How to Work With Mitch

For quite a while now I’ve been sharing a simple document with my team that gives some insight to me as a leader. This document has been generally well received by all so after a chat today with my friend Shane I’ve decided to share it publicly (P.S. go see his writing, it’s great).

The purpose of this document is to provide my team with a comprehensive understanding of who I am as a person and a professional. Through this document, I aim to share with them some of my key personality traits and values that contribute to my leadership style. Additionally, it provides some valuable insights into my communication and collaboration styles so that my team can understand how to work with me more effectively.

Overall, I hope that this document has provided my team with a better understanding of who I am and how I work. I am excited to get to know everyone better and to work together to achieve our goals.

As with many such documents, this is a forever work in progress.

Personality

INTP in Myers Briggs. It might be surprising to some that I am an introvert, but I am the classic introvert-extrovert who tends to subdue the desire to be alone by stepping in and doing. Please note this can also make me capture a lot of the meeting time, so please feel safe to advise me if I am not being equitable.
Type A. I am a classic Type A personality type. I have high expectations of myself and high expectations of those around me. This can show as a weakness in times when slowing things down is expected.
Strengths. I am a heavy systems thinker, I am passionate about documentation over meetings and conversation, I like to make decisions with the team and look for a win-win-win situation. I am also happy to let others own decision-making, but in return I insist upon transparent ownership of the success and/or failure of the decision.
Weaknesses. I am working on being more direct and clear when communicating with others, especially with having awkward conversations. I am also working on time management and time-boxing more efficiently.

Values & Culture

Psychological safety. At the heart of all my behavior I am trying to put those around me in a space where their best and open thinking can come to the forefront. This means I encourage others to say the thought they might think is silly. Likewise I will look down upon those seeking to take away from others.
Transparency & Honest. One of my superpowers (both positive and negative) is my openness and honesty. I tend to be overly honest and clear in my approach, aiming to always let others know my thoughts and feelings, but this can at times come across as blunt and callous, which is unintentional and something I am working on.
No passengers (Results Count). I believe that at the core of all great companies (especially early stage startups where I thrive) is a “no passengers” philosophy, which means everyone is contributing their all to the mission.
We before me. Stolen from my early days leading teams, I believe in putting the needs of the team in front of my own, and will often expect others to do this also. The success of the team and the mission are paramount.

Collaboration

1:1s. If you report to me, I will be at your 1:1 every time without fail, or I will reschedule to a time that suits you. I will, however, turn up to your 1:1 unprepared, expecting that you are running this meeting and you are prepared to gain what you need. If I report to you, I will arrive well-prepared with notes and an agenda prior to the meeting, my only ask that you do not respond to the agenda until the time of the call.
Documentation. I forget things and so do you, it’s a trait of being human. I believe in documentation (in Notion, of course) above email/slack/conversation. I also believe that many 1hr meetings can be solved in a short document and a 10 minute meeting. If you need help in upskilling your documentation habits, reach out.
I take notes. This isn’t anything personal, but I take a lot of notes in meetings. If you say something, I will likely write it down, and if you commit to something, I will hold you to it. I expect others to do the same of me.
Timezones & Availability. I prefer to work asynchronously, working best via Notion and Slack. However, I am generally available within the hours shared in my Slack profile.

Communication

Medium. Slack > Notion. I am terrible at checking email, I will almost always forget to check Figma / Redpen/ etc. notes, and I encourage you to shoot me a note on Slack when something is important. Bonus points for messaging in a public and relevant channel.
1:1s. I like to keep 1:1s as much as possible. It’s okay if you move it around (I might too!) but if you need to cancel, I’d prefer a heads up.
Over-communicate. Feel free to add me to any chats, docs, meetings, emails, etc as you see fit. I would prefer to decline something than to realize too late that I should have participated.
Don’t. I will always attempt to make my first message the relevant, on-topic message. I will refrain from awkward messages like “do you have a minute?” and “how are you?” instead preferring to be clear with my goals of a conversation. Don’t take this as a “down to business” tactic, but instead a way of avoiding conversation anxiety.

Feedback & Recognition

Giving Recognition. I love to give feedback. I aim to do it multiple times a day and I encourage others to do the same.
Giving Feedback. I like celebrating moments often and timely, but have trouble bringing up more negative feedback. I’m working on it but for now, I will tend to wait until 1:1s to deliver that feedback so nothing gets lost in translation.
Receiving Recognition. I am shy at receiving recognition and I will occasionally deflect or give recognition to others. I am working on this.
Receiving Feedback. I am a feedback machine and nothing is off-topic with me. I am open to feedback on any of my behaviors or contributions, but I do prefer explicit examples over feelings and clear feedback on what changes you are seeking from me.