I wrote the first version of this document in 2020 as a newly minted manager of an engineering team. I return to it when I am building a relationship with a new colleague, handling a difficult situation, or navigating a role change. I’ve updated it over the years, but most of my core philosophy has stayed the same. You can read more about how I use my leadership values document here.

For anyone building their skills as a manager or leader, I recommend thinking through your own values (perhaps even listing some ideas before you read mine) and drafting up a version of your leadership philosophy.

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Health of all team members

In order for teams to function sustainably, each team member needs to be able to prioritize their own physical and mental health (e.g., sufficient sleep, regular breaks, manageable stress levels). Part of health is psychological safety: the ability to take risks, ask for help, and learn from mistakes. This is necessary for creative work like engineering.

What you can expect from me

• As leader, it is my responsibility to assist in communication with external stakeholders when we need to update our commitments. I will support managers in modifying commitments—pushing back deadlines, reducing work scope, or changing staffing plans—if needed to support the health of members of their teams.
• Unless there is a significant crisis or I’m on call, I don’t work at all on weekends; it makes me feel burned out and unhappy. I will support everyone in my organization in setting reasonable boundaries with work.

What I expect from the team

• Put your own health needs first. By taking care of yourself and asking for help when needed, you will be better able to contribute to the company long term.
• When someone makes a mistake, recognize that humans are fallible. Instead of judging an individual’s actions, we will focus on improving the overall system and reducing the impact of human errors.
• Everyone has times they need to reduce their workload, trade on-call shifts, take unexpected PTO, or say no to responsibilities. As a group, we can make this easier for each other by picking up the slack when possible.
• Everyone should feel safe bringing their authentic self to work, and also be accepted and supported if they would prefer to keep their personal life and work life separate. Bring what you want of yourself to work, as long as you are respecting the health and safety of others and accomplishing your job responsibilities.

Transparency

I want to work in a culture of trust and collaboration, and I believe transparency is key in creating that culture. Clear communication about motivations and goals is essential for building buy-in.

What you can expect from me

• The clearer I am about the problems I’m trying to solve, the better everyone I work with can collaborate with me on solving those problems. If you find me unclear or aren’t sure why I’m making a particular decision, please let me know so I can improve my communication.
• Clear feedback increases trust. I will aim to be direct and timely in my feedback.

What I expect from the team

• Tell me about the problems you’re seeing early so that I can collaborate with you in finding solutions. You don’t need to have a full understanding or thought-through solution to tell me about a problem.
• Each member of the team should understand the broader team and organization goals. If you are unsure what these are or feel they are unclear (or incorrect!), I expect you to speak up with questions and concerns.
• I expect that everyone I work with is striving for personal success and the success of the company; if a problem arises, we will communicate openly with one another about those mutual goals.

Predictability

As software teams, we are held responsible for meeting the expectations we set for our project deliveries and system capabilities. The more predictable we can make our work, the better we will be at setting and meeting expectations. In addition, having predictability in our work lives at an individual level reduces stress and supports emotional health.

What you can expect from me

• Increasing system stability increases predictability because there are fewer disruptive incidents. I see this as a compelling reason to invest in resolving technical debt and will advocate for teams to take on system improvement work.
• I would rather focus on predictability of outcome than velocity. I will try to put cross-team processes in place that reflect this focus. Teams can use what they learn from these processes to improve other areas like velocity, efficiency, etc.

What I expect from the team

• Predictability is probably the hardest part of building software; we will never be perfect, but should keep striving to be better. When we hit unexpected turbulence, we will take time afterward to reflect as a team on how to reduce the likelihood of the same thing happening again.
• We should all try to avoid surprising each other, and to avoid surprising external stakeholders. I expect the team to communicate early and often to reduce surprises.

Growth

Most people I’ve worked with value personal growth and are most engaged when interested and challenged. I have particularly seen teams succeed with a cascading growth pattern: as each person expands their skills, someone else on the team who already had those skills is freed up to grow further. Pairing cascading growth with a culture of mentorship is a powerful way to quickly expand a team’s capabilities.

What you can expect from me

• I will give feedback focused not just on each person’s current role but also on what they will need to successfully grow.
• I will work with my direct reports to clarify goals and check in regularly about progress toward those goals. I will also work with team managers to ensure each individual has support and structure for setting and achieving goals. 
• When new opportunities arise (project leadership, cross-team collaboration, etc.), I will do my best to match these opportunities to individuals with relevant growth areas. This opportunity-matching is necessarily a collaboration between management and individuals.
• All growth comes with risk of failure; I will support individuals in learning from failure instead of discouraging risk.

What I expect from the team

• You are the owner of your own career growth. In order to get support in that growth, you must clearly define and communicate your goals, including which kinds of achievements/challenges are compelling to you and which are less so.
• Acknowledge that everyone around you is also striving for growth, and support each other in achieving these goals. If someone else is given an opportunity you were hoping for, find ways to contribute to their success and express your interest in similar opportunities in the future.
• Giving feedback is a skill that takes practice and mentorship. I expect every individual to work on this skill so that we can build a culture of timely, actionable, and respectful feedback.
• Receiving feedback is also a skill; ask for feedback and work on your ability to engage thoughtfully when you receive it.

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I plan to carry this document with me as my take on new roles and challenges, and I expect it to adapt and change as I do. If you’d like to learn more about times when I’ve changed my values document in the past, along with other situations in which I return to the document, you can read more here.