Hey fellow managers and leaders,

I hope you had a good weekend and are feeling motivated to start the week off right!

Personally, I’m very excited about our upcoming Supermanagers episodes. We have some inspiring and practical interviews lined up, so make sure to subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Spotify to be the first to tune in! 🎙

Now, here are this week’s hand-picked tips for high-performing leaders…

💬 Synchronous vs. Asynchronous Communication: A Guide for Managers (7 min read) | Fellow Blog

TLDR: Over the past few weeks, “Zoom Fatigue” has become more and more common amongst remote employees. In fact, research shows that video calls can be more draining than in-person meetings, as they force us to focus more intently.

The good news → more companies are adopting asynchronous communication as an alternative to virtual meetings.

• Asynchronous communication is communication that has a lag between when a message is sent and when the person receiving it interprets it. 
• Examples include videos, email, and asynchronous meetings.
• One of the most noteworthy advantages of asynchronous communication is that you don’t have to consider time zones or calendar availability.

📦 One Rubric Changed Box’s Engineering Performance — Here’s How (15 min read) | First Round Review

TLDR: Sam Schillace (SVP of Engineering at Box) introduced a system to avoid favoritism and arbitrary evaluations in the company. Here are three tips that you can use to deploy Sam’s performance rubric with your team:

• Have clear standards for performance (what Schillace calls the rubric): a clear, concise statement of what you expect from employees and how you’ll measure it.
• Have a process for evaluation and reward: in Schillace’s experience, it can give you a serious edge — but only if it’s documented and known by everyone. 
• Don’t be soft on low performance. You need to have a process for handling people who aren’t doing well.

🏆 Top 10 Leadership Lessons from the Supermanagers Podcast (12 min read) | Fellow Blog

TLDR: Leaders are made, not born. The truth is, great leaders are always looking for ways to learn and improve. Here are 3 (out of 10) leadership lessons we’ve learned from our inspiring Supermanagers Podcast guests:

• Empower people with the right data so they can make informed decisions.
• Understand what motivates each person on your team. (And if you aren’t sure, ask).
• Learn about negotiation, influence, and mediation. These skills will help you stand out as a leader and overcome imposter syndrome. 

📰 Dropbox Goes Virtual First (6 min read) | Dropbox Blog

TLDR: In an internal survey, nearly 90% of Dropbox employees said that they don’t want to return to a rigid 5-day in-office workweek. After announcing its transition to becoming a Virtual First company this week, the company shared the following best practices for remote leaders:

• Embrace non-linear workdays, setting core collaboration hours with overlap between timezones.
• Design the whole employee experience around Virtual First, from IT to HR processes.
• Provide a level of predictability for your employees so they can plan confidently and focus on important priorities.

🎬🍿 Recommended Videos 

🎙 New on the Supermanagers podcast

• Episode 21 (36 min): Erin Bury (CEO at Willful) explains the difference between service/product businesses and the power of positivity when leading a team.
• Episode 22 (42 min): Leslie Miley (former Engineering Leader at Slack, Google, Apple, Twitter, and the Obama Foundation) talks about the importance of being a culturally aware and inclusive leader.

And that’s it for today. I hope that this week’s content inspires you to continue growing as a leader! 

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Thanks for being part of our community,

Manuela and the Fellow.app team 👋