What’s your style?

Do the people that work for you know your preferred style of working?  If they don’t then I suggest you get cracking and tell them!  How else can you hope to get the information you need to do your job in the right format and style, without wasting both your time and theirs by having to correct them?  I believe this is one of the most overlooked areas for executives and leaders when they start a new job.

My preferred method is to have a simple Word or PowerPoint document that first gives an introduction to how my thought processes work, e.g. prefer brainstorming, use a whiteboard a lot, like to listen to ideas first before jumping in, etc.  I think this is critical because it gives your team the ability to proactively manage early engagements with you and get everyone off to a good start.

The next thing in the document is an expectations setting exercise.  Things like when you prefer to do your emails, whether you’re a morning or an afternoon person (I’m an afternoon person), when I’m not to be contacted, whether you like emails from your directs to include tags or keywords so you can quickly prioritise them, etc.  It all may seem very basic but trust me, it works and quickly gets rid of any ambiguity.

I also include information around how I like data to be presented to me, how I like problems outlined and summarised, my preferred layout and style for presentations (I hate wordy slides that contain what should be the presentation script), and what things will probably push my buttons.

I know some people that think this sort of information is best learnt as you go along but in my experience that will almost always end in disaster.

Once you have your document put together I also recommend you post it in as public a forum as your organisation has.  Don’t try and keep the information to a select few, let everyone know and it will make for a much smoother and happier workplace.