Working with me
Working with me
An unofficial, informal user manual
A page whose sentences start with “I” this much can be off-putting, not to mention boring. But my hope is that this “user guide” gives you a chance to understand my approach to work and the setting and cultures I tend to thrive in.
Management prEferences
In my career, I’ve done my best work when I have a manger who views their role not as a top-down conductor but as a “player-friendly coach,” so to speak.
To me, that means they:
Not only articulate our business and team goals, but prioritize the infrastructure to share data around them
Trust and empower the team to reach their goals the best way they know how
Prefer coaching rather than correcting
Help prioritize professional growth
Push back on my proposals with objective rationale instead of personal preferences
Hope that I find a bigger opportunity—inside the company or outside of it—in the near future
Delegate decision-making to team members if they have the right expertise
Contextualize the team’s strategy within the larger business strategy
Seek out the team’s opinions before giving their own
Some other qualities I’ve admired in my most-effective managers
When they make it a point to immerse me in the business, beyond just my own team. Context is everything, after all.
When they understand that experimentation in marketing is essential, as are they occasionally painful lessons that we learn
I’m comfortable using email, phone, or chat.
My goal is to respond to internal emails within four hours. If the email comes from a prospect or customer, I answer it immediately when I can, even if I let them know I need to follow up on their request or question. If the email comes from my manager or a more-senior team member, I try to reply faster, even if it’s letting them know I need to get back to them later.
Generally, I abhor back-and-forth email conversations. If an email yields ambiguity or follow-up questions, then I usually prefer to resolve the issue over the phone. It’s faster and more reliable, in my opinion.
I don’t believe in BCC, generally. I also don’t try to avoid correcting team members over email when a large group is on the email list.
Chat
I prefer chat, such as Microsoft Teams and Slack, for quick questions and well-timed, on-theme GIFs. I usually have the chat application on at all times unless I need to do some “deep work.”
Phone
While I know it’s no longer popular to do, I will answer calls when I can after business hours until around 9 PM or so during the week. (On the weekends, I usually turn my work cell off, but I give my manager my personal cell number in case they need to reach me.)
And perhaps it’s a result of being remote for nearly two years, but I’m increasingly finding the phone to be the most efficient way to connect with team members.
Communication Preferences
feedback and development
I approach feedback and professional development seriously, more or less as I did when I was an athlete. I crave it, especially when it comes to areas that are essential to improve on, and frustration can arise if practical feedback is difficult to access (even if I seek it out).
Generally, professional growth is usually at the top of my list when I’m looking at new opportunities. I’m not interested in doing the same, rote work over and over again, and while I enjoy becoming highly proficient within a specific function, in my eyes, the returns become marginal over time.
For me, the best method for growth involves a mix of repetition and intentional feedback and coaching. And the most helpful feedback for me isn’t correction but rather coaching me on the rationale behind why my approach wasn’t optimal and behind why yours is ideal.
After repetition and feedback, I look for courses and certifications, too. In 2021 alone, I completed four: Section 4 Brand Strategy, Product Marketing Alliance’s Product Marketing Core, Product Marketing Alliance’s Narrative Design, and Product Marketing Alliance’s Narrative Design. These help me round out some gaps in my experience or expertise and prepare me for projects in these areas down the road.
Among content professionals, my understanding and application of analytics is high, and I find that I very much balance analytical thinking with “creativity” (before switching to English, I majored in math).
Generally, I don’t believe that analytics should make decisions for teams, but should help influence decisions or highlight areas where teams should spend more time and attention.
I’ve led and supported reporting and analysis for the past six years, while at AIM Specialty Health, RevenueWell, and Anthem’s Diversified Business Group (DBG), which includes CareMore Health, Aspire Health, AIM Specialty Health, and Health Guide.
Data and analytics
goal setting
Like most, I do my best work and stretch my abilities when I know the business, team, and individual goals, or OKRs. If those aren’t available, I’ll typically ask if we can create some for at least my own role, and I prefer SMART goals rather than broad, generic objectives, like “grow brand awareness” and output-based objectives, like “write 10 blog posts this quarter.” Business rationale matters to me.
I prioritize goals for a few reasons. First, I want to be sure my time and effort at work are demonstrably moving the business forward. Second, goals can act as anchor when I have to prioritize my work. And finally, I want to assess my own performance over time.
I value check-ins with my manager, and in an ideal world, we would have them once a week or once every other week.
For me, check-ins work best not when they’re a live project-status check-in, but rather when they offer us a chance to sort through thornier project challenges or to dive deeper into professional development.
To make the most of our time together, I usually send an agenda a day or two before our check-in so that we each have enough time to reflect on the items. And in between our one-on-one’s, I often send a “PPP” update, in which I summarize my project progress, plans, and problems.
Check-ins
Generally, I prioritize my time and attention based on how close a project is to a sale or a conversion or how closely a project ties to the team’s and business’s OKRs.
For example, I usually prioritize creating a landing page for a demo over an organic LinkedIn post about the company’s culture.
Of course, there are exceptions. A request from a senior leader usually goes right to the top of my project queue, but overall, I use the principle above as a guide.
project prioritization
I’m not the best source for a reliable, impartial take on my personality and values at work, so below are some descriptions my colleagues and managers have shared about what I’m like from 8 AM to 5 PM five days a week.
Thoughtful
Humble
Strategic mindset
Professional
Calculated risk-taker
Diplomatic
Introverted and quietly confident
Versatile
Purpose driven (e.g., I need to know why we should create a piece of content)
Systems-level thinker
Personality
So, what does this look like in daily work life?
Get in touch to learn about how I’ve put these principles into practice—and how I adapt them to the business and culture.