You can call me Steph or Faile and my pronouns are she/they, with no particular preference for either so feel free to use either at any time.

I've worked in Customer Support since 2014 for tech companies like Abstract, Jyve, Khan Academy and Shortcut, and prior to that in various general operations roles for the military, local government, and small businesses from around 2006. Currently I'm doing some writing and working as a support consultant for startup and growth-stage tech companies.

Personally, I'm a military spouse (USAF) and we have 4 kids whose ages range from 6 to 16. Our home base is in west Michigan, so we divide our time between our house there and wherever my spouse happens to be stationed. We have a corgi named Dewey, who's not the biggest fan of bows:

You can find me at my personal website, my company's website Support Human LLC or at LinkedIn (although fair warning, I'm not the biggest fan of LinkedIn and update it only sporadically).

I'm currently in Colorado, so I'm in US Mountain Time. My hours are very flexible, but I'm generally online between 0900 MT and 2000 MT. I'm not active that entire time, of course, but I'm generally very accessible during those hours.

For everyday conversations and urgent issues during regular hours (and assuming we're in a work Slack or community together), slack me! You should be able to find me by my name Steph Lundberg in any Slack of which I'm a member, and I encourage you to @-mention me if you need me.

I like to default to having public conversations as much as possible when there's a product, team, or learning question, but if you're more comfortable with a private conversation please do DM me.

For slower conversations and topics that need more deliberation, email me! My email address is steph@smlundberg.com. I check my email once or twice a day, so I often will not reply immediately to an email unless I know it's coming, so keep that in mind when choosing this as a communication method.

I tend to feel more settled if I have a direct line to the goings-on at work and around my communities, so I have Slack installed on my phone and do check it periodically during off-hours. Don't be afraid to message me in Slack if it's not business hours; If it's urgent, I'll respond as soon as I see it, and if it's not, I'll wait until the next business day. Either way, you won't bother me.

Having said that, I'll do my best to respect your private time and not message you during off-hours unless it's absolutely necessary.

IMPORTANT NOTE: I struggle with anxiety, so if you need to chat about something (especially in DMs), I've found it most helpful when the context / need is included in an initial message.

For example:

• "hey, can we chat about managing the queue over the holidays when you have a moment?" = ✅ 😄 great, I understand what's needed!
• "hey can we chat when you have a moment?" = ❌ 😰 oh god I'm getting fired / you hate your job and you're quitting / the AI apocalypse has begun, your consciousness was the first to be overwritten and I'm next

• I strive toward a servant leadership approach.

  This means that I think of my role as a manager is to enable my team to do their best work, remove any roadblocks in their way, provide opportunities for growth and excellence, and ensure their work is appropriately recognized and celebrated. It's also a vital part of my job to understand my leadership team's goals for our customers and execute their vision by guiding my team in achieving those goals.

• I believe we're a team of adults who are excited about the work we do.

  I believe high-functioning teams know how to do their work independently and will communicate when they're having trouble. If I have a concern (or if a team member has a concern), we'll work together to address it in the moment and move on once we have.

• I believe that we're a team of growing humans.

  This means we'll fail and make mistakes and that both are vital for growth and excellence. We're all learning together and we're all here to help each other. We can fix anything as a team, so don't be afraid to reach out if you're worried about a mistake or a failure (often individual failures are actually team failures in disguise, so that's even less reason to be worried!).

• I recognize my team as experts in their work.

  This means that there are going to be a good many things that they know and I don't. I value their input and understand that for us to be a high-functioning team, I'll need their counsel and insight, and so I seek this as often as possible.

If we have one-on-ones together, this is your time to talk about whatever you want to talk about. We can talk about work, but we don't have to. Use this time to get to know me, talk about anything that concerns you, ask for help, tell me a bad joke, give me a kid / cat / dog / pet brief, etc.

I also feel strongly that my job as a manager is to provide a safe space free of judgement or threat where you can be honest about how you feel and what you need. If you just need me to be a sounding board, I can do that. If you need to vent, I'm here for that too. If you need me to act on something, I will, but I won't take action on or share anything you tell me unless you specifically give me permission to do so.

(The only caveat to this if you share something that poses a risk to you or the company, in which case I'm duty-bound to take action; one example of a situation in which I have a duty to act would be if you were experiencing harassment of some kind from someone within the company.)

I do sometimes use these meetings to give you updates I think are important / helpful or to ask your opinion on something work-related, but I'll do my best to keep those limited to just a few minutes.

I may also on occasion use 1-1s to provide feedback or have career / developmental conversations, but (unless it comes up organically) I try not to do this without your agreement ahead of time. In other words, those conversations can always be had separately if you'd like to preserve 1-1s as a place where you can relax and guide the conversation.

