Welcome to the Manager Mentor

Hello! Welcome to a new blog on Develomentor.com where we’ll begin to explore topics related to becoming an exceptional and empathetic IT Manager. My mission is to help guide aspiring managers with insight and advice on improving leadership know-how and delivering results.

Be a leader. Not a boss.

About Me

First, a little about myself. I’m Renee Saint-Louis, Grant’s sister and Develomentor blogger. I’m currently the PMO Director at an educational publishing company in Minnesota. I’ve spent my entire career in IT, moving up the ranks from a Business Analyst to Product Manager and Business Relationship Manager. In my current role, I lead a team of high performing project managers. You can learn more about my career journey in Episode 2 of the Develomentor podcast.

Second, I’m not your typical people manager. Having spent a career in IT, I’ve seen my fair share of great managers and really awful managers. Through my time as an individual contributor, I’ve kept note of what seemed to work well managing people and what kinds of things didn’t work so well.

The approach I developed to leading high performing teams uses these actions as guidance:

• Put myself in the shoes of my employees - discover what they are good at and what they want
• Spend more time listening than talking
• Focus on individual development - I’ve found people perform at their best when they are given the opportunity to learn and grow
• Actively seek opportunities for my employees to interact with Sr. Leadership
• Continually advocate on behalf of my employees
• Coach, don’t solve.

The Manager Mentor Blog

Finally, in each blog post we’ll explore questions from readers and listeners that dive into issues, questions, common pitfalls of managing people effectively. We’ll take a ‘What would you do?’ approach to each blog by exploring different methods for approaching a situation. Whether you’re a first time manager with a new team or a seasoned manager who wants to improve your skills, this blog is meant to help you. We’ll dive into real-life questions, problems, and opportunities from readers. In addition, I’ll provide advice and give you a framework on how to think about these challenging situations in a human-centered, compassionate way.

If you’d like to share a story or have a question, reach out to me at: [email protected]