My expectations of you as my colleague & co-worker

7 min readJan 15, 2019

Updated: Sep 25, 2024

This post is for my professional colleagues and potential co-workers.

I look forward to our building great things together. You bring not only your skills and talents to our team but also your unique personality. I see it as a privilege to be working with you, and I’ll adapt my leadership style to accommodate your uniqueness. As we’re striving towards a common goal and will be working together closely, you’ll need to adapt as well. From my perspective, the following points are mission-critical:

Please watch this video first, then continue reading. Our team is all-in to change the world. We are willing to live extraordinary lives to build extraordinary things. Know thyself: Are you all-in and change the world? I am. If you are all in, we’ll work together to have a massive impact on humankind. If not, let's not work together. Neither of us will enjoy it.
All-in means pushing as hard and fast as humanly possible to meet your deadlines and SLAs. Sometimes, such as when you’re responsible for removing a bottleneck or something unexpected happens, this requires working extended hours and weekends. Burning the midnight oil.
My sense of urgency is high, and I'm trying to make it higher. It's key to change the world. As such, I expect you to get shit done quickly.
If anything is blocking you or your team or you find your work unfulfilling, let me know immediately.
Do keep my strengths and weaknesses in mind. My strengths include ideation, command, execution, integrity, and perfectionism. Among my many weaknesses are a lack of empathy in some situations, a bad temper, and — inevitably — my perfectionism.
When we’re making decisions, it’s okay to disagree. I expect you to speak your mind and contribute your thoughts, ideas, and opinions. We don't try to be right. We try to get it right.
I expect you to be inquisitive and ask questions when you don’t understand or something doesn’t make sense to you. It’s okay to be reserved outside of work (I am!), but you’re required to speak up in a work context, either when with me or among the members of your team.
By the same token, l expect you to welcome questions and not to make people feel bad about asking them — whether the questions come from your colleagues or from me.
When chatting, please be open to discussing the meaning of words. Semantics are important to me. My brain likes to think more literally and less figuratively.
To keep conversations fluent and our decisions prompt, either reply to or acknowledge my messages within 24 hours — excluding Sundays.
I’d like you to be able to ‘unplug’ whenever you feel the need to do so. Just remember to let me know ahead of time if you’re taking days off and won’t be able to react within the timeframe above.
If you’d like to meet for a chat, simply ask and I’ll share my calendar with you.
Be on time for our meetings and let’s finish them on time too — including 25 and 55-minute meetings.
When we meet, it’s okay to get emotional. As long as you remain respectful of others, I’ll accept you being emotional as a display of passion. I don’t see that as a sign of weakness.
For the sake of efficiency, if you need to cancel or reschedule a meeting, please do so as far in advance as you can. Avoid canceling or rescheduling same-day meetings.
Don’t decline a meeting invitation (unless you’re an optional attendee). Instead, contact me promptly via chat and let’s find a suitable time for all invitees.
Make sure your contact number is listed on your Slack profile (including country code). When emergencies arise or we’re experiencing connectivity issues, being able to reach you via Signal is important.
You’re free to work from anywhere you like; I have no prescriptions in this regard. Just make sure your Internet connection is excellent.
When video conferencing, please enable your webcam; I find it impossible to converse with a void. Video is optional if you're breastfeeding.
For the sake of clarity and complete comprehensibility when video conferencing, use a noise-canceling headset. I recommend this one. Experience has taught me that using a headset is the least problematic for all parties concerned.
Do keep in mind: if you copy me in any email exchange, the message is likely to go unread. If you want me to read your message, address it to me directly.
When interacting with people outside our team, your grammar must be flawless. Accurate grammar makes you look professional. For quick, internal messages, grammar isn't an issue as long as you get your message across.

I am committed to leading by example so while I have clear expectations of you, you’re equally entitled to have expectations of me. Thus, you may expect the following:

Opportunities to grow. Your personal and professional development is important to me.
Involvement. I value your comments and suggestions and will always be willing to listen to you.
I shall keep my commitments. I take great pride in this.
Consistency. I have an unshakable belief in equality and fairness and I will always be consistent in my approach to you.
Respect. Once earned, you can count on it.
Honesty. There is no other way.
Praise. When you go beyond my expectations.
Silence. When you simply meet my expectations.
Radical candor. When you aren't meeting my expectations.
Periodic, candid, and constructive feedback. Success teaches us far less than making mistakes. I expect you to make them but the same mistake, only once. You will always know exactly how I feel about what you are doing and have done.
Recruiting help. When you're looking for new members for your team, I'll help you find, screen, and attract talent.

My professional values

I used Torre's scientific approach to identify what my unique values are. That is, what relatively uncommon behaviors I engage in and appreciate in others.

Compared to others, I significantly value rigor, critical thinking, ambition, risk-taking, assertiveness, optimism, progressive mindsets, hard work, self-learning, futurism, impact, and organization.

Out of 40+ professional traits analyzed by Torre, these are the most unique for me (I'm far away from the median).

Mandatory reading and video material

Alignment is crucial for success so if you report to me, I’ll expect you to have read (or watched) all of these articles and videos within the first week of our working together. Many of the concepts addressed by them will be used in our daily conversations.

About strategy:

About leadership

Our own frameworks:

About product

About analytics

About engineering and algorithms

About pricing and business models

About marketing and sales:

About self-awareness:

About company culture:

About our industries:

About my background:

By the end of the first month, I’ll expect you to have read these books:

By the end of the second month, I’ll expect you to have read these books:

If any of the links don’t work, please let me know as soon as possible.

Thank you.