The prompt
Score 10 of 10, Excellent
Use it when You want a short document that tells your team how you work, what you expect and how to get the best from you, based on what is actually true.
- {{team}}
- {{my_notes}}
- {{role_and_team}}
- {{team_feedback}}
Full prompt and why it works
Prompt
Help me write a manager README, a short document about how I work, for {{team}} and for anyone who joins it, so that they do not have to learn my habits and expectations by trial and error. My rough notes on how I work: """ {{my_notes}} """ My role and team: {{role_and_team}} What the team has told me about working with me, if anything (feedback, survey comments, 1:1 notes): """ {{team_feedback}} """ Use these headings, in this order: My role, How I like to communicate (which channel for what, and how fast I reply), Meetings and 1:1s, How I make decisions, What I expect from you, What you can expect from me, Feedback, My known quirks and blind spots, and How to disagree with me. Keep it under 600 words, with two to five short bullets per heading. Write in my voice, in the first person, plain and direct. A good README is one my team would read and say "yes, that is how it really is". Use only what my notes and the team's feedback say. Do not add general leadership principles, values I did not mention, or promises I have not made, such as an always-open door, because a README that describes an ideal manager is worse than none. Where the team's feedback contradicts my notes, put the team's view under My known quirks and blind spots, and point it out to me. For example, a bullet under How I like to communicate could read: "Chat for anything that needs an answer today; email for anything I need to think about. I reply to chat within a couple of hours during the working day." This example shows the form only. If a heading has nothing in my notes, write "[add your own answer]" under it with one question that would help me answer it, rather than inventing an answer.
Variables
- {{team}}
- Who reads it, for example "my team of seven designers".
- {{my_notes}}
- Your rough notes on how you work: communication, meetings, decisions, what you expect, pet peeves, what you are working on.
- {{role_and_team}}
- Your role and what the team does, in a sentence.
- {{team_feedback}}
- Anything the team has said about working with you. Write "none" if you have nothing.
Why it works
- What good looks like. The test is whether the team would say it describes how things really are, which rules out an idealized manager on paper.
- Background facts. The team's own feedback is used alongside your notes, and where the two disagree, their view goes under blind spots.
- If unsure. Empty headings get a question for you to answer instead of an invented habit.