GitLab CEO Shadow, 4 May 2020

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From YouTube: GitLab CEO Shadow Recap — Key Takeaways and Lessons Learned from a Remote Rotation

Description

➞ Complete recap blog: https://about.gitlab.com/blog/2020/05/22/gitlab-remote-ceo-shadow-takeaways/

Darren M., GitLab's Head of Remote, recaps his remote CEO Shadow rotation at GitLab. The goal of the CEO Shadow Program is to give current and future directors and senior leaders at GitLab an overview of all aspects of the company.

I felt fully engaged and completely welcomed by both those inside of the GitLab organization, as well as those outside of it. Thank you all!

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This rotation occurred 2020-05-04 through 2020-05-15. Darren joined all calls with Sid, GitLab's co-founder at CEO, for two consecutive weeks.

For historical context, this rotation occurred during a period of global isolation. This impacted several elements of the program.

1) It was entirely remote, whereas CEO Shadows typically travel to San Francisco to join GitLab's CEO for in-person meetings.
2) Due to the complete lack of CEO travel during this period, it allowed for a high amount of meetings. It wasn't unusual to attend 12 meetings in a day, many with only 20 seconds to 5 minutes of buffer time in between. Context switching was a must, and it allowed for a relatively high amount of diverse exposure to topics within a 2-week window.
3) I operated on Sid's schedule, in Pacific Time. This worked beautifully for me as I prefer to shift my hours in Eastern Time to a later schedule.
4) In 2 weeks, I believe only 2 meetings were cancelled. With so much of the world isolated, fewer external factors (like travel delays) led to cancellations. The other side of this reality is that Zoom fatigue and overall exhaustion are concerns.

➞ Learn more about GitLab's CEO Shadow program: https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/ceo/shadow/

➞ Download GitLab's Remote Playbook: http://allremote.info/

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Hey y'all I'm Darren, head of remote at gitlab and I, just wrapped up my two-week rotation as a CEO shadow. So if you don't know what that is, there's a link down below we answer everything with so I'm going to tackle this in three parts, emotions sit as a CEO things, I learned.

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Alright, first things: first, this was hands down the most rewarding fulfilling an educational program of my career I gained at least five years of experience and education. In two intense weeks, I was able to learn from people and be in rooms that would otherwise be impossible to access. So, if you're in the gate, lab organization do the shadow program, if you're outside of the organization start a shadow program at your company immediately.

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Next up Sid as a CEO citizen, because he cares that came through in every meeting I was in. He cares about his team. He cares about his investors. He cares about the underrepresented. He cares about those that are less fortunate and he cares about the get lab product a lot. He cares about people having their voices heard.

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Now, here's what I learned I'm drafting the blog post with more on this so I'll add that to the show notes, once it has been published. First off remote work is work. I joined every CEO meeting remotely for two weeks and felt completely engaged and involved. Next up, reviewing is easier than creating. Ceos have to be excellent and reviewing and providing feedback, but you don't need as much time leading into a meeting if you're just going to be a reviewing or proposal.

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So, if you're doing a lot of creating my advice to, you is make sure there's a lot of white space in your day to do that, creating what I saw as a CEO as you mostly provide feedback on review, but a lot of people have to create in order for those proposals to be really good. Next up, never apologize for family. Don't apologize for babies for dogs, for cats, for having to dart out of a meeting to handle something in the home. Don't apologize for that!

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This is one of the great perks of being able to work at home and work remotely family comes first and I saw that reiterated time and time again throughout the CEO shadow program. Next up, if a design is taking too long, it's probably too big so make it smaller and iterate. Iteration was a key theme throughout the shadow program and it's one of those things.

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That's really tough to wrap your head around and there's always an excuse why this thing shouldn't involve iteration, but it's too big start breaking it down, never have a meeting without an agenda leverage technology to be your brain. Every meeting that we were in outside of coffee chats had an agenda, and it was amazing to know that after that meeting you could go back, take a breath and really see what happened because people document it in real time. It's a small thing, but it makes an amazing impact on efficiency.

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Next up, transparency is very liberating. Facades are mentally taxing. Just call that, like it is I love that transparency isn't even something that we have to force it get laughs. It is obvious in every single meeting, and it is very, very liberating I was in meetings, meeting people that I had never worked with before, and the transparency in the room. Even with the shadows, there was really really empowered. Next up, be succinct, talk in the details or none at all. Next up sit and the entire group really care about their people.

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On more than one occasion, they discussed how things would impact the most people not just themselves, as the e group you've probably heard this in other recaps, but really values are everything everything boiled back down to efficiency, iteration and results transparency. It's not even an effort, it's just the way it is people that get lab are naturally transparent and I, encourage you to keep reinforcing that, keep reiterating that in your day to day activities here.

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Lastly, shadows are more than just shadows: I really felt like I became an ebb and flow of since day and in the two weeks, I feel like I, really got to know Sid, as well as the people that he was meeting with on a regular basis, and some of these relationships have extended. Well, beyond the shadow program, I was able to meet people just for 25 minutes and now we've already connected on Twitter or LinkedIn, and we have a relationship there.

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So if you join the program, take advantage of it savor those moments you're, it's a special time, you're in a special place and people want to know more about you. People are fascinated by the shadow program and they really lean into it. So as a shadow make sure you lean into it as well. Lastly, I just want to say thank you to Sid the e group, my awesome coach shadows, Betsy and Emily, and every person inside and outside of the gate, lab organization that welcomed me into their lives for two weeks.

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It was an amazing experience and I hope to get to do it again soon. Aloha and Mahalo.