If you wish to continue receiving my content, this post will quickly update where I publish what.

My weekly essays on leadership are distributed on the Thursday Memo in my newsletter, The Owl and The Beetle.

I publish every Thursday at 5:25 am UTC, and it’s primarily premium content behind a paywall. It’s a 5.99Euro/month subscription, and it supports my content creation.

My weekly curated list of resources on Leadership and Technology is distributed on the Tuesday Dispatch in my newsletter, The Owl and The Beetle.

I publish every Tuesday at 05:25 am UTC, and it’s free.

My daily videos on Management are distributed on TikTok, Instagram reels, Facebook reels, and LinkedIn. On TikTok, you can choose between the Italian and The International profiles. On all the other channels, I mix the languages.

I also recently opened up a TikTok profile with my spouse, dedicated to parenting. Check it out; it’s in Italian and pretty fun. We also have an Instagram profile if you prefer.

You can also find all of my professional services on my business site, Remote Leadership Works. Don’t miss it!

I have a solid editorial calendar on all these channels, and you will find fresh content every day, so don’t miss the opportunity and check them all out.

Here on this very blog, I publish now and then with no particular discipline.

If you made it this far, thank you for following me, and have a great day!

The post Just a quick update appeared first on Luca Sartoni.

German? Why would I speak German? I never had that kind of time.

I lived in Vienna for ten years; when I left, I spoke the same German as I arrived: zero, nada, niet!

Vienna was never Austria to me. Vienna was the world, which was way more significant than the 8 million people strip of land between Italy and the Czech Republic, Switzerland and Slovakia, and Hungary.

For my first 18 months in Vienna, I worked in English for a French company. My boss was Austrian, but he had chased life worldwide enough not to feel like one.

I played in a band every Tuesday, but it sounded like a joke: “There’s an Italian bass, an Argentinian drummer, and a Dutch singer…” – Yeah, that’s for sure!

“That’s for sure” was the name of the band. And yes, we sounded like a joke.

My favorite food in Vienna was sushi. The most authentic sushi was served by Japanese masters who took the order in German. I took a few classes, and I knew enough to order food. But in Japanese, not German. Long story short, I always made sure to get my sushi order right

In ten years, I only met one person who did not speak any English at all. He was a Polish plumber I had to call urgently on a Sunday morning because the inlet of the washing machine was shut, and I needed my clothes done for the following day.

He arrived 20 minutes after my call. We communicated with hand signs. I pointed at the inlet. He grabbed the wrench and fixed it right away. So I shouted: “Super!” And he smiled, offering his business card and an invoice.

The invoice’s header had his name printed: “Mario.”

So my eyes opened up wide, and I said, “Dude! You are a plumber, and you are super! And your name is Mario! How amazing is that?”

He did not understand a word, looking at me puzzled.

Another moment of greatness, entirely lost in translation.

I lived in Vienna for ten years, but life is too short to learn German.

This essay is an assignment for Write of Passage #10, a cohort-based online writing course I’m attending.

I want to thank a few people who helped me edit my initial draft and provided valuable feedback during the creative process: Christin Chong, Chinwe Uzegbu, Yannick Hallas, Ed J, Mayuran Sabesan, Ishan Shanavas.

The post Do You Speak German? appeared first on Luca Sartoni.

This is how I started my delegation strategy with my team members.

Every Monday, my team held a weekly meeting for over three years. And every Monday, I hosted the meeting, except at some point, I wasn’t.

And this is how I did it…

Our Monday meeting was my test ground for my delegation strategy, and most of the time, I asked someone else on the team to host the meeting for me.

Meeting discipline was my thing. I designed every aspect around getting people together for an hour on Zoom, getting things done without reaching meeting fatigue. We had an agenda, a host, a process, and final notes. Everything was well planned and executed.

So, having someone else take the reigns of my wagon was challenging. However, I knew I had to give that power away because when a meeting becomes effective, it becomes a vital ritual in a productive team. And vital things cannot depend on my availability.

I initially designed my delegation strategy around a simple round-robin. Every week we had a different host, but it quickly became dysfunctional. People contacted me before the meeting to ensure their readiness, as they knew the importance of conducting the session effectively. In addition to that, the whole “running the meeting” situation stressed the most introverted individuals. With a round-robin mechanism, I could not simply exclude some of them, not even to protect their mental health. I needed something better.

One day, 10 minutes before the meeting started, I called for the help of John (the name is fictional, but the whole story is 100% real).

“Hey John, can you do me a favor? I have a little emergency I’m taking care of. Can you run the first part of the meeting today? I should be able to join in 20/25 minutes.”

“Of course, no problem!”

Fifteen minutes in, I joined the meeting. I informed John they could proceed without my involvement as everything ran smoothly.

And for the following weeks, I had emergency after emergency after emergency. I got stuck in the traffic, flooded my basement, my children were to be picked up from school unexpectedly, etc.

I asked my team members to pick up the meeting for me every time, and they performed excellently. But let’s see why:

• It was asked as a favor, not as a duty. This allowed people to back out, eventually.
• I told them I was joining a few minutes in, so they knew I had their back.
• I asked individuals I knew were at least 80% ready for the task without unnecessary pressure on those not ready yet.

In the following years, I applied this method to every management process I have been in charge of. Most of my essential tasks were delegated to others. No one ever noticed, and no one ever complained.

And this is how I helped many people grow into their shoes as managers and leaders. Just asking one favor after the other.

The post How I delegated the most important tasks, and nobody noticed appeared first on Luca Sartoni.

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Here’s how to make your meetings more effective: define the host, share the goal, announce a customized agenda, and adopt the right process.

Define the Host

Know who is running each meeting: the host. Clarify who’s in charge of every agenda item. Assigning a host helps a lot. The host must identify who needs to be involved in each agenda item. Too often, meetings have team members sitting idle when they could be working on other essential tasks. It can be challenging to say who should and shouldn’t be involved for fear of excluding someone. My advice is to take the risk and verify.

Some people excel at being the host. They are adept at recognizing different perspectives, reigning in those who tend to ramble, staying on task, and summarizing the progress made. The host must not necessarily be the agenda owner, team leader, or subject expert. They just need to be good at setting and maintaining a focus.

Share the goal

You must have a goal in mind when you start a meeting. The goal should be at the operational level or the “what.” What do you hope to achieve? If you can’t define the goal, the meeting may fail. It can waste energy, time, and morale. On the other hand, when you have a clear goal and achieve it, it’s very motivating. It also develops a healthy habit of making regular progress.

Customized Agenda

Companies often struggle with rolling meetings. For example, teams may meet every Tuesday at 9:00 for an hour with a set agenda. Unfortunately, this meeting usually runs over and only covers urgent operational matters.The team rarely considers the more transformational, forward-looking needs of the business. Teams often spend too much time working in the business and not enough time working on the business.

To prevent this tendency, having a customized agenda provides a strategic analysis of the team’s most pertinent challenges to achieve the business plan. It is a relevance check and helps to maintain a balance in teamwork.

If your meetings are not focused on the most important matters, what are they for?

Adopt the right process

The process you use to reach your goal depends on the goal itself. This is where most teams fail. They use the same operational reporting and project update processes for all meetings, regardless of the purpose.These processes are helpful, but they won’t help you assess the total addressable market in your sector or identify the learning from your business division’s performance.

To make a decision, use a decision-making process.

To find the best practices, use an inquiry process.

Try it out!

It may feel awkward initially, but if you persist, you and your team will soon start prompting each other on when and how to use these elements.

To get started, share this blog post with your team and experiment together.

Try this approach for yourself, and let me know what you think!

Leave a comment with your feedback.

The post Maximize Meeting Productivity: Streamline the Process appeared first on Luca Sartoni.

Here a few tips for a highly-effective onboarding experience for your remote-first team.

A Personalised Onboarding Document

One of the most important things for any new hire is to have a personalised onboarding document.

This document should include an overview of the role, company, and team expectations and objectives. It should also include a timeline of key milestones and tasks to be completed.

By providing a personalised onboarding document, employees receive an understanding of their job responsibilities and expectations on their first day, which helps them to get up to speed quickly. Additionally, the document helps employees to stay organised during their onboarding period.

Case study: A rolling document

I led a new team of engineers across multiple countries and time zones. We lacked an onboarding document, and we anticipated adding multiple new hires in the upcoming weeks and months.

