Questions to Ask Yourself to Level-Up into Leadership

Happy 2021. What do you truly want this year with your career? For many, they want to get that promotion into leadership that they know they deserve. I challenge you to take it one step further. To level up into leadership AND love what you do again. 

Moving into leadership in a workplace that makes you shrink every day is not going to cut it. I want you all to do what you love and love what you do.

Where do you start to finally move into something you love in the world of product. I challenge you to ask yourself these FOUR questions every week. These are questions that require about 5 minutes of reflection and will enable you to be conscious of your actions each week.

1. Will my actions help me move forward? Whether the next step is leveling up into product leadership, becoming a founder of a start-up, or getting into that ‘shiny red car’ product, you need to consider each of your actions each week and how they help or hurt your career.
2. Who do I need support from? Getting to that next level requires support from others such as former leaders, your current VP, and other VPs. You need help figuring out how to handle the strategic task in front of you, asking the right questions at the product strategy meeting, and positioning the work you are doing.
3. How can I be strategic this week? It is so important that each week, you spend some time doing the strategic work. That means a few hours looking at the market, tech trends, consumer trends, etc. We can spend 50+ hours each week on tactical items that will get the job done but will not help us level up. You need to keep your eye on the big picture strategically and be positioning your products visa-ve that vision.
4. What am I choosing? To move into something great, you need to move from auto pilot into making conscious choices. For example, are you choosing to allow a toxic leader to start you spinning with anxiety? Or, are you choosing to use your energy to figure out the next fantastic job?

I want you to embrace the reality that you can absolutely level-up and love what you do in the world of product management.  You get to choose what is next.