Update on working with Alex + sorry for being late :(

Hey there 👋

I'm writing to you in the passenger seat of my parent's Honda CRV.

Katie and I are headed to Minneapolis. She has her 6-month routine checkup for MS at Mayo. (My parents let us borrow their car when we go – this is only our second visit)

We're excited to spend the weekend with family but a little anxious about the appointment on Monday. However, we know that whatever we face, we'll be able to work through it as a team.

Now, to today's scheduled programming:

–

It's been a whole week since adding our newest team member, and I'm doing better than I thought.

While I'm not Alex's "leader," I'm heavily responsible for getting him up to speed, whether in knowledge transfer or doing the work to set him up well.

I thought I might struggle to get someone up to speed, but it's going smoother than imagined.

Here's an example of what I'm talking about:

We wanted Alex to research the top customer success guru's so we could follow and learn from them. If you know me, you know one of my superpowers is research.

So, I had three options:

I could let him do it all and struggle through
I could do it for him as I will get it done in a quarter of the time
I can get him started with a few data points (5-10 resources) and let him finish it

I picked option 3. While option two could have been the faster choice, I knew it would not help Alex in the long run.

And that's one thing I think leaders are meant to facilitate. They should nurture those in their circle of influence to grow and develop. Failing to delegate and empower those you work with is not leadership.

I've read many books on leadership way before I ever faced decisions like these. And that's why I think I can make "good" decisions.

Without that wealth of knowledge, I would be starting at zero. Instead, I can lean on fundamental principles and at least know what I'm supposed to do.

Getting to great decisions and outstanding leadership also requires experience. That's what I'm getting. I have some knowledge; it's time to transform that into wisdom.

All that to say, I'm already learning a ton from working with Alex.

Here are a few other significant takeaways I've had that may be helpful for you:

Over-communication is nearly impossible with new hires
Consistent meetings early on help align and provide rhythm
Having set expectations of what you hope they achieve is critical
Routinely align on priorities to eliminate questions about what to work on

It's been only one week, so I'm barely scratching the surface on insights.

But I'm already excited (and open) about what this experience will teach my team and me.

What's something new you're open to and learning from (even if it's not comfortable)?

🧠 + ❤️ // JO