Congratulations (or condolences), you’re now a manager. Nobody trained you, but here you are: responsible for humans, deadlines, and the occasional existential crisis.

This OS isn’t something to read cover-to-cover. It’s a grab-bag of survival tools.

Set up

• If you’ve not already made a copy (eg from https://reluctant-leadership.notion.site/engineering-manager-os):
  • Make a new page in Notion titled “My Reluctant Leadership” (or similar)
  • Copy this template pack into your new page as a child page.
• Head over to the . This is a foundational database for the whole OS.
  • Delete the dummy data but leave the Me row, and set the Notion User to your user. Its a useful reference.
  • All dummy data names in the OS are prefixed with [TEMP] to make it easy to identify and remove.
  • Add your team members, stakeholders and collaborators.
• You can delete other dummy data as you come across it.

How to use it

This OS is packed with tools and ideas to make you a better manager and enjoy doing it. You don’t need to use them all, unless you want to!

Start with the Reluctant Dashboard to get through the week without forgetting who you are.

If you’re an advanced Notion user, how about adding your own charts?

Have a browse of these recipes, for when reality hits:

Reflective Recipes

For when the problem is you (temporarily).

New manager, week 1

A survival starter pack for the newly bewildered.

• Reluctant Dashboard
• The Self-Reflection Toolkit
• Team Intro
• Leadership Philosophy Builder

Feeling fraudulent