Manager's Best Friend: People Management Board

[#1]

I am getting many great ideas from the Trello Inspiration pages these days. One in particular is the People Management board. This board developed by Keven Lee, Director of Marketing at Buffer is golden. What an incredible idea to have a Trello board listing all of your team members, so that you can remember important dates, their kids or dogs names, how they like to be appreciated, their career interests and other unique facts about your employees.

Sometimes we spend more time with our work team then we do our own family, a secret to a healthy thriving team is having a connection - getting to know your team, and when you remember things about them that they told you in a conversation previously, they instantly feel appreciated. At least that is the case for me -especially when my Manager asks me about my dog Max, or if I have been out paddle boarding lately, or remembers a special date like my birthday or work anniversary.

Remembering these unique facts for a larger team can be challenging, so why not use your external memory (aka Trello) to keep track for you. Your team will be very impressed with your super sharp memory recall. 

Another great exercise you can do with your team (and later record the info on your People Management board) is the #UserManualForMe. I have used this with my teams and have found it to be incredibly helpful, especially in the areas of how they like to receive appreciation and feedback.

Would love to hear your tips and tricks on how you remember unique facts about the teams that you manage or your team mates in general. Please share in the comments below :)

[marc -Collabello--Phase Locked-]

@Jodi LeBlancWhat an interesting approach.  Can you post a link to the Manager's Best Friend board?

[Jodi LeBlanc]

Hi @marc -Collabello--Phase Locked- here is the link to the board, I also added it to the article. Thanks so much :)

https://trello.com/b/Gnp6hdw9/people-management

[Teodora V _Fun Inc_]

Thank you @Jodi LeBlanc for sharing this! 

I have Confluence calendars for all my teammates birthdays, anniversaries, and I keep the other data restricted in my personal Confluence space.

Having such a board will be so much better! I'll definitely implement this right away :)

[Jodi LeBlanc]

That's so awesome to hear @Teodora V _Fun Inc_ your teammates must appreciate it so much that you go the extra mile to remember those special dates :)

[Kat Sandin _Appfire_]

Love these ideas! 

We do something very similar at our company by creating boards for each team. Each team member has a card that shows a fun gif/picture of them, their role, and then inside the card, everyone answered a few questions about themselves. It's a great way for both new hires and tenured employees to see who's on what team, what their roles are, and just learn more about their co-workers. Plus it was really fun making the gifs! :) 

[Jodi LeBlanc]

I love this @Kat Sandin _Appfire_ - especially that your board is collaborative and everyone can add their own info about themselves. I agree, this would be amazing for new hires (and all team members), and remote employees as well. Thank you so much for sharing!

[Deepanshu Natani]

I have been using a board to track my team's daily activities in addition to the sprints in Jira.

But never thought of using boards to track information like important dates/ events, career interests, etc.

Thanks for sharing this idea @Jodi LeBlanc . I am implementing this right now!

[Shaun Sheehan]

This is a great idea for teams to connect better with each other.  I especially like the idea of each person adding their own info and having some fun questions for people to answer. Thanks for sharing! 

[Jodi LeBlanc]

Thanks @Deepanshu Natani that is really great to hear! So glad you are going to implement it :)

[Jodi LeBlanc]

Thanks @Shaun Sheehan yes I agree, it is a great way to get to know your team and enable team members to add their own fun facts :)