Manifesto
This represents my guiding principles. A combination of my values, what I believe in, and the way I approach work. I want to be in a company that aligns with these, and where "employees are our first priority" is not only just a LinkedIn post.
I expand my role like I expand my new shoes.
I make it mine, I shape it, nurture it, grow it. I see the big picture and define what needs to be done in order to achieve the overarching goal.
I never stop learning. I also welcome less experienced profiles who are keen to learn.
I am a learner. I believe in the principle that "What you don't know, you may just not know it yet".
This applies whether I am on the learner side, or whether I am on the side of the person who has the ability to give a learning opportunity.
After all, we were born knowing nothing. Everything we know, we owe it to people who gave us an opportunity to learn at a certain point in time and who trusted us and believed in us.
Be that person.
I don’t do politics. I am genuine, transparent, honest.
What you see is what you get. I tell things as they are, even if it is not what people want to hear. For the good of the business. I believe in standing up for what I believe in.
I lead with compassion, respect, trust and kindness.
I care about people, genuinely, I am approachable, kind, tolerant.
I also don’t hesitate to be firm to bring things back on track and hold people accountable when needed.
I adopt a strength-base leadership.
I value collaborative work and I believe in focusing on people’s strengths rather than trying to fix their flaws. As I believe that passion is the best fuel of all, it is key to me to offer talents the opportunity to grow where they want to, and take on projects they are keen on, rather than imposing them. I believe in maximising a team's efficiency by moving people's skills from good to great on something they are naturally good at, rather than having them spend energy and work twice as hard to overcome something they are not naturally good at and possibly don’t enjoy – Good read on this principle here: Clifton Strength Base Leadership book
I remember to enjoy the journey as a team.
We spend an average of 8 hours a day with our colleagues. We better make these pretty, pretty damn great! Make these hours count, and create valuable relationships. Ensure we remember to enjoy the journey as a team, because a happy and cohesive team is a performing team.
I plan everything, but have to accept that things don’t always go as per plan.
There is only so much we can plan for, and we have to accept that some things will remain unknown and will only unfold as a project progresses.
I balance delegation and hands-on approach.
I don’t think that some tasks are too small for me. If it takes me 5 minutes to do something VS half a day when asking someone, I just do it, unless I need to pass on the knowledge.
I happily take on my time to support those who struggle in their efforts
I don’t hesitate to take on my time to support and grow junior members and anyone who needs my help.
It is important for me to share the knowledge with my teammates, no matter their title, and I always learn from it too!
I don't believe in presenteeism nor micro-managing.
I feel lucky to have been in companies that allow for flexible work. I shouldn't "feel lucky", for the simple reason that I don't consider remote working to be a privilege or a benefit. It is a work style, and it is for some people the right thing to do. The "9-5, five days a week in the office" when there is no need, to me, sends a message of a lack of trust in employees, and of a conservative business mindset. Some people could be physically here and under-deliver, and some could be fully remote and over-deliver. I trust that people are big enough to work out a reasonable #workstyle and find the right balance that would work for them, the team, and projects.
My #workstyle? The balance I found works well for me is to do 2 or 3 days in the office, depending on the periods of the year, what type of projects I have on my plate and how busy I am. I have my "meeting days" in the office. They are important. I need them. I love seeing people, feel the effervescence of busy brains. I have my weekly 1-2-1's, teams working sessions, presentations etc. I take time to support, I throw a few quick questions over the desk to a colleague (which I would not have emailed from home). And I usually have casual talks with my boss about strategy and get to have a sounding board (this is usually the best moment of my day).
. Then I have my "focus days", usually at home, where I blocked large slots in the calendar to focus on delivering bigger pieces of work, and where I have peace and quiet to allow for the thinking time and creativity to flow. The most important thing of all. Time for reflection and time to trigger the "flow state", you know, those moments of total absorption when you get so focused on the task that everything else disappears (theorised by Csikszentmihalyi).
So no, remote working is not a privilege, it is, in most of my roles, crucial to the delivery of my job and brings the right balance. I expect the team to be able to do the same.
I someone I manage is feeling sick or has been so busy with work that they start their health starts to erode, I tell them to go home, rest and do nothing for a day if they have been. After all, the whole business is probably not going to collapse if one takes some time to recharge and comes back re-energised.
As long as we deliver OTIF. This is what matters.