Sometimes just putting the emphasis on a different word transforms the whole meaning of a statement.I didn’t say she stole the book.<ul><li>With the emphasis on “I”. It wasn’t me who said it.</li><li>Now put the stress on, “didn’t.” I never made that remark.</li><li>Now put the emphasis on “say.” She might have, but I didn't open my mouth.</li><li>The focus on the word she makes it clear that the listener only misunderstood who you were accusing.</li><li>Focussing on “stole,” I didn’t say she stole the book. She may have borrowed it.</li></ul> <ul><li>Focussing on " the book", it could have been something else.</li></ul>

Say Out Loud: I Didn't Say She Stole The Book

We’ve all had a conversation with someone who, though they didn’t move an eyelash or a single facial muscle, somehow clearly communicated the message: “The sooner I get away from you, the happier I will be.” On the other hand, a wide smile, direct gaze, and hearty handshake don’t always convey admiration.Sending the micromessages that convey your intended message requires a deep understanding of how others interpret truth or see through the pretence.

Setting The Stage

The definition of diversity includes factors like the way you talk, how long you’ve been with the company, how you dress, wear your hair, and even whether you have a tattoo, none of which help define the quality of what you bring to the organization. However, they do, in many cases, alter how well you are accepted and treated at work. These judgments, which we all make at one time or another, serve to divide us into ready-made camps of “Them” and “Us.”

Your Entire Being Alters Perception Of Others

Observe how colleagues acknowledge one another and establish visual contact, how close they stand, and listened to the inflection of their words. At first glance, such greetings might appear to be repetitive, but when you take a closer look at the gestures, tone, inflection, and gazes, you can catch clues as to where everyone stands. You’ll spot some relationships that are close and personal, and others that appear somewhat strained.Sometimes even without uttering a word the micromessages of a silent greeting can spell out who is, and who is not, “connected.”

The Blind Spot

At its core, the blind spot of leadership crops up when we say one thing but telegraph something quite different. Our blindness is not linked to intelligence or level. We forget that intellect and performance are not inextricably linked. Some of the smartest people are the worst perpetrators of microinequities. Corporate senior executives are often oblivious to the effects of microinequities because they are rarely on the receiving end of these messages. Actually, what they experience the most are microdeceptions, more commonly known as pandering and brownnosing.

Educated Culprits

People see us and promptly put us through a series of mental filters or checklists. The body we arrive in is what people most readily see: our race, gender, age, attractiveness, and other items that define our visible profile.Let the checklist operate as information only. Remove it from your filters and use the precision of micromessages for your lens instead. Assess tone of voice, facial expression, gestures, proximity, and eye contact, a person’s choice of words, syntax, and nuance, along with all indicators of what the message is conveying beneath the words themselves.

First Impressions Form Perceptions

When you step into a new job, you need to learn how the regional and corporate cultures manifest themselves in that environment.Businesses spawn jargon, style, behaviour, and other cultural norms, which individuals joining the organization need to learn and decide whether to conform to. A new hire’s compliance to the cultural norms signals to others that he or she is a member of the “tribe,” someone “in the know,” and connected.Conformance should never violate personal values. If the conformity is within the range of acceptability, it can be leveraged to enhance the business experience.

The Rookie

Micromessages can inspire confidence and enable an individual to stretch for higher goals, or they can undermine a worker’s self-confidence and cause him or her to second guess every decision. They have the power to do this with barely a spoken word.It’s not so much what we say that matters, but what the other person ends up hearing or inferring. We may think we’re sending the exact same message to two team members, but the message they receive may be very different and is affected by the nature of the relationship.

The Subtle Art Of Messaging

Almost imperceptible subtleties of sending and receiving messages define micromessaging and its power of influence. These micro messages tell us how much we are valued and respected by those who control our destiny in the workplace. Micromessages tell us exactly where we stand and how far we are likely to go. They are as intangible as the medium through which they are sent. Through them, we build loyalty or contempt, commitment or indifference, even inspiration or sabotage. Micromessages are the very soul of leadership, and leadership is the primary driver of performance.

Micromessaging And Leadership

Micromessages influence relationships both up and down the corporate ladder; they are not the sole property of managers and leaders.Just as you instinctively know how your boss feels about you, she also senses how you feel about her. Though neither of you may be aware of the messages being sent, the recipient unwittingly understands the micromessages and reacts accordingly.Once we’ve had the time to learn an individual’s style and behaviours, the accuracy of our interpretation of the person’s micromessages improves. Some learn faster than others.

Your Boss Knows Your Hate Him

Understanding the behaviours that underlie micromessages will dramatically increase your ability to control them, but total fluency will probably always be just beyond your grasp, as it is for all of us. Millions of years of mammalian behaviour drive us to react by envy, fear, jealousy, anger, greed, love, and countless emotions and instinct, which can be toxic to the effective building of relationships of all types.Positive micromessaging, on the other hand, can energize employee engagement and impact financial performance for the better.

Unspoken Communication

One leadership blind spot is the manner in which questions are asked. Questions often reveal what we want or expect the answer to be.Typically, the structure of a question falls into one of three forms: the assumptive no, the assumptive yes, and the neutral.You ask the question the way you want the answer to be. Sometimes questions can be statements and statements can be questions.Carefully consider the micromessages within the questions you are asked, as well as those you are asking.Meetings can waste precious time in a circular dance of questions chasing the wrong paths.

The Questions

Each of us has attended meeting after meeting with team members we like and admire.Without ever saying a word, she gets the message you unconsciously but repeatedly send: “Pat, you are so smart. You always cut through all the garbage and get right to the heart of the issue every time. People look up to you. You’re a role model.”In that same meeting, to someone else on the team you may have sent very different messages. Still void of a single word, he hears: “You really are a jerk. How did you get this job in the first place anyway? This team would be so much better off without you.”

A Different Kind Of Silent Messaging At The Workplace

All our lives, we have been told that words are very important. The size of one’s vocabulary is often a sign of intelligence and education. A solid grasp of grammar and word usage is essential for acceptance in most business communities. Industries make millions selling courses designed to improve vocabulary and writing composition skills.Yes, words are important, but when you compare words to what’s wrapped around them in the delivery, they pale in comparison. The impact and influence of the unspoken messages being sent are even stronger than the words.

Words Are Important But...

Each business operation is coloured by the cultural context in which it operates. The same pressure from the top that might improve individual worker performance in Singapore might have the opposite effect in Ireland.Holding your body erect and puffing out the chest might be necessary for a boss to command respect in a Latin American culture, but the same stance could be read as bullying or arrogance in Ireland. Conversely, a slightly shy, round-shouldered American executive who always looks down might be judged an unworthy opponent, and therefore ineffective, in more macho cultures.

Messages Are Relative

Each of us carries patterns of behaviour and interpretation that take decades to learn. It is our cultural template. Everyone intellectually knows that behaviours vary across geographic regions, but when we actually find ourselves thrown into a culture vastly different from our own, intellect meets reality and we briefly go into culture shock. We develop an ethnocentric bias we are hardly aware of, driving how we filter the behaviours of everyone we encounter. Simply stated, most of us believe our way is “right,” and we tend to judge others by how they measure up to our standards.

Culture Shock: We Disregard Reality and See What We Want

The real power of diversity is the skill of identifying what is unique about each member of the team and applying specific developmental and motivational strategies that amplify each performance. Until you are able to identify the unique characteristics that motivate people differently and apply that awareness as a catalyst to generate maximum commitment, support, collaboration, loyalty, and performance from the entire team, you cannot be a truly great leader.

A Truly Effective Leader

In the workplace, we have a responsibility to ensure that all are given the messages, conditions, and environment to perform to the fullest of their potential—and to unlock talent that runs the risk of being underutilized. The practical application of the power of micromessages is not about being nice. It is about sending messages that are clear, direct, and fair.   Every micromessage a manager sends affects an employee’s perceptions of the company. These perceptions greatly influence how effective that employee will be while working for the company.

We Might Not Be Always Nice

If you really want to see microinequities in action, you need to go no further than everyday business meetings. You make a suggestion and it is met with a very bland, ho-hum response. Then, fifteen minutes later, someone else offers the same half-dozen as “six” and suddenly it shows profound insight. Of course, sometimes the reason for this phenomenon has to do with the quality of our communication. Our delivery certainly influences how others hear what we say, but there are often other influences at play. Many times those influences have to do with who is doing the talking.

Who Is Saying It Matters, Not What Is Being Said

Micromessages are the central thread in every form of communication, including electronic communications. Our e-mails, voice mails, instant messages, phone conversations, and virtual meetings are all fully loaded. Everyone has had the experience of receiving an e-mail that made you furious, only later to learn you completely misinterpreted the message.When that happens, the one important lesson to remember is to ask questions. Misunderstandings can be cleared up when you identify and clarify differences in business practices or communication styles.

Ask Questions

The following microadvantages top-ten list can be a pivotal catalyst for turning around problem relationships. Use these ten steps to improve your use of micromessages for a positive impact: 1. Actively solicit opinions 2. Connect on a personal level 3. Constantly ask questions 4. Attribute/credit ideas 5. Monitor your facial expressions 6. Actively listen to all 7. Draw in participation 8. Monitor personal greetings9. Respond constructively to disagreements 10. Limit interruptions

Fixing The Micromessaging Problem

communication

Communication

books

Books

leadershipandmanagement

Leadership & Management

Stephen Young

Micromessaging: Why Great Leadership is Beyond Words

Systems thinkers use graphs of system behavior to understand trends over time, rather than focusing attention on individual events. We also use behavior-over-time graphs to learn whether the system is approaching a goal or limit, and if so, how quickly. The variable on the graph is often a stock or a flow.

Reading Systems 

<ol><li>Elements of your digestive system include teeth, enzymes, stomach, & intestines. The function of this system is to break down food into its basic nutrients & transfer it into the bloodstream while discarding the waste. </li><li>A football team is a system with elements such as players, coach, field, & ball. Its interconnections are the rules of the game, the coach's strategy, the players' communications, & the laws of physics that govern the motions of ball & players. Its purpose is to win, have fun, make money, get exercise or all of the above. </li></ol>

Examples Of A System 

A stock is the foundation of any system. Stocks are the events of the system that you can see, feel, count, or measure at any given time. Stocks change over time due to the actions of a flow. Flows are filling & draining, bidirectional outcome cycles. A stock, then, is the present memory of the history of changing flows within the system.

Stocks & Flows  

A stock takes time to change, because a flow takes time to flow

Changes In Stocks & Flows

<ol><li>Can you identify parts?</li><li>Do the parts affect each other?</li><li>Do the parts together produce an effect that is different from the effect of each part on its own?</li><li>Does the effect, the behavior over time, persist in a variety of circumstances? </li></ol>

How To Spot A System 

A system is an interconnected set of elements that is coherently organized in a way that achieves something . These systems must be comprised of three things: <ul><li class="ql-align-justify">Elements </li><li class="ql-align-justify">Interconnections </li><li class="ql-align-justify">Function/purpose</li></ul>

What Is A System?

Change how you see your organizational structure 

In the years following her role as the lead author of the international bestseller, Limits to Growth—the first book to show the consequences of unchecked growth on a finite planet— Donella Meadows remained a pioneer of environmental and social analysis until her untimely death in 2001. Thinking in Systems, is a concise and crucial book offering insight for problem solving on scales ranging from the personal to the global. Edited by the Sustainability Institute’s Diana Wright, this essential primer brings systems thinking out of the realm of computers and equations and into the tangible world, showing readers how to develop the systems-thinking skills that thought leaders across the globe consider critical for 21st-century life. Some of the biggest problems facing the world—war, hunger, poverty, and environmental degradation—are essentially system failures. They cannot be solved by fixing one piece in isolation from the others, because even seemingly minor details have enormous power to undermine the best efforts of too-narrow thinking. While readers will learn the conceptual tools and methods of systems thinking, the heart of the book is grander than methodology. Donella Meadows was known as much for nurturing positive outcomes as she was for delving into the science behind global dilemmas. She reminds readers to pay attention to what is important, not just what is quantifiable, to stay humble, and to stay a learner. In a world growing ever more complicated, crowded, and interdependent, Thinking in Systems helps readers avoid confusion and helplessness, the first step toward finding proactive and effective solutions.

corporateculture

Corporate Culture

The classic book on systems thinking—with more than half a million copies sold worldwide! "This is a fabulous book... This book opened my mind and reshaped the way I think about investing."—Forbes "Thinking in Systems is required reading for anyone hoping to run a successful company, community, or country. Learning how to think in systems is now part of change-agent literacy. And this is the best book of its kind."—Hunter Lovins In the years following her role as the lead author of the international bestseller, Limits to Growth—the first book to show the consequences of unchecked growth on a finite planet—Donella Meadows remained a pioneer of environmental and social analysis until her untimely death in 2001. Thinking in Systems is a concise and crucial book offering insight for problem solving on scales ranging from the personal to the global. Edited by the Sustainability Institute’s Diana Wright, this essential primer brings systems thinking out of the realm of computers and equations and into the tangible world, showing readers how to develop the systems-thinking skills that thought leaders across the globe consider critical for 21st-century life. Some of the biggest problems facing the world—war, hunger, poverty, and environmental degradation—are essentially system failures. They cannot be solved by fixing one piece in isolation from the others, because even seemingly minor details have enormous power to undermine the best efforts of too-narrow thinking. While readers will learn the conceptual tools and methods of systems thinking, the heart of the book is grander than methodology. Donella Meadows was known as much for nurturing positive outcomes as she was for delving into the science behind global dilemmas. She reminds readers to pay attention to what is important, not just what is quantifiable, to stay humble, and to stay a learner. In a world growing ever more complicated, crowded, and interdependent, Thinking in Systems helps readers avoid confusion and helplessness, the first step toward finding proactive and effective solutions.

Donella Meadows

Thinking in Systems

90% of what separates successful people and failed people is time, effort, and stamina.If somebody in your industry is more successful than you, it’s probably because he works harder at it than you do. Sure, maybe he’s more inherently talented, more adept at networking, but I don’t consider that an excuse. Over time, that advantage counts for less and less. This is why the world is full of highly talented, network-savvy, failed mediocrities.

Doing Anything Worthwhile Takes Time

It just has to be yours. The more the idea is yours alone, the more freedom you have to do something really amazing. The sovereignty you have over your work will inspire far more people than the actual content ever will. How your own sovereignty inspires other people to find their own sovereignty, their own sense of freedom and possibility, will give the work far more power than the work’s objective merits ever will.

Your Idea Doesn’t Have To Be Big

There is no correlation between the two.<ul><li>Abraham Lincoln wrote the Gettysburg Address on a piece of ordinary stationery that he had borrowed from the friend whose house he was staying at. </li><li>Ernest Hemingway wrote with a simple fountain pen. Somebody else did the typing, but only much later. </li><li>Van Gogh rarely painted with more than six colors on his palette.</li></ul>

Creativity And Equipment Ownership

"Question how much freedom your path affords you. Be utterly ruthless about it. It’s your freedom that will get you to where you want to go. Blind faith in an oversubscribed, vainglorious myth will only hinder you. "

"Everybody has their own private Mount Everest they were put on this earth to climb. You may never reach the summit; for that you will be forgiven. But if you don’t make at least one serious attempt to get above the snow line, years later you will find yourself lying on your deathbed, and all you will feel is emptiness."

"The best way to get approval is not to need it."

And not eveybody will have the same agenda as you: When your idea seems to be working, sometimes you’ll find all these people trying to join the team, trying to get a piece of the action. But as soon as they step inside the inner circle, you soon realize they never really understood your idea in the first place, they just want to be on the winning team.

Good Ideas Exist In A Social Context

You don't have to ignore all people, at all times, forever. No, other people’s feedback plays a very important role. But at beginning, maybe your idea will seem really “out there” to other people, even people you like and respect. So there’ll be a time in the beginning when you have to press on, alone, without one tenth the support you probably need.

Knowing Which Feedback To Ignore

Don't stress too much about things like “writer's block.” If you’re looking at a blank piece of paper and nothing comes to you, then go do something else.Writer’s block is just a symptom of feeling like you have nothing to say, combined with the rather weird idea that you should feel the need to say something. If you have something to say, then say it. If not, enjoy the silence while it lasts. The noise will return soon enough.

Inspiration Will Eventually Come

The more original your idea is, the less good advice other people will be able to give you.You don't know if your idea is any good at the beginning. Neither does anyone else. And asking close friends never works as expected either. It’s not that they choose to be unhelpful. It’s just that they don’t know your world as well as you do, no matter how hard they try, no matter how hard you try to explain.

