Management is a blend of
mentoring, coaching,
and sponsoring
Lara Hogan • Demystifying Management
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Mentoring
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Mentorship:
Giving advice, based on
your experience
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“Advice is just one thing a
mentor gives.
There are residual benefits
from visible proximity and
tangential relationships to be
gained.”
Kristy Tillman, Slack
Head of Communication Design
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Being a
responsible
mentor
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Honesty
Flexibility
Reciprocity
Active listening
Mutual respect
Personal connection
Shared values
Qualities of a successful mentor
relationship:
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Coaching
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“The spirit of coaching is
helping a person dump
out their box of legos to
help them find the two
pieces they’ve been
looking for together”
-Paloma Medina
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open
questions
reflection
+
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The power of
open questions
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The best open questions
start with “what”
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Reflections
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● Can I reflect back what I’m hearing?
● I’m going to reflect what I know to
be true about you.
● Let’s reflect on where you were this
time last year.
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You don’t need prior
experience, or even any idea
about someone’s universe
to coach them.
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Getting curious and
actively listening
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Level 1:
Internal Listening
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Level 2:
Focused on the
other person
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Level 3:
Whole environment
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The #1 “recent trick” I hear
during icebreakers is the
power of silence during 1:1s
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Sponsoring
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Illustration by Catt Small
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“Mentors give perspective,
sponsors give opportunity.”
Cate Huston,
Mobile Lead at Automattic
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The dashboards are slow today. Is there
someone who knows how to fix that?
Oh, Max fixed our dashboards before.
Maybe ask them?
Sara’s also been doing a lot of perf work
recently. Ask her too?
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Center for Talent Innovation
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Center for Talent Innovation
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A sponsor confers a
statistical career benefit
from 22%–30%
Center for Talent Innovation
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Being a sponsor
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Marginalized people are
over-mentored, and
under-sponsored
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With a sponsor, women are
● 70% more likely to have their ideas endorsed
● 119% more likely to see them developed
● 200% more likely to see them implemented
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What can you do?
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Examples of sponsorship as
a manager or leader:
● Give promotions and raises
● Give visible/public recognition
● Assign tasks and projects
● Suggest they do blog posts, company talks, open
source work
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What’s the purpose
of a 1:1 with your
direct reports?
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Manager
Disseminate
information
Develop a
relationship
Identify goals/
career trajectory
Unblock them
Get status updates
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Manager Direct Report
Disseminate
information
Hear rumors, news,
strategy
Develop a
relationship
Does my manager
care about me?
Identify goals/
career trajectory
I want to keep
growing my skills
Unblock them
Get status updates
I might need help
getting unblocked
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Manager Direct Report
Disseminate
information
Hear rumors, news,
strategy
Context
Develop a
relationship
Does my manager
care about me?
Trust
Identify goals/
career trajectory
I want to keep
growing my skills
Growth
Unblock them
Get status updates
I might need help
getting unblocked
Problem
Solving
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Context
5-10%
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Context
Wrap-up
5-10%
5-10%
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Context
Trust
Growth
Problem Solving
Wrap-up
5-10%
5-10%
80-90%
How to
spend
each 1:1
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Context
Wrap-up
Trust, Growth,
Problem Solving:
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Context
Wrap-up
Trust, Growth,
Problem Solving:
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Debrief:
Mentoring, coaching,
sponsoring
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Managing energy drain
(and feel some success!)
Lara Hogan • Demystifying Management
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Flickr: statelyenglishmanor
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IC ⇨ Manager
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Flickr: simontingle
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You
Direct
Report
Thing you
never see
Management is high latency!
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● “I don’t feel productive like I used to”
● “My manager isn’t really supporting me”
● “I can’t tell what success looks like”
● “I have no idea how to learn this stuff”
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Manager crew
(Manager Voltron!)
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Growing your crew
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Be on the lookout for people who:
● will push you out of your comfort zone
● have different levels of experience than you (both
more experience, and less experience)
● have experience in a different industry
● are good at the things that you’re terrible at
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1. Do great work
2. Find someone who knows your work
3. Know how you want to grow
4. Keep them updated
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1. Do great work
2. Find someone who knows your work
3. Know how you want to grow
4. Keep them updated
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1. Do great work
2. Find someone who knows your work
3. Know how you want to grow
4. Keep them updated
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1. Do great work
2. Find someone who knows your work
3. Know how you want to grow
4. Keep them updated
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5. Give back!
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Lean on your Manager Voltron
for goal-setting, goal-measuring,
and feedback.
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Manage your
energy drain
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1. Defrag your calendar
2. Delegate messy and
unscoped projects
3. Say no
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Color-code your calendar
based on the kind of
energy you’re using
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Analyze:
● How much context-switching you’re
doing each day
● How much you’re drained at the end
of each day
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Defrag based on
that analysis
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Decide when
to do it
(or delegate it)
Do it now!
Say no Delegate it
Urgency
Importance
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Decide when
to do it
(or delegate it)
Do it now!
Say no Delegate it
Urgency
Importance
Decide when
to do it
(or delegate it)
Do it now!
Delegate it messy
and unscoped
Say no Delegate it
Urgency
Importance
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A messy, unscoped project:
● hones folks’ problem-solving abilities,
● forces them to lean on more people
around them, and
● stretches them far faster into new
leadership skill sets
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Gift-wrapped
version
Create a case study about...
Measure these metrics...
Present it at...
Run it by...
Flickr: Vincent_AF
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Bare-bones
version
Just make this thing...
and get other people
to care about it.
