Consulting - Managing for Performance and Calm

About you:

  • You’re a first time manager
  • You are asking yourself: “Shouldn’t they be work faster?” or “why are they working on this, when I wanted them to work on this..”
  • You’re not sure if they are happy working for you
  • You’re concerned they might quit.

What you really want:

  • Be able to execute on your goals faster through those people working for you.
  • You are able to upload your brain into your team so they can execute in the way you want without you having to micromanage them.
  • You are confident your team will raise concerns with you if they are unhappy before it becomes an issue (and they quit)
  • You are able to “work yourself out of a job” and the team is executing really well without too much of your intervention.
  • Get out of the weeds of the day to day task management of your team.

Hi! I’m Jevin. I’m a software engineer and have been managing teams of engineers and product managers for 10+ years.

  • I’m a Director of Engineering at Humi where I manage two teams totalling 14 engineers. My teams are in the top 10% happiest teams in the company (measured via Peakon).
  • I teach “Skills for Working Remotely” on the O’Reilly Platform where I am one of the top rated instructors on the platform.

Case Studies

(Keith video)

(quotes about my management ability)

Here’s what a colleague said when she was struggling with understand what was expected of her with her manager:

I’ve also been deep diving into managing up. Thank you very much for taking your time with me and being willing to teach me this. I didn’t know what I didn’t know before you said it!

From one of my consultants in my business GalasAtHome:

You are a terrific leader and a great energy to be in a Zoom room with - kind, patient, smart, generous. I’ve learned from you by watching how you manage this company, this small but mighty team

The Power Of Expectations Alignment

From my experience working with technology companies, the most undervalued tool for effective management comes down to this: alignment around expections. This boils down

Article:

  • Expectations alignment, why they are a superpower, how to build them and how to realign as you go.
  • Why career ladders are important for your team’s happiness and retention.

By having your expectations negotiated with your team and explicitly outlined, both the manager and the team have a clear understanding of what you both want and need to do for you to be successful in your roles. This is the hard work some of the hardest work in managing your team well. If you can do this successfully, this will enable you to scale teams for the rest of your career.

Offering

Output:

  • Documented expectations of what you need from each of your teammate, and what they need from you to be successful.
  • A script you and I have developed together for you to: a) share what you’re needing from direct report and b) able to extract their key drivers and their expectations from you.
  • A simple career ladder management system for your development team that makes it easy for both of you to do reviews every quarter for realignment.

How it works

  1. One hour consulting call with you (the manager) on how your day to day works today, what your concerns are with your management and team, and where you would like to see yourself in managing your team.
  2. A basic script written for you to have a conversation with your direct report.
  3. You setup a call with each report with the script and share that “you’re recording the call because you’re getting some coaching to learn how to become a better manager”
  4. I review the calls, create findings and I create a plan with you on how to individually manage each employee both for a) next steps to get alignment and b) on an ongoing basis.
  5. A check in call in a month to review improvements.

Interested? Hit me up: jevin@quickjack.ca.