Introducing Cheerlead: Lead with Empathy while Staying Organized and Productive

For managers, building genuine rapport with your team is crucial for their growth and success. But juggling 1:1s, meetings, files, notes, and tasks, while trying to do this can be overwhelming. I know this first hand, as a busy engineering manager in a global tech company. When I first joined the team 2 years ago, I inherited 8 engineers. I wanted to create a strong relationship with each of them. But I struggled to keep track of the important details they told me about themselves and their careers along with all the meetings, tasks, and files I had to manage. I knew I needed a solution to help me get organized and be a more effective manager for my team.

After searching high and low for a tool that could help, I soon realized that it didn’t actually exist. So, I took matters into my own hands and built my own. I called it Cheerlead because I truly believe that being a good manager is all about building a strong rapport and maintaining a genuine relationship with each team member over time, cheering them on from the sidelines as I work to help them get to where they want to be, career-wise.

Cheerlead has become my go-to tool for managing my team and staying on top of my responsibilities, tasks, meetings and files. It’s streamlined my workflow and made me a more efficient and effective manager. Here are some key features that have made it a game-changer for me:

Today & Tasks

Before I was relying on memory, my calendar and multiple tools to keep track of my tasks and meetings. But this feature has transformed my day-to-day. As soon as I sign in every morning, I see a clear overview of my tasks and meetings for the day. I can create new tasks on the go, set reminder dates, and tick them off as I complete them. It’s helped me stay organized, focused, less stressed, and on track to meet deadlines.

Team

Having such a large team, I often struggled to remember key dates and forgot which who had told me what. But this feature has changed everything. Now I just create a profile for each team member where I can store important details about them, such as their interests, hobbies, and even their pets. It’s helped me establish a personal connection with each of them, boosting camaraderie and trust. For example, starting a conversation about a team member's hobby or wishing them a happy birthday shows that I care about them beyond work, and it has fostered a really positive working relationship.

Meetings

Before, meetings were often spent trying to find scattered notes or action items from last time. But now there’s no  meeting prep.  I can quickly create and reference notes for every meeting, so I am well-prepared for every conversation. I can easily recall what was said during past meetings, making follow-ups and decision-making more efficient.

Resources

I used to spend a great deal of time seargin for information housed in documents, tools, files and bookmarks. The Resources feature has streamlined my access to important documents and files. I can add my most-referenced documents, files, and bookmarked URLs to the tool, keeping everything in one place and easily accessible when I need it. I no longer have to rely on multiple tools or bookmarks, as everything is consolidated in one centralized location, saving me hours of time.

Since I started using Cheerlead at work, my management style has transformed. I no longer have to jump from tool to tool to  access my meeting schedule, stickies, tasks, spreadsheets, and notes. Everything is neatly organized in one place,  I can easily see what my day looks like at a glance, and I’ve build a great rapport with my team.

I built Cheerlead for myself, and I hope that other people managers will find it as useful and life-changing as I have.