Thanks to a good friend and the person I credit with the creation of the "Why is a Product Manager Like the Office Photocopier?" joke, I recently unearthed a listing of questions that we had established with the PM team to help teach and remind everyone of the True Role of a Product Manager.
I had the great pleasure of serving as a guest lecturer on Leadership yesterday to a class of college seniors (business majors), and I was struck by the remarkably mature perspective and intuitive feel that they have for the subject. After my opening comments on how you can't possibly learn to be a leader from a book or a class, we launched into a series of discussions and exercises that Wowed me with the clear thinking and great ideas about effective leadership and great leaders, as well as the opposite. I'm definitely growing more excited about the potential of this generation of early career professionals!
I don't know too many Sales Managers that relish the opportunity to conduct performance reviews with their Reps. In fact, come to think about it, I don't know too many Sales Managers that actually conduct performance reviews with their Reps. Unless you count the token compliance that a few accommodate through a "half-hearted, fill out the form to get HR off my back" approach that some Managers confess to employing. That's too bad, because all parties involved are missing out on valuable conversations that can contribute to the growth of the business, the strengthening of the sales bench and the development of sales superstars.
Somewhere during my second decade out of college (Hey, I'm slow but I figure it out eventually!), I recall having the epiphany that most people in leadership roles acted like they had no conception of what their job as a leader was. In fact, it dawned me after a few moments in thought that it probably wasn't an act—they truly did not understand their job. The evidence to support this conclusion was all around me.
I recently gave a talk at a gathering of managers and executives from different organizations, entitled: "Creating a Leadership Development Culture In Your Organization." The gist of the talk was that leadership development does not have to cost a lot of money and in fact can be jump-started with some basic activities. Also, I came down hard on the age-old excuse of "I don't have time" that so many leaders use to explain their lack of attention to leadership and talent development. Just today, I received a note back from one of the participants that renewed my faith in the fact that when presented with practical approaches, many leaders want to do the right things to support the development of their people.
t's fairly well established in my mind through our firm's research and from working for large and small firms as an employee and as a consultant, that most organizations and most leaders stink at talent development. I've cited a number of studies and surveys in my various posts that report findings that are in violent agreement with this conclusion. However, now that there is software to help us manage talent, are our problems over?
I speak, counsel and write consistently about the critical need for an organization's leaders to institutionalize the process of identifying, developing and retaining talent. In a recent workshop, less than 20% of the organizations represented indicated that they had any form of succession planning or early talent identification programs in place. The numbers got worse when we talked about development activities for established associates. While I suppose that I should be grateful for how miserably organizations perform in the area of talent development—after all, it means a large market for workshops, programs and books, it frankly pains me more than it pleases me. This isn't that hard or expensive people. What are you waiting for?
Product Managers are often improperly saddled with blame for everything that’s wrong in the organization and a fair amount of what’s wrong in the world. Poor quality, revenue shortfalls, lack of leads, poor visibility, competitive encroachment, poor support, schedule delays and process deficiencies are just a few of the items that I’ve known Product Managers to be tagged with in the course of carrying out their jobs. Pretty much everything but responsibility for the Lindbergh kidnapping, and I’m sure someone tried to pin that one on an unwitting Product Manager at some point in time.
he Strategy-Fueled Leader is someone you want to work for and someone that you want to become. Working for one of these individuals is like existing in an alternate professional universe. If you are fortunate enough to connect with this type of leader early in your career, you are in for a remarkable education that will shape you for the rest of your professional (and even personal) life. Catch one later in life, and expect to find yourself reborn professionally, with a renewed sense of focus and purpose. If you are not fortunate enough to find one as a mentor, its up to you to make a difference in your organization by developing the habits, approaches and thinking of this powerful leader.
Following a recent presentation to individuals in the Not-For-Profit arena on "Creating A Culture of Leadership Development in Your Organization," I was approached by some enthusiastic attendees who loved the content, but expressed frustration over the seeming unwillingness of their top leaders to focus on this issue. During the discussion, I heard the following comments: "Leadership development is viewed as expensive." "When we point out the need for and potential benefits from strengthening our leadership practices, the typical response is that leadership development is not central to our mission." "We are so busy chasing small issues, we don't have time to focus on people topics." I appreciated the openness of the individuals and was left wondering what it might take to help top leaders everywhere recognize once and for all that LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT DOES NOT HAVE TO BE EXPENSIVE!