We created a live page on our internal documentation platform quickly. We outlined milestones to define what needed to be completed at the end of the first day, week and month in the team.

We made a rule: the last person to use the document was responsible for keeping it up-to-date. This way, after a few rounds, our onboarding page was in great shape and worked well.

The Trust and Autonomy to Start Contributing to Projects Immediately After Hire

When an employee joins a company, they should have the trust and autonomy to contribute to projects immediately after hire.

This helps new hires to become quickly acclimated to the company’s processes and culture, and gives them a sense of ownership over their contributions.

Additionally, it allows them to gain experience on the job and learn the ropes without having to rely too heavily on the support of their team members.

A Publicly-Available Video Introduction

To make new hires feel welcomed and part of the team from the first day, employers can create a publicly-available video introduction. In the video, the employer can introduce new hires to the team, the company culture and processes, and any upcoming projects or tasks. This helps to create a sense of camaraderie and team spirit right away, and allows new hires to get to know their new colleagues and environment.

Invert the process: ask each new hire to record a brief video introducing themselves. Add these videos to the company library. This allows everyone to get to know their colleagues at their own pace, without complex video productions.

An Asynchronous Onboarding Process

An asynchronous onboarding process is a great way to ensure that new hires can access the resources they need and familiarize themselves with the company culture and processes at their own pace.

In this type of process, employers provide new hires with resources such as tutorial videos and documents, and allow them to choose the order and speed at which they go through the onboarding materials. This helps to ensure that new hires are well informed before they start their first day.

A Short Series of Ask-Me-Anything (AMA) Style Q&A’s with Key Stakeholders to Support the Asynchronous Onboarding Process

In order to further support the asynchronous onboarding process, employers can organize a short series of Ask-Me-Anything (AMA) style Q&A’s with key stakeholders.

These Q&A’s allow new hires to ask questions and gain insights into the company’s processes and culture that they might not have access to otherwise.

Additionally, the Q&A’s provide new hires with an opportunity to build relationships with key stakeholders, which will help them to adjust to their new job more easily.

Conclusion

Overall, a great onboarding experience for new hires involves having a personalised onboarding document, giving them the trust and autonomy to start contributing to projects immediately after hire, creating a publicly-available video introduction, using an asynchronous onboarding process, and organizing a short series of AMA style Q&A’s with key stakeholders.

By implementing these strategies, employers can provide their new hires with a positive and productive onboarding experience that sets them up for success.

Photocredit: Erwan Hesry on Unsplash

The post Get Up to Speed: Tips for Onboarding New Hires appeared first on Luca Sartoni.

I am incredibly grateful for the opportunity that Automattic has given me over the years. From the moment I joined the team as a Growth Engineer on Akismet, up to my last role as Director of Product Engineering on Jetpack, I knew that this was a special place filled with talented and passionate individuals.

I sincerely thank all my colleagues, who have become more like a family to me over the years. Your support and friendship have meant the world to me, and I will always cherish the memories we have made together.

Over the past few years, I have been devoted to managing engineering teams and cultivating a new generation of engineering leaders.

With pervasive generative artificial intelligence rising, software development is undergoing a transformation. Advanced tools are amplifying the creation of digital assets, ranging from content production to design to algorithms. This rapid advancement in the industry further emphasizes the importance of how organizations are structured, organized, and managed.

I am firm in the belief that effective leadership requires more than just instinct. It takes dedication, passion, and a conscious effort to understand, support, and direct people. Whilst positional influence may have been a critical management tool in the past, it is no longer sufficient in an industry where talent is no longer confined by geography.

Through my experience managing teams with members spread across 12+ time zones from Hyderabad, India, to Portland, Oregon, I implemented processes to ensure productivity, resilience, and reliability. I have come to understand that while tools, objectives, and technologies are constantly changing, good leadership is an essential pillar for any organization.

Leadership can transform average teams into high-performing ones by creating an environment of understanding, support, and appreciation that attracts and retains the best talent.

As I embark on this next stage in my professional journey, I look forward to the challenges and opportunities that await me. I am currently assessing a few new ventures and am open to engaging in conversations regarding potential collaborations or employment offers.

What can I do for you?

