Is a “User Manual of Self” the key to successful collaboration among remote colleagues?

In a recent leadership training, we were asked to write a “User’s Manual about ourselves”. This was meant as an exercise for colleagues to use, understanding how to work with one another on a daily basis. 

I was asked in previous companies to share a fun fact, or how I’d like to receive feedback. Or even to express any allergies when it comes to situations that make me upset. But this exercise was new to me.

There was a lot of room for interpretation, we were only given some basic example questions that we could use to get us started;

“How to deal with you?”

“what statements/behavior should be taken seriously?”

“What can other people expect from you?”

After submitting my draft, I was advised to make it public. Here is the copy: 

“I am a Trainee Engineering Manager at Talon.One and inter-personal communication is my primary strength. I feel confident in recognising the real talent people possess and was successful multiple times in enabling people to do their best. It felt satisfactory helping them maintain their motivation.

I am not afraid to get my hands dirty and show vulnerability in areas where I am still learning. I had trouble asking for help during early stages, but have now overcome it.

Being a Dutch, I can be very sarcastic and direct at times; can't help it. This can sometimes bite me in the a$$, but also helps me and other people in terms of what can be expected.

With a new task, I need clear goals set in terms of what is expected. Even showing me once how to do it makes it very clear - and I'll do excellent with the results. Sometimes I can be insecure when I am not sure what is expected of me. Taking the time to set a clear deadline and priorities helps me feel secure quickly.

If I am in a bad mood, a joke or a quick "How are you?" are often enough to make me realize that everything is not so bad.

The only thing that really upsets me is injustice, or close minded stubbornness. In this case I can become really defensive and even mean. It is best to give me some time and try again when emotions have boiled down.

Others can expect a positive, open minded manager with informal communication style, direct and clear with lots of empathy. I am new in this role, so a two-way short feedback loop will guide us along our ways.

You can make me happy by being proactive, keeping your promises and challenging me and my ideas.”

The idea behind this approach is to not see and treat all people in the same way. We, for example, work with people of many different cultures and geographies, where many of them are working fully remote. Every person is different, and everyone will behave differently in specific situations. 

Especially when working remotely, it is hard to read the emotions accurately. Asking somebody on their first day to write this manual reduces surprises and gives the opportunity to others to provide special attention when one of their triggers occur. It is also a great opportunity to simply get to know each other a little better!

Some other sample questions to use are: