How to succeed at work? Try writing a ‘personal user guide’

We often start projects and collaborations without understanding of our colleagues’ practices, expectations, habits, and routines. Yet, having a clear understanding of others can build healthy working relationships, increase the chances of effective collaboration, and decrease misunderstandings and performance issues in the future.

As a founder and leader, the personal user guide is one of my most used tools to build awareness of others while sharing and adjusting habits and expectations.

A personal user guide is a document that outlines a person’s working style:

I decided to build my own version for my fast-growing company, and soon everyone at our organization had developed their personal user guide. For new hires, one of their first tasks is to complete their guide and share it with their managers and peers. This acted as a conversation-starter for direct reports and their managers, and it provided a reference point to improve partnerships and outcomes at all levels.

Unlike some personality tests that tend to be more interesting than useful and directly applicable, the personal user guide is practical and focuses on the specific conditions a person needs to thrive at work.

If you’re interested in creating your own user guide, feel free to make a copy of mine and make it your own. Then, after you’ve deleted, added, and reworked the document, share it with those you work closely with, internally or externally. Use the personal user guide to empower yourself and help others work with you better.