My first job as a developer was in the Israeli Air Force (IAF). I was assigned there after some carefully planned moves I made which were meant to ensure (or at least do the best I can in that sense) that the army puts me exactly where I wanted to be. Well, it worked 🙂 Our unit was in charge of developing all of the mission-critical systems for IAF’s operational units. During my 5 years there, I was one of the first developers, then team lead, of the main command, control and communications system for IAF’s air traffic control units. Then I became one of the system architects of a new platform that was to completely reshape how IAF develops its systems and how the operational systems work with each other. As you can see, I got to work on exciting projects. I got recognized for my work and promoted accordingly.
Years later, I realized how much I learned from my time there. As the first professional workplace I have been to, it gave me much more than professional experience. It basically taught me how to work, and I absorbed the culture there and made it my own. I loved this culture, and thinking about it many years after the fact, it was really a good one. For example, the IAF is known for its retrospective practice that is built into everything people do (I’m talking about pilots, not just agile teams). Asking yourself what you did well and where you could improve was and still is the best way to move forward and excel. In IAF it was culturally clear that it was not about blame, it was simply the only way to go. This is an element of the culture that I try to bring with me wherever I go, both in my personal and professional life.
Another example was that I was truly recognized for doing great work, and got promoted without having to even ask. While that, too, was something that I tried to bring with me wherever I went and promote my people accordingly, when it came to my own promotion it wasn’t up to me. And so I found myself, years later, calling an old friend, who was my commander as well as a mentor in IAF, to tell him I was angry with him. He taught me – by example – that all I had to do was to be brilliant at my job, and others would notice it and get me promoted. In my future workplaces, when it didn’t work this way, I wasn’t prepared for the situation and I didn’t know what to do. Of course, I wasn’t really angry with him, I actually felt quite grateful for everything he had done for me over the years, it was simply my way of sharing the frustration I felt when I realized not all organizations share the same qualities I believe in. So I needed to learn how to ask for a promotion and convince the larger organization that I was the right person to get it. I needed to stand for myself and put myself at the center.
This topic seems to come up a lot in my coaching conversations recently. Not so much about promotion – I think nobody expects nowadays to be promoted without having to ask and convince others, but on other challenging situations where I find myself reminding people time and again that it’s ok to talk about what they need, and not just what anyone would need in this job.
As product leaders, we are so used to leading without authority that we sometimes forget that we still matter. Not only us as product leaders, the organizational function that we fill, but also us as people – the specific person filling this role. There is a reason our companies put us there – us and not someone else. They want us to succeed, not just the function that we fill. Here are three common areas where product leaders tend to not let the conversation be about them, personally, but they are very personal nonetheless. In fact, willingness to make these things about you would make you stronger, not weaker.
Complex Product Decisions
Everyone likes to take decisions based on data. While data is usually more generic than you think and can come in multiple shapes and forms, many decisions are still hard ones and data doesn’t do the trick to decide one way or the other. Part of it is because as product leaders our decisions are often based on bets regarding the future, which by definition entails risk. The other side of the equation is that data – as elaborate and detailed as it may be – will never represent the world fully. There will always be more information than we have available when it comes to making decisions.
That’s why many decisions simply cannot be decided on with consensus, and tempting to get there for all decisions would simply put you in analysis paralysis, or worse – design by committee. At some point, you need to step up. In some cases, your role is solely to make sure others are able to make the decision. But in some cases, the decision is yours, and you need to make the call, although you don’t have perfect information. That can be quite scary.
At this point, many product leaders are trying to decide based on what anyone in their position would decide if they were them. They try to find the right answer. But when it comes to strategic risk management and management in general, there is often no universally right answer. That’s why your role is probably among the last roles to ever be replaced by AI. You need to think, and you need to make up your mind – not a generic mind. What you think matters, and if the decision is yours, so is the risk that you are willing to take on behalf of the company.
In these situations, it is perfectly acceptable to say, after sharing your analysis of the situation, “this is a risk I am willing to take”. Try it. You might have a hard time saying it out loud at first, but try it on smaller decisions first. It is a must-have muscle for you to develop as a product leader who lives in constant uncertainty.
Team Management Practices
When you are managing a team it is your responsibility to take care of them. You need to coach them, to make sure they have what they need to succeed, to clearly set goals and communicate expectations, and remove any barriers that they might have along the way. With so many concerns regarding the team, it is easy to forget that you, as their manager, need to succeed as well.
Your success is important not only for you achieving your career goals. Your role is there for a reason, and success of the product (and often the company) depends on your personal success. The company needs you to succeed because it is important, not because they like you.
With that in mind, you shouldn’t shy away from asking the team to give you what you need in order to succeed. It can be weekly status reports, it can be meeting specific deadlines, providing high quality presentations that will help you convey the message upwards, and anything else you feel you need. If you know you need something but feel bad asking because your team is busy, that’s probably a signal that you are focused too much on them and too little on you.
Note that the same principle applies horizontally and upwards in the organization. Many product leaders hesitate to ask for resources that would help them succeed, and instead try to make do with whatever they were assigned. Remember that this is not what the company needs from you. They brought you here to succeed, and it is your responsibility to make it happen.
Toxic Work Environments
Perhaps the most sensitive area where product leaders find it difficult to make things about themselves is in the softer areas of work environment and culture. I listed here a toxic work environment as the end of the spectrum, but it could also be a problematic employee, a non-productive org structure which gives too much responsibility to someone else, or even the entire company culture.
One of the reasons this one is so hard is because there is hardly ever evidence that you are right. Many product leaders share with me in these situations that they feel they are the problem. If I care too much about a certain culture, I might be too sensitive. If a certain person makes me angry, maybe I’m not a team player.
But more often than not, the opposite is true. The people who think that way are usually the best team players, and the ones who would try hardest to succeed under any circumstances without hurting anyone else. We don’t get up in the morning to fight in the office, we expect our leadership to be strong but pleasant. Well, we all need to grow up (trust me, this is a reminder for myself as it is for everyone else).
Sometimes, telling yourself that the world isn’t a garden of roses and you need to succeed nonetheless would do the trick. But when that’s not enough, remind yourself that as a product leader, you play an important role in the company leadership. Ask yourself if this behavior that bothers you truly contributes to the company’s success. More often than not, the answer will be quite the opposite. So when you make it about you by saying “I can’t continue this way” you are actually helping the company resolve the situation in two ways: first, this might be just what the CEO needs in order to make a change, and second, because if you are about to decide that this isn’t right for you and go somewhere else, they would have wanted to know when they could still do something about it.
In Marty Cagan’s Coaching the Coaches session that I attended in London recently, he said that the product leader needs to have the moral authority of a founder. It goes beyond just the product related decisions. Culture matters to the company’s success no less, and some would say even more. And the culture you live in is definitely about you. If you tried changing it “for the greater good” and it didn’t work, it’s time to put yourself out there. Don’t be shy. It’s what they expect from you as a leader.
