Company-wide core hours are the best tool you can have to organize remote meetings across time zones. You also need to make sure people understand to be reasonably accommodating to each other’s schedules.
2. Move announcements out of meetings
Most people have more meetings in the remote world. Not calling meetings for announcements and status updates is a good start to counterbalance that. You can use asynchronous platforms to replace these meetings.
3. Frame your meetings with team building activities
You can frame every meeting with check-in and check-out rounds. This allows everyone to get to know each other a bit better. Also if people speak up early in the meeting, they’re more likely to contribute later.
4. Create social meetings
Social meetings are great to replace water cooler moments from the office. Ideally, set these up during office hours to make sure everyone can participate. Team cohesion is a delicate thing in the remote world, spend some time on making it work.
Episode 42 is here, the answer to life, the universe and everything: @mseavers, ex-CTO at @riotgames@RiotCareers discusses building self-managing teams.
1. What does the manager do in a self-managing team?
The leader’s job is to coach. You don’t do the frontline work, so you shouldn’t make all the frontline decisions. Teach your direct reports to solve problems and think for themselves.
2. There are reasons not to build an autonomous team
Leaders often have a desire to get more involved in the frontline work. Making decisions for your team can be quicker than taking time to have them think it through. But you come out ahead in the long run by letting these go.
1. Hire the right people
You need to hire for specific qualities when working in a hybrid team:
-Communication skills
-Proactivity
-Openness to feedback
-Inclusivity
These qualities have always been important, but they became essential in hybrid teams.
2. Document goals
You can’t rely on organically noticing in the office that an employee isn’t clear on the team’s goals and easily remind them with a few words. You need to make the goals explicit, and create a go-to document for your team to look at when in doubt.
1. About half of the tech companies didn't suffer badly from the pandemic, and almost as many experienced positive changes as negative changes. Only about 1 in 3 companies was forced to downsize at all.
Don't lower the bar in hiring, look for people as good or better than your existing employees. Create explicit requirements for each position so applicants are measured to the same standard whoever conducts their interviews.
2. Hire engineering managers with deep technical knowledge
This is essential for tech companies in hypergrowth. You need managers to mentor and support your junior employees and new hires. You can’t rely only on senior engineers for this, they’re busy coding and interviewing.
Whether you come from software engineering, sales, marketing or any other field, nothing can prepare you for being a CEO. Running a company requires experience in every discipline. You must learn on the fly.
2. The engineering background can help
A background in engineering helps you when you need to iterate your strategy in any field. Come up with potential solutions, set expectations for them, use data, and make rational decision. Software engineers are good at this.
This is the best way to know you’re doing something wrong. Take all the feedback you can get, and consider it carefully. Some may be way off, but you can find some of your weaknesses by paying attention.
2. Work on your self-awareness
Your biggest enemy is your autopilot. Your defense mechanisms tend to kick in way too early, and they get in the way of cooperation. Becoming more self-aware helps you master your instincts and salvage situations that may spiral out of control.