3 ms·

Shadow programs give employees a peek into leadership roles

19 points by mikece 3y ago

john_cogs 3y ago
GitLab team member here. I participated in the CEO shadow program with Sid (aka sytse) in 2019 and it changed my career and life. Happy to answer questions about my experience.
- thrawa8387336 3y ago
  Thanks for sharing! What would be the most surprising/revealing thing you encountered? How did you make best use of the experience once it was over?
  - john_cogs 3y ago
    For me, the most surprising thing was how much our executive group and CEO care about our values. Our values were frequently referred to during discussions and decisions were often debated in the context of our values. I had been working at GitLab for about 6 months when I joined the program and it was amazing to see our values be such points of emphasis to our leaders. Having worked in a number of other organizations in the past, I can't recall one single "company value" from any of those orgs. In contrast, I don't think I'll ever forget GitLab's CREDIT[0] values. During the shadow program, I realized such emphasis on our values starts at the top. 0 - https://handbook.gitlab.com/handbook/values/ https://handbook.gitlab.com/handbook/values/
- satvikpendem 3y ago
  How did it change your career and your life?
  - john_cogs 3y ago
    The accelerated learning that happened, particularly understanding how to be a leader at GitLab, set me up for success. I’m now in a leadership role which I love. The joy that I get from work has lead to a better , happier life outside of work, too.
saqadri 3y ago
Somewhat related to shadow programs for leadership roles -- at my previous company we had shadow program to give employees a peek into performance review discussions. It was always a black box and created uncertainty for many IC's, but the ones who attended the mock performance reviews really appreciated the insight into the process.
jeffrallen 3y ago
Something completely different, but because of a mid-career shift in and out of humanitarian aid logistics, I found myself as a boss of bosses when I was normally an individual contributor and project manager. What I learned was that communicating your vision (or implementing the vision of your boss) is not enough, you've got to be in there next to your people and show you understand why they are not able to get to where you are leading them, so you can find new ways to unblock things and get them to do what you need them to do. Also: sometimes the only way to prevent shit from rolling downhill onto your people is to take it on yourself. You pay a real price for the perks of rank, if you take your responsibility to your people seriously. What I learned about being an IC is to have some empathy for management: they can be trying but the results can look like they are not because of the enormous inertia of groups of people.
- john_cogs 3y ago
  The "empathy for management" bit was definitely a positive outcome of the shadow program for me.
- fatnoah 3y ago
  > What I learned about being an IC is to have some empathy for management As a manager of managers, I frequently tell them that one sign their job is going well is when they're able to go away for vacation and it's almost like they never left, but if they left for a couple months, we'd start to see the cracks form. Managing is the challenge of having genuine empathy for your team, holding them accountable for the things they should be accountable for, and eating s*t for the stuff they shouldn't be. When you're managing in a good environment, there's not much of latter.
Racing0461 3y ago
We have this at my company that's "open to everyone" but the people i see on it is always non asian male minorities and women.

19 points by mikece 3y ago

GitLab team member here. I participated in the CEO shadow program with Sid (aka sytse) in 2019 and it changed my career and life. Happy to answer questions about my experience.

thrawa8387336 3y ago
Thanks for sharing! What would be the most surprising/revealing thing you encountered? How did you make best use of the experience once it was over?
- john_cogs 3y ago
  For me, the most surprising thing was how much our executive group and CEO care about our values. Our values were frequently referred to during discussions and decisions were often debated in the context of our values. I had been working at GitLab for about 6 months when I joined the program and it was amazing to see our values be such points of emphasis to our leaders. Having worked in a number of other organizations in the past, I can't recall one single "company value" from any of those orgs. In contrast, I don't think I'll ever forget GitLab's CREDIT[0] values. During the shadow program, I realized such emphasis on our values starts at the top. 0 - https://handbook.gitlab.com/handbook/values/ https://handbook.gitlab.com/handbook/values/
satvikpendem 3y ago
How did it change your career and your life?
- john_cogs 3y ago
  The accelerated learning that happened, particularly understanding how to be a leader at GitLab, set me up for success. I’m now in a leadership role which I love. The joy that I get from work has lead to a better , happier life outside of work, too.

saqadri 3y ago

Somewhat related to shadow programs for leadership roles -- at my previous company we had shadow program to give employees a peek into performance review discussions. It was always a black box and created uncertainty for many IC's, but the ones who attended the mock performance reviews really appreciated the insight into the process.

jeffrallen 3y ago

Something completely different, but because of a mid-career shift in and out of humanitarian aid logistics, I found myself as a boss of bosses when I was normally an individual contributor and project manager. What I learned was that communicating your vision (or implementing the vision of your boss) is not enough, you've got to be in there next to your people and show you understand why they are not able to get to where you are leading them, so you can find new ways to unblock things and get them to do what you need them to do. Also: sometimes the only way to prevent shit from rolling downhill onto your people is to take it on yourself. You pay a real price for the perks of rank, if you take your responsibility to your people seriously. What I learned about being an IC is to have some empathy for management: they can be trying but the results can look like they are not because of the enormous inertia of groups of people.

john_cogs 3y ago
The "empathy for management" bit was definitely a positive outcome of the shadow program for me.
fatnoah 3y ago
> What I learned about being an IC is to have some empathy for management As a manager of managers, I frequently tell them that one sign their job is going well is when they're able to go away for vacation and it's almost like they never left, but if they left for a couple months, we'd start to see the cracks form. Managing is the challenge of having genuine empathy for your team, holding them accountable for the things they should be accountable for, and eating s*t for the stuff they shouldn't be. When you're managing in a good environment, there's not much of latter.

Racing0461 3y ago

We have this at my company that's "open to everyone" but the people i see on it is always non asian male minorities and women.