We spoke to Merita about the challenges of managing up, the value of over-communicating as a manager and why everything happens for a reason.
Cecily Motley: To start with, can you tell me: if your career were a best-selling novel, what would its title be?
Merita Ramadani: I would call the novel The Helping Hand, or How Everything Happens for a Reason. I don’t usually have time to dwell on things that went wrong, but when I do look back, I think: oh, that happened because something better was coming along. It’s a super important lesson.
Cecily Motley: When you think of your career, what do you think of as your biggest management success?
Merita Ramadani: Over-communicating with my team. If you don’t do that as a manager, things get lost in translation. I’ve had teams tell me, Merita, you're giving us too much information. But I'd rather give them too much information so they don’t have to ask me again. That way, they’re able to make decisions on their own.
In practice, that means it isn’t enough to just set up OKRs (objectives and key results). You have to explain how the team’s OKR is related to the wider business OKR, whether that’s raising another round, hiring more people, whatever.
Particularly in startups, where everything moves so fast, teams need to be able to ask the right questions. They can only do that if they know why they’re doing what they’re doing. They need to know the bigger picture. If they’re just ticking boxes, it’s going to be tough.
Cecily Motley: I agree with that. And how do you foster that big picture question-asking culture in your teams?
Merita Ramadani: I always get the team involved in annual planning. And then, of course, retros (retrospectives): you have to do quarterly retros to see how you can improve things.
Cecily Motley: And what has been your biggest challenge as a manager in startups and scaleups?
Merita Ramadani: Letting people go is a big challenge for me. That's not a fun thing to do. Sometimes you hear managers saying oh, yeah, I’ve done it so many times, and I always tell them that is nothing to be proud of. Yes, it proves character that you can do it, but it’s not something that I would consider to be an achievement.
Cecily Motley: What is your slam dunk interview question?
Merita Ramadani: What are you not good at or not interested in doing professionally? This question actually isn’t to look at someone’s weaknesses; it’s more to gauge whether they will be good for the role that we’re hiring for. For example, if they say that they don’t like admin work but I’m looking for someone who’s going to be doing everything - including admin - then this probably isn’t going to be the role for them.
Cecily Motley: Okay, so let me put that question to you: what do you not like doing in your role or your professional life?
Merita Ramadani: I'll be honest with you: managing up. It's something that I am learning how to do and I'm currently not good at it, I’m still getting there. No one teaches you how to do it so you really need to learn on the job. Maybe it's either not in my personality or I just haven't reached the stage in my career that I could be good at it yet.
Cecily Motley: I think the discussion around how to train people to manage up effectively is a really important one. What would you pay good money to know about your peers?
Merita Ramadani: Honestly, I am so grateful for the People community. I don't think there's a better community, in the sense of us helping each other. So I don’t think there would be anything I’d pay money to know; people are so generous with giving their knowledge freely.
Cecily Motley: What is the bane of your professional life?
Merita Ramadani: Worrying about people, constantly. It’s all about people, always. I am always trying to get the best out of people. I guess you could say I love my job too much!
Cecily Motley: That's the best way to be. Do you think AI is going to take your job?
Merita Ramadani: No, of course not. You always need the human touch. We might be having a different conversation in 100 years, but right now, no.
Cecily Motley: What do you use AI for most frequently?
Merita Ramadani: Content generation. I think everyone does at the moment, but people don't talk about it. Someone said to me recently, Oh my God, the last post on LinkedIn was amazing. I'm like, it was Chat GPT, let's be honest. But why not? If I can do things faster and still make them great, why not use a tool like this?
Cecily Motley: 100%. Last question: what is your cheat code? And by that, I mean, what is the thing you do in your life that you feel a little bit smug about?
Merita Ramadani: I always try to find the quickest way possible by using automation with something. I believe that people should use their time talking to people, not sitting behind screens doing admin that could be automated.