How do you manage having high standards for Man Repeller, but also being reasonable with your team?

It has definitely been a learning experience. I'm very much someone who's used to doing everything herself -- but doing everything yourself is rarely (probably never) the best answer.

Learning to trust who you manage is so important because the quality of individual work can improve greatly when you delegate, and the work that you produce as a team improves when other people are given room to take ownership over what they are producing, or what they’re working on.

I think that creating space or finding opportunity for others to find their emotional attachment in whatever they're doing is important to me and a goal of mine as a manager. I don't know if I always succeed, but I try to have a pretty open-door policy. I really, really, really, always welcome ideas. I try to not be married to what I think is the best way of doing something, and I also try to encourage problem-solving. By all means, if you don't like the way that we are doing something, whether it's a process, or a format, or whatever, tell me. But also, let me know your solution. If you have a solution, but don't know how to get the resources to make the solution a reality, tell me that, too.

That doesn’t always mean that you can wave a wand and make whatever someone wants come true. The shitty part of being a manager is not being able to give someone what they ask for, or having to give feedback (or receive feedback!) that's not all sunshine and rainbows. But there's something important in having a place where people can at least feel heard, you said your piece, someone listened to it, it's been ingested, and it didn’t just bounce off of a wall. I try to exercise that as often as possible.