Manager's Checklist

Daily to-dos

• Provide helpful feedback to your reports 🗣
  • Talk about what they are doing well and what they could improve. You can concentrate on their ongoing work and collaborations with other people. Here’s a good article about that.
• Find time for little interactions 👋
  • Saying hey and how are you? can go a long way. Small talk can spark interesting conversations, show that you are there and you care.

Weekly To-Dos

• Have a 1-1 meeting with each of your reports 👯
  • Let it be their time to talk about whatever they want to. Be sure to guide them towards owning this meeting, help them to come up with a clear agenda beforehand and ultimately come to this meeting to listen, not to talk. Check out more about successful 1-1s.
• Recognize those who do great work 🏅
  • Figure out what type of recognition people are most comfortable with and whenever someone does something great, praise them. It doesn’t have to be something fundamental all the time, just an example of someone exceeding expectations. Here’s an interesting article about that. and here's our take on how to enable it
• Understand and unblock challenges your team feels 🚧
  • Ask them what’s blocking them and provide your support to enable their work.
• Check in whether they are able to pursue their longer term goals 🚴‍
  • Ask them if they are growing in the company? Is the existing role the best path for them to reach their long term goals?

Regular to-dos

• Make everyone feel included 🙌
  • Create an atmosphere where each opinion is welcome and everyone feels a part of the team.
• Invest your time in finding new people 🙋
  • Growing team is critical and the earlier you are involved in the process of hiring the more you are able to shape the future of your team.
• Organize an optional dinner/lunch/night out together with your team 🍣
  • Make sure your team has opportunities to bond beyond work.
• Do a regular performance review 📋
  • Make sure each of your reports has a more ‘official’ feedback about their performance.
• Ask, propose and organize training opportunities or conference visits for your team 📖
  • There are lots of opportunities to gain outside knowledge and perspective. Find time and opportunities to pursue them. You can start with as simple as watching talks together during lunch once a week.
• Ask if your reports are getting enough feedback 💬
  • Feedback is critical for growth and improvement, make sure you are providing the right amount of it. For this and many other questions we can actually help
• Discuss any important company/team updates or news 📢
  • It might be a strategic change in direction, a key teammate leaving or anything else, but make sure your reports are clear about any of those.
• Discuss any areas in need of change (company, team, project etc.) 🖖
  • Are your teammates happy where they are? Do they want something to change? Sometimes an easiest way to reduce turnover is to make sure a person has opportunities to work on various teams within the company.
• Regularly check if your management style is effective for your reports and get suggestions for change 🙌
  • Make sure your teammates are happy with the way you are supporting them and understand how you can change it if they are not.
• Discuss opportunities and career paths for the employee 🚀
  • Make it clear for your reports that there is a clear path for them to grow and develop at the company and that you're here for them to help them achieve it.
• Represent your company publicly 💭
  • Write blog posts, speak at conferences, actively share stories about exciting things you all do.
• Establish successful collaborations with other functions and teams 📞
  • Create a non-blocking and transparent environment with everyone in the company your reports need to work with.
• Identify those who are performing well and make a case for making a bonus for them 💰
  • Make sure your best performers get bonuses regularly. Those bonuses don't always have to be monetary, but it should be something that a person cares about.
• Communicate the review of their comp 💸
  • Make sure their compensation is being reviewed regularly and communicate every time it is, even if you are not increasing it.
• Source new ideas for improving the processes 💡
  • Ask your teammates from time to time what you can change in how things are run.
• Make sure that everyone is on track to deliver on their goals and help to course correct 🛤
  • Check in whether your teammates are close to delivering on the goals that they set.
• Work with reports to set clear objectives 🎯
  • Setting goals is critical for making progress. Help your reports to create a clear list of goals based on their career plan and the company priorities.

Once in a while to-dos

• Understand what motivates them ✨
  • Make sure it’s clear for you what each person is motivated by. The best way to get to know that is by simply asking. If it’s hard for them to articulate, ask them about their past projects - when they were the most motivated and why.
• Understand their long term career goals ⭐️
  • What’s the ultimate plan for them? Where do they see themselves in 10-20 years? It’s ok if they don’t know it yet, try to understand what’s the furthest they are thinking about and help them set a clear path there.
• Empower your reports to help each other 🤝
  • It’s hard for a manager to be responsible for everything. So, make it easy for your teammates to share regular peer feedback. Little self promotion, but we actually can help with that.
• Set clear expectations for what you feel they are able to achieve 💪
  • It should be an opportunity to inspire and hold your team to a higher standard, not an exercise of putting pressure on them. Be clear about what great performance means and help them to lay out a clear plan for achieving it.
• Find out what your reports expect from you ☝️
  • Expectations go both ways and it’s critical for you to understand how they want you to support them. Manager’s role first and foremost is to serve their team to make them more successful.
• Set clear expectations for any lateral/upward movement 📈
  • Your teammates need to understand that they have a clear prospects for growth in the company. Help them make sure they do.