I ran across an interesting concept, creating a user’s manual for how you operate. This can be very simple, or very elaborate, but the idea is to create a document for your co-workers that informs that about how you operate, what your issues are, what’s expected of them, and even your own short-comings. This is obviously most useful to people who report to you, especially new hires that will feel like they’re struggling to catch up and fit in, but could also be insightful for your peers and those you report to.<\/p>\n
When I first heard about it from an article posted by FirstRound.com [note]FirstRound.com: The Indispensable Document For The Modern Manager<\/a>[\/note], I was intrigued. It turns out this isn’t an original idea. In 2003, there was an article from The Wall Street Journal [note] The Wall Street Journal: Job Candidates Get a Manual From Boss<\/a>[\/note], in 2010 a presentation from Dattner Consulting [note]Dattner Consulting: Do you have a user manual<\/a>[\/note], and another article on The Military Leader [note]The Military Leader: How To Write Your Own User Manual<\/a>[\/note].<\/p>\n I think this idea is genius on several levels. Most obviously it will help anyone reporting to you to work and communicate most effectively with you, while avoiding hot-buttons. Think about the difficult bosses you’ve had, and how much time and energy a document like this would have saved in figuring them out.\u00a0 But, there are some side benefits:<\/p>\n [su_list icon=”icon: chevron-right” icon_color=”#0545ed”]<\/p>\n [\/su_list]<\/p>\n It’s a concept that’s infinitely flexible. Put whatever you like in it.\u00a0 But, I recommend you try to keep it concise. Your manual may get out of control and need to be re-organized, or pruned, as it grows. Depending on your level and responsibilities, maybe some things can be taken out or added. Here are some ideas:<\/p>\n [su_list icon=”icon: chevron-right” icon_color=”#0545ed”]<\/p>\n [\/su_list]<\/p>\n I personally think this is a document that you may never finish. It’s something that could be reviewed and updated often, a tool for continuous self-discovery and growth.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I ran across an interesting concept, creating a user’s manual for how you operate. This can be very simple, or very elaborate, but the idea is to create a document for your co-workers that informs that about how you operate, what your issues are, what’s expected of them, and even your own short-comings. This is … Continue reading “A User’s Manual For YOU”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/patrickv.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/patrickv.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/patrickv.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/patrickv.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/patrickv.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/patrickv.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/patrickv.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/patrickv.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/patrickv.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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