Love to Lead as a Product Manager

Product Managers are leaders. Period. 

Product Management is serious work and has significant implications on the success of an organization.

You want to inspire innovation and collaboration to be great product manager. To do this, you need to enjoy leading and influencing.

Not the pretend smile when the reality is you are stressed out. But the authentic, heartfelt joy that comes with being at a white board with a group of brilliant engineers.

Here is the reality, if you are unhappy, your teams will pick up on it. Collaboration and innovation will decrease.

Before a retrospective, have a bit of fun with your team. Before you present the roadmap to a key customer, lift yourself up with some power music. 

Don’t let serious work be the reason you’re serious all the time.

Reconnect with purpose. Everything isn’t fun, but purpose is the reason you do difficult work. Purpose doesn’t make hard work easy; it provides persistence. 

Express gratitude. Force yourself to notice something good. Stop waiting for perfection to express gratitude and affirmation.

As product leaders…learn to love leading and influencing.

#productmanagers #productmanagement #productmanager