I’ve worked a couple of jobs - shop assistant up to assistant manager at a hardware store over 8 years, summer jobs while studying at uni, consultant straight out of uni, then in public healthcare; first as a business analyst for 9 years and, for the past 9 years, in IT (I blogged about my role in IT 3 years ago here).

From all these jobs, working under lots of leaders, I’ve learnt it’s not always possible to control the “what” and “when” of work.

However, the “how” is something I have a say in. I’ve built up a good idea of how I work best, my strengths and styles, and what others who work with me can expect from me.

Underlying this, it helps to be clear on what my job is: I see my job as understanding the business (public healthcare), and solving problems. For the business to be excellent, staff need to be excellent at their jobs - and I help them do that.

My values:

• I’m open-minded and believe good ideas can come from anyone
• I practice clear and direct communication; I model and value transparency and sharing of knowledge
• I have respect for people - their time, their knowledge & opinions
• I strongly believe in being available & accessible
• I frequently use data and evidence to support open, blame-free discussions
• I focus on outcomes - and understand there’s many ways of getting to a great outcome
• I take responsibility for my tasks, processes, outcomes

Further resources:

• Principles: Life and Work
• Managing Humans: Biting and Humorous Tales of a Software Engineering Manager
• Time Management for System Administrators: Stop Working Late and Start Working Smart
• Site Reliability Engineering
• The Site Reliability Workbook: Practical ways to implement SRE
• Business Chemistry: Practical Magic for Crafting Powerful Work Relationships