With the current COVID-19 panic going on (thankfully I went to Costco months ago and it feels like I still have hundreds of loo rolls left), I’ve been checking Twitter a bit more often. It’s been a great week for getting a a few crisp thoughts together on myself and management strategies ahead.

Remote work

I’ve always been an advocate for remote work, I’ve experienced it’s benefits but haven’t managed to do full time. However, as our company became more distributed I was keen to level-out the playing field for all. As many companies unused to this approach have suddenly been thrown into the deep end, there’s loads of advice being thrown about:

• What type of practices are folks instituting to ensure efficient WFH work practices? Do daily virtual stand up meetings help? A daily task list? Looking for suggestions or things folks are trying out. (Kimberly Bryant / @6Gems)
• New WFHers! I’ve been working remotely for five years. Some things I learned along the way (Sahil Lavingia / @shl)
• I spent the last week writing 4,285 words about getting your *perfect* office webcam, lights, and audio set up, whether you’re a remote worker, podcaster, streamer, or YouTuber. Check it out, and let me know what I missed! (Matt Stauffer / @stauffermatt) (Ok, this is a little bit older, but still full of great info!)

Management

This tweet has been resonating with me for days:-

On a call

Product manager communicates flawlessly … humble, crisp, coherent

I ask questions…

“I set aside 30m every Friday morning, revisit and update a mind-maps and my notes, and practice. Mostly practice. That 30m is easily the highest leverage thing I do each week.”

— John Cutler (@johncutlefish) February 21, 2020

Recently things have been a bit busy, and I’ve not really had time to focus and push vision. When I don’t take the time to align myself, it feels like the rest of my direct team fluster also.

When I first started my current role I started documenting my process, flow, and needs clearly so I could keep them clear in my mind, and as I was always working on it, things were constantly changing. However, this hasn’t been updated for a while and my knowledgebase fell down.

It’s made me want to set time aside in my week to do the same, retrospectively see how the week went, revisit and update what my goals are, the messages I want to relay, and work on documenting myself and how I work.

I’m just about finished reading The Manager’s Path (Camille Fournier), and it’s helped me align my goals and think how better to work with my team as well. It’s no doubt going to be one of those books always on my desk, as I set it’s principles clear in my mind.