Happy Monday! We’re back with new tips to help you grow as a leader 😎

 In today’s issue of the Manager TLDR, we’re covering:

Let’s get into it ⬇

🎙New on the Supermanagers podcast

  1. When You Mess Up, Fess Up: Why Self-Awareness Is a Leadership Superpower with Heidi Hauver (VP of People Experience at ShinyDocs).
  2. The Gift of Being Heard: How to Nurture Relationships and Have Impactful Conversations with Patrick Ewers (CEO of Mindmaven).
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👀 …and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter to be the first to know who will be our special guest for episode #100, coming up on May 19th!

🐣 Parenting lessons that apply to leading teams

Aydin Mirzaee (CEO at Fellow) lists 3 important skills that every leader and parent should practice: ownership, active listening, and positivity. Read the full post here.

🌟Highlights from the Fellow blog 

🤔 Decision Log: What it is, And When to Use It (6 min read)

TLDR: Decisions can make or break a project. Keeping an accurate record of meaningful conversations and critical details surrounding the decision can set everyone up for success and help to avoid any pitfalls along the way. Not sure if you need a decision log? Here are 3 scenarios when a decision log is a non-negotiable document:

1. When the decision is a frequently debated topic: When this is the case, the decision log can remind the entire team why they’ve moved forward with a particular solution, hopefully putting the topic to rest.

2. When stakeholders need to be informed: A decision log can easily be communicated to stakeholders after the fact to inform them how the team will be moving forward with a specific project or initiative. If they still have questions or need additional information, the log will also mention with whom they can follow up.

3. When the decision has a large impact: When a decision dramatically impacts the direction of the team or organization, or the future work of a project, it needs to have a decision log. Decisions regarding hiring, the budget, or major events should all have a detailed decision log, as should ones that directly correlate to other projects being worked on by different teams or departments. 

💡 Pro tip: if you use Fellow as your meeting management tool, you can use tags to track all the decisions made across your meetings!

💭 16 Self-Evaluation Examples for Your Next Performance Review (12 min read)

TLDR: Twice a year, the Fellow team goes through a performance feedback cycle focused on helping everyone in the company grow. As part of that process, everyone is asked to fill out a self-evaluation. If you’re going through a similar process (or plan to implement one in your organization), this post is a great resource to get inspiration! Here are 3 things you should include in your self-evaluation: 

1. Achievements: When you write down wins to bring up during your review, try to insert metrics that demonstrate the success that resulted from your efforts, like growth achieved or milestones met.

2. Teamwork: Think of some projects that required you to work closely with your fellow team members. In what ways did you assist in the workload? Were you willing to accept advice from a coworker? Consider evaluating your ability to collaborate with your colleagues to demonstrate your team mindset and your contribution to the team’s overall performance and success.

3. Problem-solving: How do you deal with difficult customers? What do you do when you don’t have all the resources you need to finish a project? Have you had to resolve a conflict with a colleague? Problems can take on many forms in the workplace, but how you respond to them demonstrates your ability to address them and move forward.

💡 Sarah Collins (Head of Customer Success at Fellow) wrote an insightful LinkedIn post about Performance Reviews: Learn how you can reduce performance review anxiety for your team here.

😁 10 Ways to Conduct A Positive Meeting (4 min read)

TLDR: Running dynamic, focused meetings can make the difference between a collaborative team and a siloed one. Here are a handful of tips to make your meetings run more smoothly and to keep your team happy during even the most stressful periods:

1. Get creative with the meeting agenda: As the meeting organizer, you should strive to keep participants engaged by changing up the meeting format every now and then with creative meeting agenda templates. Perhaps the best format for your weekly touch base at the beginning of the month is a project kickoff template, but at the end of the month, you may prefer a retrospective format to discuss learnings and areas of improvement.

2. Start with inspiration: Start your next team meeting by celebrating wins, asking a powerful question, having a guest speaker say a few words, or discussing a podcast or video that moved you. Sharing some words about your team’s positive impact will leave them feeling ready to collaborate during and after the meeting.

3. Finish with a peak: Avoid ending on a bad note. Even if your team has been underperforming in one specific area, you can end the meeting by saying something like, “I know we’re all eager to get this project back on track, so let’s work on some strategies to get this excellent team working together!” Your team should know that you’re confident in their ability to complete a task well.

… and that’s a wrap!  We hope that the content we curated inspires you to continue growing as a leader! 🌱

 If you enjoyed this issue, please share the newsletter with a colleague or friend –they can subscribe here or follow us on LinkedIn!

Thanks for being part of our community,

Manuela & the Fellow.app team