🤸 The Amazing Memory Man, NYTimes vs. Facebook, & high-maintenance clients

Hey — it’s Cristina & Jenni.

Each week, we share leadership reflections, resources, and laughs to help you excel in your role (+ have fun along the way).

As two tech leaders, we’re here to “lead in public” by sharing what we’re learning in our day-to-day roles, encouraging others to do the same, and learning and growing as leaders together.

Enjoy!

What we’re reflecting on this week

You know that specific sense of pride you feel when someone from your school makes it big? And it doesn’t matter if you never knew them because it’s more just excitement by association?

Hopefully your answer is yes (or maybe I’m just a nerd 🤓).

Anyway, that’s exactly how I feel about David Eagleman, who graduated from my high school and is now a renowned neuroscientist, author, Stanford professor, and science communicator. (He even had a popular show on PBS at one point!)

Among the many things he studies is human memory, and I recently listened to him speak about “mnemonists,” people with an exceptional ability to encode and retrieve information from memory.

The most famous mnemonist is likely “The Amazing Memory Man,” aka Solomon Shereshevsky, but you’ve probably heard of folks like this competing in memory championships all over the world. Their ability to soak in information like a sponge and then recall massive amounts of it later on is truly mind-blowing.

Hearing David talk about these memory wizards reminded me of one of my best bosses.

It wasn’t that she was a master of mnemonics, but she was incredible at what I’d call “the leadership basics of memory”:

• Recalling details from our conversations and bringing them up at the right moment

• Remembering to take care of what she said she’d do

• Proactively bringing up topics we said we should cover later

And her way with memory not only impressed me, it also made me feel seen and supported.

“How can I be like that when I’m in a leadership role?” I wondered.

When I asked her what her secret was, she pointed not to a memory strategy but to the systems she had in place for taking notes, setting reminders, and managing time. I was immediately hooked.

Ever since, I’ve been on the lookout for tools and tactics to help me improve my ability to listen, record notes, surface action items, and strengthen feedback loops. And that’s because I know from firsthand experience that having a solid (system for) memory makes a good manager into a great one.

I leveled up my strategy this month, so the timing couldn’t be better for a little show and tell! (Note: My exact method is reliant on G Suite, but these concepts can be applied to any tech stack).

4 steps to enhance your memory (with a G Suite flavor for those interested):

1. Take thorough notes during your conversations (G Suite: Record notes in a shared 1:1 G Doc)

2. Put action items at the top so they don’t get lost (G Suite: Use the @task feature to capture action items at the top of the doc - those Tasks then pull through to G Cal automatically)

3. Block “action item time” on the calendar so everything gets done (G Suite: Use the Focus Time feature to block action item time on G Cal)

4. Close the loop by confirming what’s been completed (G Suite: When a Task is checked off from G Cal or from the Task sidebar, it’s checked off in your 1:1 doc as well. MAGIC! 🪄)

It’s wild that such a simple workflow can have such an big impact, but this process is what keeps me (and probably my direct reports!) sane. Steal these tips or adapt your own in order to stay on top of everything without needing to become a memory pro.

→ How can you level up your systems to enhance your memory and make your team feel seen and supported?

What we’re learning this week

• ✍️ Time is emphasis - Highly relevant to our topic today, Molly Graham has a specific post dedicated to planning your calendar as a leader. In our experience, everyone has slightly different preferences when it comes to calendar management, so read this, give it a go, and see what sticks.

• 👀 Alexandra Hardiman on Lenny’s Podcast - As the Chief Product Officer at the New York Times (and a former leader at Facebook), Alexandra contrasts the level of impact and purpose she felt at each organization. As we’re all pursuing meaning in one way or another, we found this snippet insightful and instructive.

• 🎠 Things you won’t give a f*ck about in 5 years - The title says it all, really, but we love the specifics in Colby’s breakdown. You’ll want to bookmark this one for later.

What we’re laughing at this week

Whether it’s a client, an internal stakeholder, or even a direct report, we’ve all been there 😂

That’s it for this week — thanks for reading.

See you next Thursday! 🤸‍♀️