I am confident that I can help your company become location agnostic, making your projects attractive to an international talent pool. Additionally, I can assess the quality of your leadership and provide recommendations for improvement to amplify their results.

Lastly, I can assist in developing the next generation of managers within your organization, as I successfully did in the recent past.

I am eager to collaborate on new and exciting projects adding value to ambitious teams to make them even more successful.

Get in touch, and let’s talk!

The post The Importance of Leadership in a Rapidly Changing Industry: Lessons from My Time at Automattic appeared first on Luca Sartoni.

They are Forming, Storming, Norming, and Performing.

The FSNP phases are a well-established model for understanding the different stages of a newly formed team. For a manager, it is paramount to understand these stages and accept that although the order and length of the stages may vary, they will all happen at some point.

Forming

The Forming stage is the first stage of a new team’s development. At this stage, the team is getting to know each other and forming relationships. The focus at this stage will be on finding out what each individual’s strengths and weaknesses are and how the team can work together effectively. It’s also vital to set team goals during this time.

Storming

The Storming stage is the second stage of the FSNP model. During this stage, the team starts to build trust and understanding with each other, as well as define roles and responsibilities within the team. This can also be a difficult stage, as it is common for team members to experience conflict and disagreements. Team members need to recognize that conflict is inevitable, and they work together to find solutions. Sometimes, when conflicts are insanable, it may be necessary to rework the forming phase and reassemble the team. Toxic behaviors must be eradicated as soon as possible to enable access to the following phases.

Norming

The Norming stage is the third stage of the FSNP model. At this stage, the team has established trust and understanding and is beginning to work together as a cohesive unit. During this stage, team members will develop more complex and productive working relationships. Team members need to communicate openly and respectfully during this stage.

Performing

The Performing stage is the fourth and final stage of the FSNP model. At this stage, the team is well-established and is working together effectively. Team members understand their roles and responsibilities and have a good working relationship with each other. This is when the team produces the best results and achieves its goals.

Wrapping up

All new teams will go through the FSNP phases as they develop. It is essential to recognize that these phases are necessary and take time, and not rush through them.

By taking the time to build trust and understanding between team members and to set clear goals, teams have the best chance of reaching the Performing stage and achieving their objectives.

The post Forming the Foundation: Understanding the FSNP Phases of Team Development appeared first on Luca Sartoni.

Last week I gave a short presentation about apricots, bananas, and other little things. Don’t miss it!

The post All The Small Things appeared first on Luca Sartoni.

In preparation for a few days of meetings in Las Vegas, Nevada, I decided to get there early and shake off my west-coast jet lag with a road trip.

I landed in Los Angeles on Thursday, hired a car on Friday, and took it to the desert, only to arrive in Las Vegas two days later, ready to meet my team on Sunday night.

On the road, I visited a few iconic places.

Milk Bar LA

I started my Friday morning with a disproportionate amount of sugar and it was awesome.

My favorite item on the menu was the cereal milk, but the Milk Bar Pie is also a 10.

While sugar was rushing into our bloodstream, sitting at the table on the curb, we noticed an unusual vehicle roaming the streets.

It was a pizza delivery drone owned by Lucifer Pizza. You can see it in the second picture. Too bad I wasn’t able to catch it in action. Fun stuff!

Off to Zabriskie Point, Death Valley

The trip to Vegas was a good opportunity to visit a few spots dear to me. I went back to Zabriskie point after 20 years.

The last time was December 2002, and it was chilly. This time was July 2022, and it was scorching hot. 46 degrees Celsius and 15% Humidity feel really intense. After the short hundred-meter hike to get on top of the observatory, I needed a good fifteen minutes in the sweet artificial cool environment of the car to return to my senses. It was deadly hot but very cool. No regrets!

Las Vegas

What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. Just saying…

New York City

Unforeseen circumstances required me to prematurely leave Vegas and replan my route to get back home. This unexpected twist brought some serendipity into my life. I was rerouted to New York City and had a 12-hour layover in EWR. What a great opportunity to leave the airport and hit the Big Apple!

I visited the Whitney Museum of American Art and took a stroll along the Highline. Wow, I admire how this city changes all the time. New buildings were constructed in the last couple of years, and seeing them in person was great.

Just in time to catch my flight home.

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