One of my resolution for this year is to keep improving my leadership and management practices. And the first thing I am going to set is my clear contract. If you are not familiar with the term, check the article from the great Fred de Villamil: https://thoughts.t37.net/defining-your-leadership-style-21fbd143927b.

In short, it is a written statement that you share with your coworkers that lists:

• Things you will do,
• Things you won’t do,
• Things that you expect your coworkers to do with you,
• Things that your coworkers should not do with you.

Following the example from Fred, I will be transparent and share my clear contract with you.

I will

• Make sure you have the resources, the time, and the focus you need to do your best at your job (as much as I can).
• Trust you and give you autonomy.
• Arrange my schedule and even stay up late if you need help or discuss problems with me.
• Commit some of my time weekly to be available for you.
• Give you feedback on your work.
• Ask for your feedback to improve myself.
• Complete my work as fast as I can.
• Enjoy sharing a meal of coffee with you from time to time (if possible).
• Share my knowledge, experience, and advice, but up to you to take it.
• Try new things, change process/workflow, and ask you to participate.
• Do my best to follow up on every subject possible and open conversations.
• Promote your achievements.

I won't

• Have useless meetings with you.
• Take credit for your achievements.
• Do politics.
• Tolerate violence / unprofessional behaviour / racism / management by fear.
• Overload you with work.
• Take myself too seriously.

Do

• Talk in public channels and collaborate with your teammates as much as you can.
• Come to me, in preference on Slack, when things are specific, confidential, or personal.
• Discuss your problems with me after you give it at least a try and a Google search.
• Acknowledge you received my messages whenever you cannot reply to me right away and give a reasonable estimation on when you will be able to reply.
• Raise issues or things that seem weird to you.
• Reschedule meetings if you need.
• Bear with me, when I am slow on delivering things. I have a long backlog of tasks.
• Poke or remind me when you need things urgent from me.
• Be proactive, and think of the future and how to improve products, workflows, etc.
• Take some time to keep learning and share your findings.
• Consider the points of view of others.
• Have a professional attitude with customers.

Don't

• Assume anything.
• Forget to check your Slack and Emails.
• Wait for work whenever you cleared your tasks.
• Waste my time.
• Be afraid of me.
• Overpromise if you cannot estimate a task.
• Double-check your code before asking me to review it.
• Expect me to always chose your side in conflicts, I try to be impartial, and I want to get things moving.
• Take my feedback personally. Your work is not your person. It is normal to have bugs and miss things.
• Stop learning and be comfortable.
• Disrespect your colleagues or anybody.

I invite you to try this exercise also. Let's all try to improve our leadership and communication in general! Feel free to post your contract in the comments section if you would like.