Welcome to the GitLab Manager Challenge page. The Learning and Development Team has iterated on the program and designed a new curriculum that incorporates elements of Leadership and the book High Output Management.
L&D will be rolling out a two-week iteration of the program during the month of May 2021. The program will start 2021-05-03 and end on 2021-05-14. If you are interested in participating in May, you can sign up on this issue. Aspiring leaders and managers are welcome to sign up for the May program! Currently, the program is being offered to GitLab team members only.
Please note that if you plan on participating you will need to dedicate at least 20 to 30 minutes each day on the content as well as attend the 1 hour and 20 minute live learning sessions or complete the async live learning activities. Blocking your calendar each day during the program goes a long way!
One of the biggest benefits of completing the program is Learning From Other Managers across GitLab. Networking and async collaboration with learning is a central theme throughout the two-weeks.
We rolled out the first iteration of the Week Manager Challenge in September 2020, "The GitLab Manager Challenge Program." The pilot received a Net Promoter Score of 4.6 by the participants. The second iteration was run in January 2021 where we condensed the program to three weeks. For May, L&D iterated again and are rolling out a two week program.
All details relating to the next iteration of the Manager Challenge program can be found on this page.
You may be asking yourself what you will achieve by taking part in the Manager Challenge program! Our goal is that participants walk away with the following skills after completing the four-week challenge:
Below is a video L&D recorded with Sid on manager enablement:
What
The Manager Challenge Program is a blended learning approach that incorporates self-paced daily challenges and live learning sessions to build foundational management skills. The program incorporates leadership assessments, interactive live learning sessions, and digital learning.
Why
The program is intended to build a set of baseline skills that complement our values to enable Managers to lead teams at GitLab.
How will it help
Learn the basic principles of what it means to be a manager using a whole-person approach to leadership. The curriculum was built using principles from the book High Output Management, interviews with senior leaders, and GitLab management practices.
What do I need to do
Set aside time each day to participate in the challenge (20-30 minutes) and live learning sessions (1 hour 20 minutes). Complete the weekly learning evaluations, comment on the challenge issues, and fill your individual growth plan. If you are unable to prioritize the training for the 2 weeks, please consider signing up for a session at a later date or discuss additional options with the L&D team. In addition, there will also be async learning options for participants that are unable to attend the live learning sessions.
See the video below for a quick overview of how we use GitLab to facilitate manager enablement
Before the challenge is offically kicked off, a kickoff meeting will take place to get to know one another better. A roundtable discussion and intro's will take place. The program will be reviewed in depth and questions will be answered. The call is optional but everyone is invited to attend!
During week one we will discuss The Art of Management at GitLab. Information covered in week one can be found on the following handbook pages:
| Day | Challenge Topic | Length of Time | Format | Activity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day 1 | Getting to know yourself and team members | 20 minutes | Self-paced Daily Challenge | *Learn about the SOCIAL STYLES assessment *Define what it means to be a manager at GitLab |
| Day 2 | Managerial output, leverage, and delegation | 20 minutes | Self-paced Daily Challenge | *Share how to improve mangerial productivitiy |
| Day 3 | Building high performing teams | 20 minutes | Self-paced Daily Challenge | *Explore & determine where your team is in the high performance model *Define how to become a high performing team |
| Day 4 | Live Learning - The Art of Management and Building High Performing Teams | 1hr 20 minutes | Live Learning | *Group excercise to develop a high performing team *Networking with other managers at Gitlab |
| Day 5 | Manager action plan & weekly evaluation | 20 minutes | Self-paced writing & evaluation | * Fill in the Individual Growth Plan based on the week's activities and self-reflection *Complete the weekly evaluation *Catch up on weekly challenges |
During week two we will discuss Effective Communications with Your Team. Information covered in week two can be found on the following handbook pages and external sites:
| Day | Challenge Topic | Length of Time | Format | Activity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day 6 | Running an Effective 1:1 (Frequency, format, topics, etc) | 20 minutes | Self-paced Daily Challenge | *Share tips on how to make a 1-1 successful *Define difficult 1:1 topics *Giving & Receiving Feedback Crucial Conversations |
| Day 7 | Cultures | 20 minutes | Self-paced Daily Challenge | * Cross-Cultural Collaboration Activity |
| Day 8 | Coaching skills | 20 minutes | Self-paced Daily Challenge | *Present how and where to coach |
| Day 9 | Live Learning - Effective Communications with Your Team | 1 hr 20 minutes | Live Learning | *Live learning that includes Social Learning activity with role playing on crucial conversations, a bias for async, feedback, and 1-1's |
| Day 10 | Individual Growth Plan & weekly evaluation | 20 minutes | Self-paced writing & evaluation | * Fill in the Individual Growth Plan based on the week's activities and self-reflection *Complete the weekly evaluation *Catch up on weekly challenges *Share Manager Challenge certification on LinkedIn! |
Throughout the program, we ask that managers to create or refine their Individual Growth Plan. We encourage Managers to self-reflect on their professional development as a people leader and identify areas where they can advance their skills. The document is intended to be a starting point for managers to document where they can improve as a people leader.
