Sri’s Manager README
By: Srivatsan Sridharan
Tags: Management, Leadership, Engineering Mangement

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to work with you, help grow your career, and enable you to be successful here at Yelp! We’ll get to know each other organically over the next few weeks, months, and years. But I figured it might be helpful to share some of my management philosophies upfront.

Notes about this doc

This is meant to be informational. I want to give you context on how I work and how I think about management. While most of the content is inspired from Yelp’s Management Philosophy and the things I’ve learnt from other fantastic managers here at Yelp and outside, this is a personal doc. It represents my views.

My Goals

To put it simply, I have two goals in my role as a manager:

Help the business succeed

Help you succeed in your career

I strongly believe that you can’t have one without the other — a team can’t be successful if folks on the team aren’t, and folks can’t be successful if the team/business is tanking. However, sometimes your career goals may not be in line with what the team or the business needs. In those cases, we’ll sit down and talk about it.

What I deeply value in a team

I deeply value psychological safety, empathy, and transparency. I expect each of us, including myself, to embody these values.

Psychological Safety

We encourage diverse viewpoints and create an atmosphere where everyone’s views are heard and assimilated.

and create an atmosphere where everyone’s views are heard and assimilated. We feel safe to fail and can talk about those failures with the group without punishment or blame .

and can talk about those failures with the group . We treat feedback as a gift . We accept them graciously from our team-mates and use them to get better at our work-lives.

. We accept them graciously from our team-mates and use them to get better at our work-lives. We use conflict as a collaboration tool. We challenge each others’ ideas, but we do so from a place of trust.

Empathy

We care about our team-mates . We respect each other and give space for each other to share our opinions.

. We respect each other and give space for each other to share our opinions. We strive to understand our team-mates’ points of view and where they are coming from.

and where they are coming from. We understand that providing feedback is an act of kindness. We help our team-mates succeed by providing them timely and actionable feedback.

Transparency

We never hide information from each other (aside from HR, financial, or legal information that might need to be kept private)

from each other (aside from HR, financial, or legal information that might need to be kept private) We communicate honestly and directly , expressing our thoughts clearly rather than spinning around in circles.

, expressing our thoughts clearly rather than spinning around in circles. We take responsibility for our actions and the consequences they may have.

and the consequences they may have. We err on the side of over-communication — we give enough context to our team-mates so that we don’t end up surprising them.

What you can expect from me

Psychological Safety, Empathy, Transparency

All the points we talked earlier.

Availability

Though my calendar may look crazy, know that I’m here for you, to support you, to advocate for you, and help you succeed.

I’m big on weekly 1:1s . This is a dedicated 30–60 min time slot every week for us to chat about how you’re doing, what’s making you happy and what’s not, what’s working well and what isn’t. We don’t necessarily need to talk about status, unless you want to (I can get status updates from other means). You get to drive the agenda. For my skip-level reports: I will aim to meet with you at least once every quarter in a 1:1 setting

. This is a dedicated 30–60 min time slot every week for us to chat about how you’re doing, what’s making you happy and what’s not, what’s working well and what isn’t. We don’t necessarily need to talk about status, unless you want to (I can get status updates from other means). You get to drive the agenda. For my skip-level reports: I will aim to meet with you at least once every quarter in a 1:1 setting Any open calendar slot is yours for the taking . You don’t need to ask me before scheduling. Just grab an open time slot. If you can’t find an open time slot, let me know and I will make room for you.

. You don’t need to ask me before scheduling. Just grab an open time slot. If you can’t find an open time slot, let me know and I will make room for you. Ping me on Slack and I will reply immediately. I use Slack as my instant messaging platform. I get notifications on my phone and I tend to respond to them immediately during work hours. If my responses are delayed, that’s because I’m in a meeting. This is the fastest way to reach me if you don’t see me around at my desk.

Autonomy. Not Micromanagement.

Expect me to provide you autonomy in your work . I see my role as a guide and a coach. My job is to set context and provide feedback. Not to instruct you on how to do your job.

. I see my role as a guide and a coach. My job is to set context and provide feedback. Not to instruct you on how to do your job. Based on where you are in your career, I will tune the degree of autonomy so that I can support you adequately. For example, I may be more hands-on for someone who’s struggling in a role versus someone who’s demonstrated mastery in that role.

Feedback

Expect me to set clear expectations and provide feedback early and often.

Career Growth

My job is to facilitate your career growth. This means, helping you discover what you want from your career, providing the right opportunities for you, and challenging you to hit your goals.

What I expect from you

We will talk about your specific expectations based on where you are in your career and what you want to do. These are more general expectations I have of everyone on the team.

Psychological Safety, Empathy, Transparency

All the points we talked earlier.

Ownership

Own your learning . Figure out what you need to learn in order for you to be successful. This is especially important as you ramp up on a new role. I will obviously help you by giving you guidance and feedback, but it is your responsibility to tenaciously work towards being successful in the role you are in.

. Figure out what you need to learn in order for you to be successful. This is especially important as you ramp up on a new role. I will obviously help you by giving you guidance and feedback, but it is your responsibility to tenaciously work towards being successful in the role you are in. Own your career. Solicit feedback from your peers, figure out what your strengths and weaknesses are, and discover career paths you find exciting.

Bias for Action

Don’t wait for things to happen on their own. Be proactive, make mistakes, and learn from them.

make mistakes, and learn from them. Getting blocked on your work? Feeling like your career is stagnating? Something’s bothering you? Raise it openly and proactively with me (or your manager in case of skip-level reports) so that we can discuss it and help get you out of that rut.

Accountability

Take responsibility for your actions. Made a mistake? Accept that, learn from that, and get better.

Made a mistake? Accept that, learn from that, and get better. Do what you say you’ll do . Don’t leave people hanging on responses. Please be on time for meetings. If you’re getting late, let the organizer of the meeting know.

. Don’t leave people hanging on responses. Please be on time for meetings. If you’re getting late, let the organizer of the meeting know. Don’t burn out. Work-life balance is important to me. It’s important to all of us.

Thank you for patiently reading through my spiel. Now let’s go win! :D

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Special thanks to my manager friend and colleague, John Weatherford, who patiently read through my draft and helped me use the right words :)