The Manager's Desk with Evan D. Baltz

Demonstrate through examples - show them how you do it and talk about why it works

Provide feedback on performance - meaningful, not participation ribbon type positive feedback and not overtly harsh or destructive

Give opportunities for growth/advancement

Create gameplans/strategies to make them successful - play to their strengths

Reward them for outstanding performance

What makes a great manager?

What makes a bad manager?

What are some of the most important things you can do to ensure you are the former?

What do you look for when recruiting team members?

How do you spot a bad apple?

Tell me about a few common mistakes managers make?

The basic agile “ceremonies”/meetings. What purpose do they serve, and who is involved

What the role of the manager is in relationship to the ceremonies and the product owner and SCRUM master

Recommendations for new year’s resolutions for Agile teams

Nail the small stuff - One of the best things you can do to set yourself up for a great year and a great review and possible promotions, is to nail all the small stuff consistently. What is “the small stuff” you ask? Things like promptness, showing up on time to meetings, always creating out of office messages when you are gone, having a backup person when you are gone, submitting requested work on time, responding to emails professionally and in a timely fashion, working ahead when possible, bring questions to meetings, sending summaries after meetings. Just the basic Xs and Os that tell everyone you are a professional who knows how to work.

Submit recommendations - even when you aren’t specifically asked for them, prepare recommendations, based on your expertise, to your manager. Think them through, use bullet points and a professional style with “why” and “impact” statements. Be specific.

Request feedback - your manager should be soliciting your feedback on their performance, but also ask them for feedback on your performance. Ask them if there are areas where you can improve to take initiative.

Plan for 1:1s - likely your manager will meet with you weekly or every other week, and your manager may be looking at how prepared you are for this meeting. Have a summary of your week and work completed ready. Have talking point bullets for yourself. Include questions you have about process or the organization etc…Well thought out questions make a great impression on your manager.

Be open and honest but don’t overshare - It’s great to just converse with your team mates and your manager and talk about stuff even not work related. Be yourself, but think ahead of time what personal details you really want to share. Diving into personal or family problems in detail is not usually a good approach. Talk about things at a higher level without the specifics when it comes to personal life. The people you are talking to are co-workers and not counselors. Create boundaries for yourself.

Don’t complain unless you have suggestions for improvement - Your manager should respect your need to just vent sometimes. But venting without discussions about solutions will eventually get old. If you come with a problem, also come with a proposed solution. Example: I hate that our meetings always run long. Solution: Can we have the meeting leader specifically jump in with 5 minutes left to wrap things up. Or some other thought out solution. 

Be yourself - it’s funny, but a lot of people struggle with this in the business environment and I am not sure exactly why. There seems to be a feeling that to be “professional” one must cease to be themselves and instead walk and talk like some robotic idea of what that means. It often manifests itself in overly cautious ways of communicating, more serious tone, and less engaging approach to work relationships.  Being yourself doesn’t mean you aren’t professional, it just means you are comfortable to inject your personality and thoughts into your communication style. If you are funny, be funny. If you are thoughtful, be thoughtful, if you are quirky or nerdy, be quirky and nerdy. Ask people around you if they think you are different in meetings then you are in informal situations. Be yourself all the time.

Support your team - You might say, “Well of course Evan, I support my team.” Think about the specifics of “how” though. Write down for each person who you manage how you have supported them and how you will support them in the new year. Be specific. Then talk to them about those goals and work together on them. Support may look different for different team members. Some want more communication, others may want to be more independent. Some may want more responsibilities or more money or whatever it is. Be sensitive to how you might be able to support and encourage each team member throughout the year.

Determine at least one process you can improve - look at your team, your department, and your organization and determine if there is a process that either needs to be created because one doesn’t exist or a processes that could be improved and set about improving it with specific steps. Write down the phases you will need to go through to enact the improvements and whose support you will need. Then begin to evangelize that process and see it through to adoption.

Be compassionate - I have talked about this in previous podcasts, but have and express compassion for those around you. Be sensitive to the lives of the people who work for you. Understand that their family and their lives are and should be the most important thing to them and you can support that priority by being understanding and compassionate. You will reap benefits from this approach. Ask your team members what you can do to improve their life. A lot of times it might be as simple as giving them some space.

Seek feedback - this is the one that might get scary for some people. A lot of managers are like lawyers, they don’t like to ask questions they don’t know the answers to. If you ask your team for feedback or to review your performance as a manager they may have some hard things to tell you. Because of that fear, many don’t ask and therefor might continue bad habits. Ask for feedback and then listen and adjust. It communicates that you really care and want to improve.

In Agile, what is a “retro” or post-mortem?

What is the major goal of this ceremony?

What is a pre-mortem? Goal? Who attends?

How are risks prioritized?

What are some common risks?

How are risks mitigated?

Who’s responsibility is it?

What are some obstacles to risk assessment?

How do you know if your risk assessment has been valuable/successful?