Personal User Manual
Categories:
- INFJ, “the advocate”
- Aspiring Hufflepuff
- Neutral good
Values:
- 🤝 Leading by example.
- Holds herself to high standards and expects leaders to do the same. Actions speak louder than words.
- 💞 Direct, honest communication.
- If something isn’t going well, let her know ASAP. Especially if something she did or said didn’t sit right with you.
- 🏆 Collaboration.
- Thrives on teams that work together on a shared project. (Everyone brings different strengths to the table. Together, we can build greater things than what we could achieve alone.)
- Loves pairing! It helps her to get real-time feedback and avoid spinning her wheels in analysis-paralysis mode.
- 👭 Relationships.
- Wants to get to know her coworkers as humans (if they’re open to it).
- 👋 Work-life balance.
- She works hard during the day, but don’t expect a response once she signs off.
- Occasionally she’ll send messages when others are OOO (so she doesn’t forget to ask), but she doesn’t expect a response until they’re back on the clock.
Strengths:
- 🧠 Learning new things.
- She does lots of research when trying to understand a new domain. Wants to understand how things work, and why they should be done a particular way.
- 🕵️♀️ Attention to detail.
- Great at catching typos. She’s done a lot of copy editing, and it’s hard for her to turn that part of her brain off.
- Finds it helpful if you tell her specifically what kind of feedback you’re looking for (so that she doesn’t get too in-the-weeds).
- 🤔 Asking clarifying questions.
- This probably comes from being a teacher. Sometimes she asks questions if she suspects that others might be confused and are too shy to ask (even if she knows the answer herself).
- Mainly this comes from wanting to make sure everyone is on the same page. Usually I'm trying to understand the context around a problem or decision, or I'm looking for clarity on next steps.
- 📝 Taking detailed notes.
- Often found rifling through old notebooks to find a diagram she drew when she was learning about some obscure thing months ago.
- On the flip side, she hesitates to volunteer to be notetaker during meetings because it’s a role that is more frequently forced upon women.
- 🥳 Enthusiasm.
- This probably comes from years of being a camp counselor.
- Tries to be consistently upbeat, unless she’s exceptionally tired, hangry, or frustrated.
- She cares deeply about making sure that other people feel appreciated. Makes a point to bake in “warm fuzzy” appreciation activities when she’s facilitating. Tries to give positive feedback and celebrate little wins whenever possible.
Weaknesses:
- 🤖 Following orders she doesn’t believe in.
- She has a hard time forcing herself to do work if she doesn’t understand the rationale for why it’s important.
- Wants to be sure the team is doing the right thing, and that they’re doing it the right way. She struggles when she senses the team is not aligned.
- 🥴 Hiding her feelings.
- She’s been told in the past that it’s clearly visible when she has feelings about something. (Although sometimes she’s been told that when she wasn’t actually feeling anything.)
- In the past, this has surfaced when she feels like meetings are being facilitated ineffectively or when her feedback is ignored.
- 🗣 Advocating for herself over others.
- She has a tendency to defer to helping others, sometimes at her own expense. Sometimes has difficulty saying “no.”
- When pairing, she has a hard time asking to drive, because she knows that other people learn better by doing.
Communication Style:
- 🧭 Thrives with frequent feedback.
- Needs positive reinforcement so she knows when she's on the right track.
- Needs constructive criticism so she can grow and improve.
- ⏳ Prefers to address squishy topics sooner rather than later.
- Direct communication. It’s okay if things aren’t going well, but it’s not okay if no one says anything about it.
- 👎 Does not respond well to teasing or jokes at her own or others’ expense (anything that needs to be couched by “no offense”, or “just kidding”).
- Also includes excessive sarcasm, or making assumptions about people.
- 💩 Often uses emojis or GIFs to communicate.
- If the meaning is ever unclear, please ask her to clarify!
Working Style:
- 💬 Checks Slack more frequently than email.
- Try Slack first, and if it’s a more complicated issue, she’s happy to hop on a Zoom to hash it out.
- 🧩 Likes collaborating, especially when her work is in the problem-solving stage.
- Likes brainstorming together to make sure she’s heading down the right path before going off to execute on her own.
- 💪 Prefers working meetings to verbal updates.
- E.g., First attendees spend 5 minutes entering ideas/updates into a doc, then use doc comments to respond to each other, then summarize verbally with the whole group.
- 🏗 Works best when she can be creative within a set of boundaries.
- Projects that are completely open-ended are difficult for her to start, until she understands the target audience and the desired end result.
- Craves structured planning before starting a new project, to outline the scope of work and break it down into small concrete tasks. "Go slow to go fast."
- 🌃 More productive in the afternoon/evening.
Decision-Making Process:
- Decide what the goal is. What are we trying to improve? Why is that the right move?
- Gather all the data.
- Identify a few possible options for paths forward. Get feedback on the options.
- Pick the option that best aligns with the initial goal.
Current Areas for Growth:
- 💡 Improve ability to influence across teams.
- 👩🏫 Look for opportunities to teach others! (Writing, creating videos, presenting, etc.)