This documentation on myself is meant to make it easier for you to understand how I work and how to best work woth me.

This is written from me, an engineering lead to you, a member of my team.

I am VP of Software Engineering at Hepta Airborne. I am responsible for everything related to software in the company and contribute quite a bit to company-wide processes.

I am here to make sure that our team is successful, people are happy and we work on most important things to help our customers and colleagues achieve their goals. I believe in bottom-up management and my primary desire is to help you achieve your goals. Your goals will hopefully have a direct or a side effect on the the company's overall success.

I believe in letting engineers do their thing. I also believe in the need to always aim to be better and constantly improve things. I expect you to learn and become better each day, month, week. I expect you to come to me if that isn't working out so I can help you brainstorm ways to acquire the hunger for learning.

One of the most important tools for an engineer is their learning and development plan. I would really like you to have one and I will help you make stuff that's written down there come true.

We will keep each other informed on the go and focus on "beyond-this-moment" topics in recurring face-to-face meetings. See 1-1s section below.

You can ping me 24/7. I like to respond quickly and don't ever mind weighing in, be it off-hours or not. I might not respond when I'm asleep though.

I like to discuss things. Don't wait until 1-1 to sync quick things or brainstorm for ideas. I will tell you if we should leave it to next 1-1.

My working hours vary, but mostly I try to get in as early as possible. I'm usually more productive in the mornings and prefer to have meetings in the afternoon.

Even if I might work a bit on weekends, I do not expect that you work on weekends or off-hours, unless it is urgent or you are on call, of course. If you feel that you are forced or have to work outside normal hours, let's talk and find out the reason. This should not be happening. Although if you feel like you want to contribute more, I hold no gripe against you. I want to make sure you don't burn out though.

I sometimes go out of office for (half) a day to focus on one particular thing without interruption. Initially writing this README, for example. I am off the grid during that time.

My calendar is sacred and I don't use it as a task list, so it actually reflects my availability most of the times. If my time slot is free, you can book it without asking. Please fill out the calendar event description so that I can prepare and we can have a productive meeting. It's good to let me know if the meeting is not straightforward though. 1-1 slots can usually be moved.

We will have recurring one on one meetings where I expect you to get help when you're stuck, voice problems and show your ambitions. Read more about 1-1s here.

I am not good at your job. You are very good at your job.

My peace-time leadership philosophy involves a lot of freedom for you. This implies more responsibility on your shoulders. The primary areas of focus for me are: people development, team building, vision and strategy, our team's way of work (portfolio, processes) – in that order.

I believe that technical shortcomings are best seen and felt by the people who work with them day-to-day. So if you feel that something is not right and should be done differently, I am happy to help any way I can, but I will not take it on myself to fix it because it's not the focal point of my job. It's yours.

So I will resort to guidance, sound boarding and often pitching in with the ideas, but rarely take the task away from you. The "war time" – when things are misbehaving, something is burning or fundamentally broken and our customers are losing money – does not fall under this philosophy.

• Do keep your promises and our agreements. I expect that you will let me know if you won't be able to fulfil a promise. Silently failing a deadline won't do.
• Do spend most of your time coding and developing as opposed to dealing with work that does not provide value.
• Do spend time on personal growth, learning, experimenting; but also on technical project managemnt, analysing future endeavours, propose things that could be better.
• Do speak your mind freely with me – daily struggles, compensation, stress, technical issues, emotions, personal growth, ranting, venting. Everything is fine.
• Do discuss with me if you feel that somebody needs help, does not perform well. Don't keep your thoughts to yourself. I won't use that information to fire a person, but I will know how to approach his/her personal development a lot better.
• Do speak your mind about things that should be changed. Expect me to ask what can be done about the issue.
• Do come out with a bare-bones idea of a solution if you come to me with a problem. Or clearly express that you do not know how to proceed with it.
• Do speak your mind and be vocal in your opinions.

• Don't expect me to take your monkey. I am more than willing to help out, help you find resource, priority, ideas. At the same time I strongly believe that the decisions should be bottom-up, so you as the expert to initiate change.

It is my job to make our team better than yesterday, every day.

That can only be achieved if I focus a huge chunk of my attention to help people grow. I will try to poke you into action regarding L&D each 1-1. I will offer you new opportunities to do something that you haven't done before. I will ask you questions that you don't know how to answer. This will happen every step of the way.

Twice a year following the formal feedback cycle we talk about tangible ways you want to develop yourself. After you have advanced from your onboarding I will ask you to think about where you want to focus your attention in terms of learning and development. Once a year you will also hear feedback gathered from your peers. During the performance review we discuss your ambitions, feedback given to you and how I see your development in the context of our team and company. After the review you will write down your goals that reflect your ambitions for the next period.

