Morning friend ☕️

Thandi is the new manager of the Sharks, a software team in my upcoming novel Acting Manager. When Anand offered her the job, he mentioned that people already came to her when they needed help. In a job where so much is new, it feels good to be asked again. But what’s the catch?

“Could Aisha fix it before my call tomorrow?”

A product manager catches Thandi on her way out of a meeting. There’s a bug where a customer can't change their contact details in the portal. They've chased twice. Aisha, one of Thandi's developers, worked on that screen last month.

“Yes, send it through. I'll get Aisha onto it this afternoon.”

He thanks her and heads off.

Was she too quick to commit?

Grab your coffee.
Let's chat!

“There's a bug on the contact-details screen. Can you look at it this afternoon?”

Aisha opens the ticket.

“I'll need to reproduce it first. If it's straightforward, fixing it and testing the change will take most of the afternoon.”

“I thought you knew that screen?”

“I do. I don't know why it's failing yet.” She looks up. “Are we moving the cleanup to Monday, then?”

Thandi had been about to ask whether she could fit both in.

They'd agreed to keep the customer-data cleanup first until Friday. Aisha had been losing time to Support queries about the same records she was trying to fix.

Aisha clicks back to the records. Two entries for the same customer, with different phone numbers.

“Tomorrow's for checking the corrections,” she says. “I can stop now, but we won't finish on Friday.”

“What happens if we finish next week?”

“Support will still be asking us which number to use. That's what half those messages were about.”

Thandi looks at the ticket, then at the two records.

“Let me go back to him. I said yes before I'd checked.”

“I agreed too quickly earlier,” Thandi says. “Aisha would have to stop the cleanup to do this today.”

“I thought that was sorted.”

“I know. That's what I told you.”

There is a pause.

Thandi asks how the customer is managing. Support has changed the details for them. Two other customers have since reported the same problem. Support can help them too, but each change means another request and a wait.

“I was hoping to give them some good news tomorrow,” he says.

“Support can change their details for now, so I'm going to keep Aisha on the cleanup. We'll start looking into the portal issue on Monday.”

“So they're waiting again.”

“Yes.”

Thandi lets that sit for a moment.

“You can tell them Support can change their details for now. We'll start looking into the portal issue on Monday.”

He says he'll speak to the account manager. He is less warm than he was after the meeting.

Thandi nearly offers to look at the code herself that evening. She lets him go.

After the call, she updates the ticket and tells Aisha to carry on with the cleanup. Aisha is already back on the two records.

I find the second conversation more interesting than the answer Thandi could have given perfectly the first time.

At MultiChoice, while I was working on the Explora decoder, I thought building relationships would be enough to make me a good manager. I came to see why I needed systems and standards too.

I think about both when Aisha asks whether the cleanup is moving. She needs to know whether Friday still means Friday. She also needs to feel she can ask Thandi that when something new lands on her desk.

I still want people to feel they can come to me for help. I also want the people doing the work to be able to ask what moves when I say yes.

Think of a conversation you're likely to have this week. What do you want the other person to experience in how you handle it?

Try finishing this in your own words.

“I want to lead with ___. When ___, I will ___, even if ___.”

Thandi wants to be supportive. Next time someone asks for a quick fix, she could say, “Let me check with Aisha what we'd have to move,” even if the person was hoping for a yes on the spot. She may find the bug should come first. She'll have a reason she can explain to Aisha.

Pick something the other person can see or hear you do. Afterwards, think about how it landed and what you'd try next time.

I wonder if Thandi will hear Aisha's question a little sooner the next time someone asks for help.

Until next time, friend ☕️

Vaugan

Someone has told you what is difficult about the work. What can they expect from you now?

In the final episode of The Unexpected Leader, we'll look at how the conversations you have early on shape what people expect from working with you. Subscribe to follow the final part of the series.

Thandi and Aisha are fictional characters from Acting Manager. This scene is imagined.