Eric Siu describes creating a detailed job manual for new hires in important roles. The manual covers the role's philosophy, decision-making framework, required knowledge, and success metrics. The new employee reviews and revises it before starting to ensure it's clear and accurate.
We're onboarding a new employee. This role is very important. And so I sat down and over the last couple of days, I've created a manual for this person's job. And I started out with what's our philosophy? What's the framework that I use to make decisions for this type of role? What are the things that they need to understand? How will they be judged in terms of success? This is somebody who's been doing this job for almost 20 years. And I'm writing the manual like I'm an idiot. And I was talking to this person on the phone today. And I said, hey, I'm so excited for you to come. By the way, I put together this manual, and the reason why I wrote this manual is one, for you and I to have extreme clarity in what I think this job entails. Your job when I send you this manual is to take a big red fat pen and destroy it because you're the expert. Tell me what, what's wrong. What are the assumptions I'm making that are inaccurate, right? All these things. By the time that person starts, we will be in a fantastic place.
