Create a Personal Operating Manual for How You Work Best

A personal operating manual removes the guesswork for managers and colleagues: how you do your best work, how you like to receive feedback, what you find draining, and what is often misread about you. The document works when it is honest rather than aspirational and specific rather than generic. This builds it through a structured set of questions and produces a one-page version ready to share.

I want to write a personal operating manual: a document that describes how I work best so I can share it with managers or team members. Help me build it through a series of questions covering: when I do my best thinking, how I prefer to receive feedback, what I find draining versus energising, how I communicate under pressure versus when relaxed, what I need to do good work, and one thing about how I work that is often misunderstood. After I answer, help me write a one-page document that is honest without being therapeutic.