For the May Manager Challenge, a buddy program will be encouraged for Managers during the event. Managers can select their buddies and complete the async activities together. It can also serve as an opportunity for Managers and team members participating to get to know one another.
L&D is continuing to iterate on continuing education opportunities to build management skills for leading remote teams at GitLab. For the January 2021 Challenge, we will be piloting Trust Metryx to participants that are interested in trying out the tool.
Trust Metryx is a behavioral change software that accelerates the development of remote team leaders. It helps leaders build trust and create lasting change by reducing friction, lowering stress, and improving performance. Checkout the three-minute video to learn more about Trust Metryx.
The tool accelerates your development as a manager/leader by:
TrustMetryx compliments and builds on the basic principles of what it means to be a manager using the whole-person approach to leadership covered in the Manager Challenge. TrustMetryx gives you a data driven approach to ensuring that you’re embracing GitLab values and creating an inclusive team culture built on trust.
What do I need to do?
Learn more about Building Trust with Remote Teams from the co-founder of Trust Metryx by watching the recording of the Learning Speaker Series. If interested in participating please let the L&D team know in the January Manager Challenge Slack Channel, #january-2021-manager-challenge. Review the onboarding plan for the use of Trust Metryx.
Team members have access to LinkedIn Learning for access to self-paced learning content. The Learning & Development team has developed a learning path in GitLab Learn with curated self-paced content that can benefit people leaders to access anytime.
Following the completion of the GitLab Manager Challenge program, participants will be awarded a certification! The certification will be sent to a team member who has completed at least 80% of the daily challenges. Once a team member receives a certification, they can post it on their LinkedIn Profile.
What people leaders at GitLab learned during the program:
The Manager Challenge Pilot is set up within the GitLab Tool. We are using Epics, Sub Epics, and Issues. There is one main Epic for the whole program, a Sub Epic for each week, and then an Issue for each day.
Example of Manager Challenge Pilot Set Up:
Manager Challenge Pilot - Epic
Week 1 - Manager Challenge Pilot - Sub Epic
Manager Challenge Program Pilot: Day 1 - Issue
Learning & Development Team Tasks
The modes of communication during the challenge include Slack and GitLab. Ensure that there is a specific channel in Slack set up for challenge members, as well as a group tag in GitLab.
Each day, once the issue is opened, add the group tag to the issue so participants receive an email notification that the daily issue is ready. For the pilot, the tag was @gl-manager-challenge-pilot.
The Slack channel for the pilot program was #manager-challenge-pilot. Each day, once the issue was opened, a message was posted in the Slack channel with a link to the day's issue.
Live Learning Sessions
Each week of the challenge has one day of live learning sessions. Depending on the locations of the participants, it can be determined how many sessions are held on the Thursday of each week.
Approximate times for the live sessions to ensure timezone coverage include: 7:30 am PT, 1:00 pm PT, and 6:30 pm PT.
After the challenge has been completed, it is suggested to have a live retrospective where participants can come and share any feedback about the program. The time(s) this is scheduled for can be the same as the live learning sessions were during the challenge.
For the pilot Manager Challenge program, the Learning & Development team held a retrospective session to discuss with participants how we can iterate and improve the program moving forward. Anonymous feedback and ratings were captured throughout the pilot challenge. Each week participants filled out a learning evaluation form for the weekly challenges and overall program.
In September 2020, the L&D team piloted the Manager Challenge to a group of People Leaders in People Success, Engineering, and Product. Learn more about the pilot content by reviewing the pilot epic.
Pilot Program:
Pilot Kickoff Video:
