Rare Nugget

By Mark Inboden

Sometimes you find a “rare nugget” and have to pass it on. This week I came across a post in the “Pulse” section of LinkedIn. Like many busy people using LinkedIn, I often just look at messages, invites, notifications and some of the postings of the people I follow. I ventured into the Pulse section for some reason, and found this post by David Politis, Founder and CEO at BetterCloud, both practical and forward thinking.

David wrote about attending a breakout session at a conference, hosted by Adam Bryant, a columnist for The New York Times. “His session, entitled “The CEO’s User Manual,” was inspired by his interviews with CEOs where they talked about creating “user manuals” for themselves."

Mark Inboden

Basically, the user manual is a “how to work with me” guide: It outlines what you like, what you don’t like, how you work best. It was something these CEOs would give their team members when they joined the company in order to shorten the learning curve of working with them. It’s a “cheat sheet” of sorts, giving employees a way to quickly and efficiently learn about executives, which in turn allows them to work together more effectively.

I have just started writing my User Manual, and will be sharing it with my team, and then asking them to write their own. We will use the questions as a guide, and customize others to be sure. When you get a moment, read the story here, as it is worth your time.

Mark is President and CEO of UCEC. 

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