🤸 Zero management training, Spotify’s new org chart, & the silent disco champion

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

A friend of mine was recently promoted into management for the first time.

As she was telling me all about the new role, she admitted that she was shocked by the lack of leadership training she’d received from her company.

2 months in, and she hadn’t been offered any management-specific mentorship, training materials, cohort-based learning… Nada. Zip. Zero.

As you might already know, this is far too common.

A U.S. Bureau of Labor study a few years ago found that many companies offer only 6-12 minutes of manager training every six months.

I wonder how many of you are reading this and nodding your head because of a similar experience?

For my friend - and for many others - the lack of training can feel like there’s a missing foundation and can heighten feelings of imposter syndrome. At the end of the day, we all just want to hit the ground running, make a positive impression with the team, and do a great job.

So, what was my advice in this scenario? First off, I always recommend making full use of L&D budget if leadership training isn’t going to materialize anytime soon. Finding a mentor (internally or externally) can also be an effective way to go.

BUT on top of those more common routes, I’ve personally found lots of value in reflecting back on my own lived experiences working with leaders as a form of “training” that can be just as powerful as a leadership course.

To illustrate this concept, my friend and I walked through the quick exercise below to get the gears turning in a way that feels intuitive and immediately actionable.

And the nice thing is that it’s never too late to go through this - if you've been managing for a while, compare your answers to how you're doing things currently and find ways to start incorporating these takeaways.

Grab your note-taking utensil of choice and get cozy! 📝 Now, pretend you're about to hop on a Zoom call and meet your new manager.

1/ Which traits and habits are you desperately hoping your new manager will have?

• Think about great leaders you've worked with.

• How did they inspire the team, make you feel good, drive results?

• Nice! You've just drafted your best practices list.

2/ Which traits and habits are you very worried your new manager will have?

• Think about not-so-great leaders you've worked with.

• What did they do to make you feel bad, annoyed, demotivated, or confused?

• Not fun to relive, eh? These are now on your not-to-do list.

3/ How do you want your new manager to show up on this first 1:1?

• Imagine yourself leaving the 1:1 thinking, "Yes! This will be good."

• What actions did they take to make you feel that way?

• Boom! Your first 1:1 agenda is taking form.

4/ How do you want your new manager to show up on your first team meeting?

• Reflect on different team meetings you’ve had in terms of format, tone, rituals, etc.

• Which elements left the whole team feeling optimistic, focused, and united?

• Excellent - you're ready to take team meetings to the next level.

5/ What does your new manager need to know about you, the team, and the company to be successful?

• Prep a list of need-to-knows that will help them help you faster.

• What are your professional goals, team project statuses, obstacles with other teams, etc?

• Reverse-engineer this list into a useful set of questions that you can ask your direct reports.

Look at you go! You've kicked off your:

1. Best practices list

2. Not-to-do list

3. First 1:1 agenda

4. Team meeting approach

5. Listening tour questions

→ Now that you've made it this far, one last step to finish up. Do a gap analysis for each of the 5 areas:

• Which of these will come easily to you? → Quick wins 💪

• Which of these will push you to act differently? → Growth opps 📊

What we’re learning this week

• 🎙️ Podcast: Why Spotify wants to look like TikTok, with co-president Gustav Söderström – Whether you’re a music aficionado, a Spotify fan, or a business nerd, you’ll get a kick out of this Decoder episode. We especially enjoyed the focus on org chart design (a Decoder staple) as well as the inside take on the evolution of the app.

• 🧵 Thread: Pam Rubin on how to effectively pitch your ideas – Pam runs a $362M Health IT program and has done a whooole lot of pitching. In this post, she walks through the top 7 soft skills she recommends focusing on to get better at developing, pitching, and getting sign-off on your ideas.

• ✍️ LI post: How to answer the question “Why should anyone be led by you?” – We love a good LI carousel, and Vanessa Monsequeira nails it with this one. While it might seem like an intimidating question to consider, Vanessa does a fab job of breaking it down with helpful visuals (including a cheat sheet on how to answer the question “with confidence and humility”).

What we’re laughing at this week

The screenshot speaks for itself but click through for the full video… and don’t be afraid to dance along 😉 

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

See you next Thursday! 🤸‍♀️