Author: Neil Emeigh, CEO/Founder

Date: 8/13/24

Introduction

Welcome!

You may be reading this because you fall into one of the three categories:

1. You’re a potential new team member and you want to understand how management looks like at Rayobyte

2. You’re a potential new manager, wanting to know what things look like around here.

3. You’re a customer wanting to know how you can trust your business with us.
   
   

Well, I hope this article explains it all 💪

Management Philosophy

Our philosophy at Rayobte aspires to be one where our managers are asked to do one thing for their team members: to help them self-actualize (according to our Team Member Stakeholder).

I say “aspire” carefully and vulnerably. We are not perfect. I sure as hell am not. I’m a computer scientist by trade, which puts my default mode to “logic and control”… the opposite of “autonomy and empowerment”. But, we try, and we will keep trying until the end of our time, because I don’t believe there is ever a moment where a company can say: “Yes, we’ve achieved 100% autonomy across a scaled workforce.”.

What does this look like in practice?

• “Lead with context, not control” - A term from No Rules, Rules, a book by Netflix’s CEO. Managers, especially, are held to a standard of leading with context as often as possible. See the explanation here (scroll down).

• Understand your team’s motivations, their dreams - As a manager, it is not enough to ensure your team meets their performance KPIs. This is the baseline expectation of the team members, and yourself as their manager. At Rayobyte, we aspire to go above that and to understand the dreams of each person we manage. What really motivates them? What excites them? What drains them? And, once we know this, we work backwards to find as many ways possible to help that individual reach these desires.

• … not to be confused with a lack of accountability - While understanding and helping a person realize their dreams is important, it is equally important the business achieves the results. At the end of the day, we are a for-profit company, and profit is still one of our major Stakeholders, therefore accountability should be given objectively and respectfully. As a manager at Rayobyte, you must be willing to hold people accountable when they are under performing.

Requirements

As a manager at Rayobyte, you have basic requirements:

1. Meet with your team regularly to help them navigate priorities, blockers, and so forth.
   
   

2. Help your team prioritize: in a startup environment, priorities can be chaotic. Your job is to help your direct reports see the “forest from the trees”.
   
   

3. Understand your team’s career ambitions, and have a plan in place to help them realize that
   
   

4. Required reading:

   1. As a new manager here, you will be required to read the following books:
      
      

      1. Conscious Capitalism, by John Mackey (Whole Foods CEO) - This book is a pillar for how we approach our business. It is my strong belief that business does not exist only to make money, but rather to impact all the stakeholders around it. Although it has parts we don’t fully resonate with, it provides the general framework in which we believe business should be done. You can read more about our approach to this here.

      2. Drive, by Daniel Pink - This book talks about the importance of autonomy in a workforce. It has a lot of great theories, while also having practical examples to implement in the workplace. =