https://bit.ly/TreeGuinnessWorldRecord ???
?? "Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom." - Aristotle ??. Your initiative at Binti truly embodies this philosophy by enhancing team understanding and growth. It's inspiring to see such innovative practices for self-discovery and team dynamics! Can't wait to see how your user guide evolves. ???? #GrowthMindset
Threat Intelligence | Digital Forensics | Incident Response SME
10 个月This is great! I’ll be creating one of my own for my team????
Adam you’re inspirational! I like the idea of a user guide, keep up the great work by leading from the bottom! (Notice the exclamation point, haha)