Christopher’s Personal User Manual
This personal user manual serves to explain the conditions needed to work well and enjoy the things that we do together, in an environment that promotes healthy working relationships.
Think of it like an extended FAQ of me 🙂
What you should know
- Made in Singapore
- Thinks with the maturity of a Gen X with the pragmatic idealism of a Millennial
- Logistician ISTJ-A personality
- Prefers cats over dogs over crying babies
What I need to do great work
- Clearly defined goals, roles and responsibilities
- Support and autonomy from senior stakeholders to make decisions on my own
- Strong collaboration among cross-functional teams to make things happen
- Work is performed in a rational and objective manner, based on data and facts
How I prefer to work
- Deep work is important to me so I block off chunks of my calendar to work on tasks that I’ve committed to deliver. If you have difficulties booking my time, please drop me a message on Slack.
- I’m a morning person so I prefer to do deep work in the first half of the day. I choose to batch my meetings in the later half of the day whenever I can.
- When I’m wearing my headphones, I’m in focus mode and prefer not to be disturbed.
- I do not believe in remembering things in my head so don’t be surprised if I send Slack messages with ideas or tasks to you at odd hours. I do not expect you to respond or work on them outside of working hours.
- I do not like to micromanage projects and people. When I start to show signs of micromanagement, it’s usually because I am feeling anxious about the work, or the state of the person doing the work. If this happens between us, I’m sorry about that. The best way ‘out’ of this is to start a conversation with me when you notice it’s happening.
What I Value
- Trust: Trust is earned and not given. I work hard to gain trust from others. I expect others to do the same to gain my trust.
- Honesty: I appreciate candor over office politics to get things done. Come to me with real problems and let’s work together to solve them.
- Transparency: I cannot work with you if we can’t be transparent with one another. I prefer that you overshare information that you think I would be concerned about, instead of not communicating.
- Collaboration: I prefer to work in projects where everyone is working towards the same goal instead of working in silos.
- Responsibility: I deprioritize projects with individuals who lack commitment and responsibility in delivering on their promises.
How to best communicate with me
- Meetings: I prioritize meetings with clear agendas.
- Slack: Expect a response from me within 2 working hours.
- Email: Expect a response from me within 6 working hours.
- For urgent matters, catch me at my desk for a chat.
When I’m dealing with stress, I will
Frown, a lot. Otherwise, I’m just thinking about how to tackle the issue at hand. Feel free to come talk to me.
The best way to give me feedback is
I find the best way to give feedback is to ask if the individual is in the right headspace and is willing to receive feedback. If yes, then I would arrange a face to face meeting to share my feedback because it is important to read the body language when giving feedback. I’d appreciate others to do the same with me.
Beyond work, I’m really passionate about..
- Personal Finance: Planning to retire (or semi-retire) by 50 so financial management is one of the key requirements for me to achieve this goal.
- Health & Fitness: I enjoy hiking outdoors and working out in the gym. I am also a big tea drinker.
- Productivity: As a true ISTJ, I am constantly learning how to improve my productivity at both personal and work activities.
- Personal Development: I’m always exploring interesting skillsets that can complement my talent stack. Talk to me about ChatGPT, data analytics, agile methodology, and all the cool tech stuff.