Read Time: 3 minutes 47 seconds

It's been the shortest 40 years in history.

When the Apple IIe dropped in 1983, I remember my mother demanding I read the Owner's Manual from front to back so that I didn't break anything. It was 192 pages.

Four decades later, it's considered bad design if you need any documentation. Even ChatGPT, which is completely rewriting how we interact with computers, handles its documentation in 9 single-sentence prompts.

So why do I believe writing your personal user manual is a worthy investment of your time in this era of intuitive design?

Because we are not nearly as open and intuitive as we think. And no matter how stable your team is, you'll have new people joining who'll be at a distinct disadvantage to the veterans unless you onboard them intentionally.

And if you're like most of the leaders I work with, this exercise is much more challenging in practice than in theory. A blinking cursor on an empty page is intimidating. How can I be reduced to a handful of sentences?

But self-awareness is a leadership superpower. And the value of pushing through to clarity is three-fold:

After working with hundreds of leaders, I settled on 15 questions I found most helpful in highlighting our differences so that we can connect with more empathy and efficiency.

And a few words of advice:

Constraints are clarifying. Keep your answer to any single prompt to three bullets or less. The more you load it up, the less it'll help you.

Authenticity rules. This is your personal user manual, not a corporate handbook. Letting your personality shine through is an asset, not a liability.

Free templates. I've compiled these questions in both Notion & Google Docs for you. But feel free to modify it to suit your company culture or specific team dynamics.

Let's dive in.

What I'm Like

This section aims to help others connect with you at a human level. We all value different things which guide our decisions and interactions. While we might not share the same values, understanding the differences will allow for greater empathy when working together.

How I Prefer to Operate

These questions are more tactical, allowing your team to understand the optimal mechanics for interacting with you. While we'll often have to adjust to others, awareness of your preferences will also enable people to align with you.

Where I'm Headed

This section is often overlooked and may be the most important. Since we are constantly evolving leaders, it helps people to know where you are and where you're headed. These goals and aspirations give people an opportunity to support you and more deeply understand certain decisions you make.

New team? Give them context on why you created it. Give them time to read it. Then give them a forum to ask you questions about it.

Existing team? Consider doing one question or section at a time and asking everyone to build their own.

Supercharge it? Layer in an objective test that offer complementary data.

I'm partial to PrinciplesYou because it was co-created by Ray Dalio & Adam Grant. And it's free. Plus, they have a compare feature that automatically highlights similarities and differences between two people.

But you can also pay $50-100 per person and use these more widely known assessments: DISC, CliftonStrengths, or MBTI.

Note: I am not an affiliate for any of the above tests.

As always, please let me know how it goes if you give it a shot with your team.

And if you need more inspiration, I included a few of my favorite examples below.

Most managers are overwhelmed and exhausted. With every fire they put out, a new one pops up. I lived this myself and coached hundreds of executives who suffered similarly. And it's not that your instincts or intuition are wrong. It's that you haven't converted them into systems that work for you.

But through 20 years of trial and error, I have.

On Febrary 5th, join the 600+ leaders in the MGMT Accelerator community. In eight live sessions over four weeks, you'll take my blueprint and build your tailored management system with ~50 peer leaders.

Delegate more. Make better decisions. Solve problems permanently. Recruit and retain stars. Cultivate a culture of high performance.

All so you can grow as a leader while getting more of your life back.

Enroll before December 31, and use 2023 dollars to invest in your 2024.

Can you run the MGMT Accelerator for just my company?

Yes, when you have 20+ leaders, we'll run a private cohort for you. But if your team is smaller, we'll typically have them join the public cohort. Hit reply on this email for details on the company-specific workshop we run for them as a bonus.

🔥Stef Smtih built a full presentation with bonus questions you can borrow.

🚀GitHub's CEO's PUM is comprehensive and a launching point for company operations.

🧨Here's a cheeky example where the personality really shines.

Our mission is to impact 1,000,000 leaders positively. If this playbook would help operate more efficiently, please forward it to them.

And if someone forwarded this edition to you, please don't leave without hitting that Subscribe button now.

Thank you for reading. Appreciate you!

Dave