I try to keep a growth mindset, so I'm always looking to learn and level up. That means that I want feedback, both positive and constructive!

Over the years, I've learned that certain communication methods make it easier for me to understand and absorb constructive feedback.

Here's what works best for me:

• Send it in writing first. Send the feedback via Slack or email first, and clearly indicate what the urgency of the feedback is — is this to help optimize my work? A minor correction? Critical but not job-ending? Serious enough that my job is at risk?
• Schedule a meeting to talk about the feedback at a later time (if needed). We may need to talk about the feedback one-on-one — that's fine! It's best if we schedule a meeting after I've had some time to understand and absorb the feedback. The time frame really depends on the seriousness of the feedback, so it could come a few hours or a few days later.

If you're a direct report giving me feedback: I still prefer to receive it in the framework above, and I want to hear from you!

I'm stealing this bit from someone else's README, as it's fantastic:

Three dimensions are required for people to continue to give each other feedback:

1. Safety: the unlikelihood of being punished for giving feedback - should be high.
2. Effort: the amount of work in order to give feedback, also known as "how much do we argue when people give us feedback?" - should be low.
3. Benefit: how likely is it that giving us feedback will materially impact our behavior? - should be high.

I'll do my absolute best to do well in each of those dimensions, but please tell me if I'm not.

One last thing: I just want to acknowledge that giving feedback to a manager is inherently stressful because of how power works in organizations. If for some reason you don't feel comfortable coming to me directly to give your feedback, please do talk to whomever in our org you feel comfortable speaking to with my blessing. You won't hurt my feelings (and honestly, you shouldn't be worrying about my feelings at all!) — the important thing is that you're being heard.

I'll give positive feedback publicly (unless you tell me you prefer otherwise) as well as privately.

For constructive feedback, it depends. If it's feedback on something that's team or project related, I tend to default to public transparency.

If it's for a team member, I give that privately according to the team member's preferences. If they haven't communicated any preferences to me, I'll follow the framework I give in the section above, which is 1) Written first, 2) One-on-one to discuss after the team member has had some time to absorb.

Just as I prefer for myself when I receive feedback, I'll share feedback in the manner that works best for you - just let me know.

Additionally, any feedback you receive from me will be delivered with:

1. A clear indication of its seriousness and urgency. I will make it obvious whether something is just an optimization of already good work, a minor adjustment or correction, a more critical problem that needs to be fixed in a certain amount of time, or if it's a serious, immediate risk to your continued employment.
2. A specific context. I'll be sure that the context around the feedback is clear and that I'm only referencing events / topics related to this specific bit of feedback.
3. Empathy, confidence, and trust. Empathy in this context means (at least to me) that I offer honesty, accountability, and understanding without disappointment or judgement. Something might need to change, but I don't expect perfection, just growth. I believe in your skill, ability, and your potential, and I trust you to do your best.

We all have them! (Note: this doesn't excuse or justify them, I just like making them known.)

I have a tendency toward perfectionism, which means I can let unattainable perfection be the enemy of good or finished.

Relatedly, I sometimes have trouble asking for help, because I can feel like I should know everything or am letting people down if I say no. If you see me doing this, do us both a kindness and call me in on it.

• I'm here to help you.

  Whether you're a member of my team, a colleague, my boss, etc., a big part of my job is to help. Are you having trouble figuring something out? Are you worried about something? Is there something you want to learn? Do you need a sounding board? Whatever it is, please reach out. My favorite thing about working is being a part of team!

  

• I'm a documentation junkie.

  If we know things, we should share it! That means writing it down.

  No, seriously. WRITE DOWN ALL THE THINGS.

  

• I love a good project plan.

  I think of plans like guardrails, not marriages — you're not committed to a plan once you write it. Plans are there to keep you from falling off the side of the cliff accidentally, but there's plenty of room to move and even turn around if you need to change course. If you need help making a plan, I'm your person!

  

• I'm happy to hop into a co-working session whenever.

  Sometimes you just need to shoot the breeze, or feel like you're working next to someone else. I'm here for all of your watercooler / co-working needs — just let me know!

  

spouse's name: Tim

favorite food: all of them (just kidding it's chocolate)

average number of letters in children's names: 8.5

favorite beverage: coffee

number of Lundberg parents who can correctly spell their children's names on the first try: 0

silly fact: my nickname was grace in grade school because millennials have always had an excellent grasp of irony

favorite movie genre: even split between 90s romantic comedies and terrible action movies

favorite sport: see silly fact