Flickr: z287marc
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Just right
Here’s what success
looks like…
Here’s who your
stakeholders are...
And here’s a pro tip...
Flickr: 30478819@N08
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● Tell them how and in what medium you
will support them
● Tell them that you expect this to be a
stretch for them (and that’s the point)
● Release yourself from decision-making
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Say no
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Decide when
to do it
(or delegate it)
Do it now!
Say no Delegate it
Urgency
Importance
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● What does my Manager Voltron think I should say
no to?
● What do my reports think I should say no to?
● What are things I spend time on that don’t match
my goals or roadmap?
● What things do you even avoid delegating to your
reports, because it doesn’t feel worth their time?
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Give yourself permission
to not check in on your
progress for a bit
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What was a recent
‘Hulk’ moment?
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Brain Chemistry
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Don’t worry,
I got this!
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Core Needs
6
palomamedina.com/biceps/
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Belonging
Community, connection
1
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Flickr: whisperwolf
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Improvement/
Progress
Progress towards purpose,
improving the lives of others
2
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Choice
Flexibility, autonomy,
decision-making
3
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Equality/Fairness
Access to resources & info,
equal reciprocity
4
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Predictability
Resources, time, direction,
future challenges
5
Set* expectations to
improve predictability
and stability
* and in the future, iterate on
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Predictability:
What can someone joining the
team expect their day to look like?
What should they expect their
teammates to be doing?
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Stability:
What do you as a manager value?
How do you think about and approach
managing the team?
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Your team
knows what
behaviors are
healthy
It’s easier to give
feedback when
behaviors fall outside
those expectations
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You’ve
clarified what
your team
should expect
of you
It’s easier to give
feedback when
behaviors fall outside
those expectations
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“If [your teammates] know what you
believe and expect as manager, folks will
feel more confident that any behaviour of
yours that’s not aligned is likely
unintended and something you’d be
eager to hear about and fix.”
- Katie Womersley
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Manager README
“The less that is implied or mysterious about you, the
safer and more trusting others will feel”
- Katie Womersley
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What can your direct
reports expect of you?
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Managers who report to me should expect of me:
● Routine feedback, related to career progression
● I’ll try to unblock you from problems you’re working on
● I’ll share my worldview and what I’m working on, so you
have broader context
● A weekly 1:1 with you
● Skip-level 1:1s with your direct reports
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Hold me accountable
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What do you expect of
your teammates?
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You may have expectations about:
● How they approach problems
● How they communicate
● How they hold others accountable
(including you!)
● How they treat their teammates
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Managers who report to me:
● Give me a heads up when your spidey sense is
going off
● Have weekly 1:1s with your reports; be explicit
about their career progression and feedback.
● Routinely reach out to your team’s stakeholders.
● Develop a peer network for yourself.
● Demonstrate a healthy work-life balance.
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Focus on outcomes
Get curious about (and prioritize)
what their needs are
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Repeat these throughout
your reporting relationship
● During 1:1s
● When giving feedback
● When setting goals
● When hiring someone new
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How will you be held
accountable?
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There’s an inherent
power dynamic
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“Is there anything I
can be doing differently
or better?”
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“Here are some avenues to
give me feedback; choose
whichever feels most
comfortable”
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With your mouthwords:
● Acknowledge the power dynamic
● Acknowledge whenever you’ve messed
something up
● Acknowledge when you’re going to miss
the expectations you set
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Management/Leadership
Philosophies
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“Humans already have the answer(s)
inside themselves; I help find them.”
- me
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“Optimize for long term
relationships.”
- Jason Wong, Senior Director of Engineering
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“People do what makes sense to
them, so most problems can be
solved by providing additional
context”
- Rafe Colburn, Senior Director of Engineering
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“Strong back, open heart.”
- Jerry Colonna, who introduced it to...
- Chad Dickerson, former CEO, now coach
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"The strength of the team is each
individual member. The strength of
each member is the team."
- Phil Jackson, former head coach of Chicago Bulls
- also Jill Wetzler, Director of Engineering
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First 1:1 Questions
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Document + share your
readme with your reports.
Iterate as you learn more!
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Team charters and docs
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VMSO
Vision, Mission, Strategy, Objectives
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Vision: The dream; a team's true north.
Mission: Overarching objective of the organization.
Strategy: How an organization navigates its
competitive landscape to achieve its objectives.
Objectives: Measurable goals aligned with mission
and strategy.
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Document:
● Team meeting cadence and purpose
● Team Slack channels and email lists, and their
purpose
● Work hours expectations
● Team ground rules (“stay curious!”)
● Teammate roles and responsibilities
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Communication Guides:
● [email protected] for emails that should go to all
managers and engineers within Product Infrastructure (rare!)
● [email protected] for emails that
should go to all eng managers within Product Infra (rare!)
● For individual teams, check out the Product Infrastructure
teams communication guide
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No content
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Meeting Description
Who should come
Meeting Goals
Ground rules
Timing
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No content
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Product Manager
owns the story
of “what”
Tech Lead
owns the story
of “how”
Product Manager + Tech Lead
scope and estimate
project work
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Responsible
Accountable
Consulted
Informed
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Responsible: TL + EM
Accountable: EM
Consulted: Teammates, PM, Director
Informed: Everyone else
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Treat those as living
documents.
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Open Q&A!
You can always email me:
[email protected]
This workshop’s slides and resources:
larahogan.me/workshops/setting-expectations/