The goal-setting does not stop here. Once a month we discuss your progress, relevance of the set OKRs and adjust them if necessary.

TL;DR: I can take it. And it will make it better for me and for you.

I strongly believe in that people always have a reason for saying things they say. Hence I try to be ultra-rational about feedback given to me and my team. I urge you to give me constant feedback – about what works and what does not.

Disagreement is feedback. Always let me know if you don't think I'm right.

While the Golden Rule [1] usually holds true, I am aware that people are different and tend to naturally adjust to the level of feedback that is comfortable for you. If you feel that I'm withholding something you'd like to hear or I'm coming on too strong let me know.

I prefer not to come to meetings where I am not needed. In case I don't understand my purpose in a meeting I will clarify it. Don't take it as a hostility or an attack on the you or the meeting, rather take it as a way to make our time more efficient. I will also excuse myself from a meeting once I (and others) feel that I'm not needed any more instead of swiping my phone or switching to the laptop. I encourage you to do the same with my meetings.

In some cases when I feel that I might be needed for different parts of the meeting, I'll grab my laptop, do my work and pitch in when necessary. But this is is rather an exception.

Very few things are more important than talking to you if you want to discuss something with me. If you want to talk, let's talk.

I trust. If there is no reason to distrust you, I don't double-check your work and expect that you are sure of your deliverables. In case my trust gets broken, I will take that into account next time.

I don't bullshit. At least I try not to. When it feels that I'm beating around the bush call me out on it. I don't like vague discussions and I prefer to be concerned with realities and actual instances rather than abstractions. That being said, strategic plans and more grand ideas need some of what might seem like a vague concept or too many diagrams.

I can help, but only if you want me to. Number one goal for me is to facilitate solving problems on your own by acting as a sounding board for you to figure out a path to success. If you want me to do something don't bullshit and say it out. Statements like "There should be something done about X" won't trigger me into action.

I optimise. This is what I do. I like to break things down into smaller parts until I understand them and then I figure out how can I reap the outcome without doing the actual work. Sometimes I invest more than I gain out of automating a certain process, but more often than not I save a shedload of time.

I profoundly value agreements. If I promise to send you my thoughts by Wednesday 16:00, they will be there. If I fail, I feel really bad and next time it will not happen. I also expect you to profoundly value agreements. If you promise something, I spend my energy and resource planning the next steps and if the agreement is not kept, I have to redo the whole plan.

I am a sucker for time. I try to be on time for agreements and meetings. Especially for those that I organise or am a key person for. When you are late for a meeting, you waste everyone's time and this causes unnecessary unhappiness. Please be on time.

Bad User Experience makes me itch. When I see a badly designed process or interface, I physically itch all over. I'm that person who sends feedback to sites when it's not asked and eagerly anticipates the feedback surveys after a visit to the bank. I also like to think that stuff that I create is understandable and easy to use.

If you want to talk about something outside of work, feel free to approach me. Here are a few conversation starters.

I shoot RAW. But also MP4. I like having nice pictures and videos of my vacations, hikes, random moments in life. Hence I have a Sony A6300 always in my bag and an armada of lenses, tripods, flashes, stabilisers and other gear for all possible situations.

I like experimenting in the kitchen. Cooking my own delishes is a great way to let the brain rest. And there's a nice reward in the end.

I am a helicopter pilot by formal education. I have a Commercial Pilot's License and occasionally fly. I don't own a helicopter but if you'd like a flight, I can rent one and we can take it for a spin. It costs around €100 per 10 minutes to rent a Robinson 22. I also am in progress of getting a glider pilot's license.

I code for fun. Outside of my main job I occasionally accept an interesting freelance project. I also try to make my life easier by writing tools for my own use (and hopefully some day open source).

My dad was an electrics engineer. This appears to be genetic, because I am drawn to putting together drones, soldering together crazy things using microcontrollers, Raspberry Pis or car parts.

I like hiking. My joints don't, but I still take them out on the trails at least once or twice a month. Spending time in nature brings clarity to your mind like nothing else will. I can never have enough hiking gear and every trip to a hiking specialty shop is like being a child in a candy store.

I am learning the ropes of being a captain of inland vessels. It's a vocational education where you get to be a captain of any inlands vessel, large or small. I like learning how things work and ships seemed like a logical step after learning to drive and fly.

Take this document with a tiny grain of salt. I hope to be reviewing it often and keep it up to date, but if I last updated it two years ago, then perhaps this is who I was two years ago. If you see something weird, let me know. If I perceive myself differently than you do then it needs to change.