The other day – we received an email from a quant that some parameters for an algo had been reverted to its previous values. The algo had been running with olds values for over two weeks.

Upon digging into the root cause – I had discovered the analyst had made a mistake during an application upgrade and the data got reverted. I spoke with him not to yell at him for a mistake but to understand why the mistake occurred and discuss how we can prevent it in the future. I also explained the impact due to the mistakes so everyone understands the severity of it.

The management was surprised and probably disappointed however as long as you can explain the root cause and how to prevent or reduce the chances of it happening again then that is ok. Humans make mistakes and typically it is a process issue that resulted in the error.

The most important thing you can provide as a manager to your team is psychological safety – a safe place to learn and grow. Take responsibility as a manager and shield your team.

After all the dust settled – I told the analyst to keep making mistakes because the person who makes the most mistakes wins.

Leadership Tip: Be a blame sink

During the course of your professional or academic career, you will need to work with various teams to achieve your objectives. Issues and problems will arise due to human, operation or technical errors. Often times it will occur at a sensitive time.

As a leader, you should rise above your ego and not look to blame others or immediately look for a root cause even when you or your team did not cause it. Instead be a blame sink – someone who absorbs all the blame in order to progress forward. Once you say: “hey everyone, that was my bad – what’s the next step or how can I help?”, you will find that everyone else will drop their ego and even say it was not your fault and come together to find a solution.

Story time
There was one time, I had to work with teams in Asia and US. During the call, everyone was blaming each other over an action that one team had done and another team believe it should not have been done. As the application owner, I stepped in and said we should have communicated it better and said it is not important at this moment to discuss what the correct process should have been but instead what do we need to do right now to fix the problem. Right after I said that, everyone agreed we should be discussing the solution and started talking about what’s the next step. You will find that some people will have strong opinions and pride that they can’t let go because they are caught with their emotions. To reel them back in, be a blame sink. By doing so, everyone will come together as a team and achieve your objectives.

After spending a few years as a core contributor, you will a reach crossroad to decide how you want to transition your career to the next step. One of those paths is becoming a manager or team lead. You might be given that role as your team is getting bigger so you start off with one report or inheriting a team due to different circumstances.

If you end up in that role or want to be in that role, here are some tips that I’ve learned from a mentor.

1. Continuous Feedback
   • As manager, you are responsible for the failures and success of your team. If the project does not meet a deadline, you are the first to be responsible. It is also your responsibility to seek personal and career development in your team members. Don’t be surprise if a team member is underperforming if you are not giving feedback on a at least biweekly basis.
   • Actionable Tip: Setup biweekly catchups with your team members
2. Let them come up with an ETA
   • I’m a big fan of autonomy. I believe people work best when you give them the room to decide the timelines and tools for the job. By doing so, it shows that you trust your team. That being said, it gives the responsibility to your team so if they miss the deadline they have to own up to it and explain why. This helps them develop good estimation skills which is needed as a manager.
   • Actionable Tip: Ask your team to break down a todo item with a timeline and steps.
3. People/Work/$$$
   • People typically work for three things: the team, the work and the money. Each team member values each category differently. If you get two of these three categories correct, then you have a high degree of keeping them.
   • Actionable Tip: Understand what each team member values
4. Don’t give people too many things. One at a time.
   • Humans are not efficient when multitasking. You will go further if you focus on one thing and complete that instead making small progress on many tasks. Manage the workload and give guidance to finish one task first.
   • Actionable Tip: Take a stab at prioritizing your work or even other things in your life
5. Being respectful
   • Everyone comes from different backgrounds and cultures. They may have different values than yours. It is ok to disagree but always respect the other person. Think of how you can work with them to achieve the goals. Have the ability to see through the lens of others (point of view) is an incredible skill that will have you more allies. One team, one dream.
   • Actionable Tip: Eat different food from different cultures or even travel to parts unknown or unfamiliar to you. It will teach you to live in harmony and be adaptable.
6. Problems are in the process
   • Goals will result in failures or successes. When a failure happens or a deadline is missed, don’t look to blame others. 9 out of 10 times it is something in the process that could have prevented the failure. If you improve the process then it sets the framework to lead to less failures. Some examples are automating error prone tasks.
   • Actionable Tip: When a failure happens, look at where in the process that lead to the issue and discuss how you can improve it.