Building a Personal Operating Manual (POM)
How to work well with others, and help them work well with you...
In the last 6 years of building Flouci, and as our team grew, I noticed that simple interactions, action, or inaction, can drastically impact my productivity levels on a daily basis, as well as my relationships with different team members.
For example, I usually rely on intervals of deep focused work to get things done, especially when I am coding, and if interrupted, my work and my mood are affected. At the same time, some of my team members love to swing by my desk in our open space to discuss an idea that popped into their head, or to inform me of a new client they managed to close. You can see how this can clash and easily create a lose-lose situation: I will be upset that I was interrupted and will likely have a negative reaction. Meanwhile, my colleague, seeking affirmation and encouragement, will be disappointed by my response.
Misunderstandings are bound to happen from time to time, it makes sense because people are different, and they interact differently with the world around them. But what if understanding each other’s styles, personalities, preferences and pet peeves was not a guessing game? What if it’s provided as a handbook on day one, giving each person maximum information about how to effectively work with someone?
That’s the objective of this Personal Operating Manual. Below, you can find a structure of a document you can fill out about yourself, providing useful information about you and your communication style and personal preferences, to share with anyone that works with you. I made this available as a notion template that you can quickly duplicate. I hope you enjoy this process as much as I did!
The Personal Operating Manual:
1. Introduction
Personal Background: Briefly introduce yourself, including your role, experience, and any relevant background information.
This can be anything that’s relevant for you (region you are from, what identity you feel strongly about, the small milestones that defined your journey thus far etc.)
You can include a fun fact or two (hobbies, favorite quote, historical figure you would want to have dinner with)
2. Communication Style
Preferred Communication Methods: Specify your preferred channels (e.g., email, instant messaging, phone calls, in-person meetings) and any tools you use regularly (e.g., Slack, Zoom).
Examples:
I prefer text over phone calls.
I want to schedule everything on my calendar ahead of time.
I rely on impromptu messages, and usually send voice notes on WhatsApp.
Response Time: Outline your typical response time for different communication methods.
Examples:
I am great at checking my email, and you can expect an answer in less than 24 hours
I do not check my messenger
I only use WhatsApp, but given the volume of messages I receive, please anticipate some delays in getting back to you
Meeting Preferences: Indicate your preferences for meetings, including preferred times, duration, and whether you prefer agendas in advance.
Examples:
I schedule my meetings in the morning only, afternoons are for deep focus work
I prefer meetings on Tuesdays and Fridays
I use Calendly to book all my meetings <include booking link>
3. Working Hours and Availability
Typical Working Hours: Share your general working hours, including any flexibility.
Best Times to Reach You: Highlight the best times to contact you for urgent and non-urgent matters.
Availability: Mention any periods when you are usually unavailable (e.g., specific times during the day, regular meetings, personal commitments).
4. Collaboration Style
Teamwork and Independence: Describe how you prefer to collaborate—whether you enjoy working closely with others or prefer to work alone and discuss outcomes afterwards.
Feedback Preferences: Explain how you like to give and receive feedback, including the level of detail and form (written, verbal, etc.)
Examples:
I welcome feedback in person, as long it’s specific, constructive, and aims to assist
I prefer written feedback to allow me time to process it, and go back to it for reference
Decision-Making Style: Share your approach to making decisions and involving others in the process.
Examples:
Do you have a more intuition or data driven approach for decisions?
What is your process for making decisions?
5. Work Habits and Preferences
Organization and Planning: Outline your methods for organizing tasks and planning work (e.g., to-do lists, calendars, project management tools).
Task Prioritization: Describe how you prioritize tasks and what criteria you use to determine priorities.
Attention to Detail vs. Big Picture: Explain your focus—whether you tend to concentrate more on details or the broader vision.
6. Strengths and Weaknesses
Zone of genius: What is the ONE thing that you do really well relatively effortlessly, and that constitutes an unfair advantage for you.
Key Strengths: Highlight other strengths and how they contribute to your work.
Areas for Improvement: Acknowledge any areas where you are working to improve and how others can support you.
7. Values and Motivators
Core Values: Share the values that are most important to you in a work context (e.g., integrity, creativity, efficiency).
Motivators: Explain what motivates you at work (e.g., recognition, challenging projects, learning opportunities).
8. Stress Management
Signs of Stress: Describe how you typically show signs of stress.
Coping Mechanisms: Share your preferred ways to manage stress and how others can help you during stressful times.
9. Learning and Development
Learning Style: Indicate your preferred learning style (e.g., visual, auditory, hands-on).
Development Goals: Share your current professional development goals and how others can support your growth.
Include things you want to learn: If you are looking to learn how to do new things personally or professionally, you can include them here.
10. Additional Tips
Do’s and Don’ts: Provide a list of dos and don'ts for working with you.
Pet Peeves: Mention any specific pet peeves that could impact collaboration.
11. Personality Test
Some people naturally work well together thanks to their personalities, you can take this free personality test and share the outcome so others have an overall idea about you:
NB: At the end of the test, you can have a public link to share the results with anyone:
Example: https://www.16personalities.com/profiles/<profile_id>
If you are curious about what I wrote, here’s a link to my Personal Operating Manual here. This is still a working document :)
Feel free to also share it on IG and tag me @aniiskallel to let me know your thoughts, and subscribe to this new Substack if you want to hear once a month -ish stories about my journey building a Fintech company in Francophone Africa!
Good article ! I like the model but I have some points to discuss.
For starters, that’s a very detailed and well-organized process to use in order to avoid conflicts and facilitate communication and teamwork between colleagues.
However, this process may cause some pressure. It may make some people anxious while trying to meet all the other side’s preferences. Moreover, it can fill others with high hopes feelings, expecting that their colleagues will take into consideration all their preferred criterias which is hard to be done.
Also, I suppose that work relationships are supposed to be cool and flexible in a professional kind of way, so making them somehow personal may be uncomfortable for some teammates. ( The personal side should be taken into consideration genuinely, relying on emotional intelligence, it may be hard or embarassing for some people to show it or write it ).
Most importantly, I think the personal operating manuel can be a lot helpful for managers and team leaders to better know their team members and manage the team’s strengths and weaknesses more efficiently.
Providing preferred meeting times, availabilities and preferred communication styles between all colleagues is helpful for organization too.
Thank you for sharing this with us, I would be very interested in reading more of Kafteji News, as well as watching the reels on instagram.
https://www.16personalities.com/profiles/entp-a/f/4n2dyiml7 didn't expect that🤔