Knowing How Good Your Ideas Are

"Being good at anything is like figure skating—the definition of being good at it is being able to make it look easy. But it never is easy. Ever. "

If your business plan depends on suddenly being “discovered” by some big shot, your plan will probably fail. Most of the things are made slowly and with a lot of work.With all the online tools, you can now build your own thing without having somebody else “discovering” you first. Which means when the big boys come along offering you deals, you’ll be in a much better position to get exactly what you want from the equation.

Don't Dream On Being Suddenly Discovered

If you were to start out writing for example (or maybe an online retail business) don't just quit your job in order to make this big, dramatic, event around it.Instead, find that extra hour or two in the day that belongs to nobody else but yourself, and make it productive. Put the hours in, do it for long enough, and magical, life-transforming things happen eventually.

Put The Hours Into It

When Hugh MacLeod was a struggling young copywriter, living in a YMCA, he started to doodle on the backs of business cards while sitting at a bar. Those cartoons eventually led to a popular blog - gapingvoid.com - and a reputation for pithy insight and humor, in both words and pictures. MacLeod has opinions on everything from marketing to the meaning of life, but one of his main subjects is creativity. How do new ideas emerge in a cynical, risk-averse world? Where does inspiration come from? What does it take to make a living as a creative person? Now his first book, Ignore Everyone, expands on his sharpest insights, wittiest cartoons, and most useful advice. A sample: *Selling out is harder than it looks. Diluting your product to make it more commercial will just make people like it less. *If your plan depends on you suddenly being "discovered" by some big shot, your plan will probably fail. Nobody suddenly discovers anything. Things are made slowly and in pain. *Don't try to stand out from the crowd; avoid crowds altogether. There's no point trying to do the same thing as 250,000 other young hopefuls, waiting for a miracle. All existing business models are wrong. Find a new one. *The idea doesn't have to be big. It just has to be yours. The sovereignty you have over your work will inspire far more people than the actual content ever will. After learning MacLeod's 40 keys to creativity, you will be ready to unlock your own brilliance and unleash it on the world.

When Hugh MacLeod was a struggling young copywriter, living in a YMCA, he started to doodle on the backs of business cards while sitting at a bar. Those cartoons eventually led to a popular blog - gapingvoid.com - and a reputation for pithy insight and humor, in both words and pictures. MacLeod has opinions on everything from marketing to the meaning of life, but one of his main subjects is creativity. How do new ideas emerge in a cynical, risk-averse world? Where does inspiration come from? What does it take to make a living as a creative person? Now his first book, Ignore Everyone, expands on his sharpest insights, wittiest cartoons, and most useful advice. A sample: *Selling out is harder than it looks. Diluting your product to make it more commercial will just make people like it less. *If your plan depends on you suddenly being "discovered" by some big shot, your plan will probably fail. Nobody suddenly discovers anything. Things are made slowly and in pain. *Don't try to stand out from the crowd; avoid crowds altogether. There's no point trying to do the same thing as 250,000 other young hopefuls, waiting for a miracle. All existing business models are wrong. Find a new one. *The idea doesn't have to be big. It just has to be yours. The sovereignty you have over your work will inspire far more people than the actual content ever will. After learning MacLeod's 40 keys to creativity, you will be ready to unlock your own brilliance and unleash it on the world.

Hugh MacLeod

Ignore Everybody

If you're looking to become a great leader--as a manager, as a boss, as an entrepreneur--you must start from the qualities that make you different from the rest . Let's go through those important traits .

Significant Ways That Make Great Leaders Different From Us . 

The best leaders know that they could not have accomplished much on their own. It takes a team, a group, to make things happen, so give each member of that team credit for your success.

5. Share the credit.

“It’s a mix of a lot of things, but first and foremost it’s about having faith in your beliefs. You can’t expect others to consider you a leader unless you have solid faith in your ideas. And once it’s there, you build on it by being a good communicator, listening to others, setting examples and by putting your best foot forward and not giving up. Leadership is all about being passionate about what you do, and having confidence in yourself and your followers whom you have to motivate and inspire.”

7. Have Faith in Their Beliefs .

Great leaders have clarity of purpose and are great at articulating their beliefs. I aspire to be the kind of leader that pushes people to be the very best they can be but still make people feel safe because it starts with the heart.

9. Push People to Be Their Best .

If the blame is yours--whether because of your direct action, an unsuccessful strategy, or a failure of your leadership--accept it. Don't make excuses, pass the buck, or throw others under the bus.

4. Take the heat.

People need to be valued. Great leaders make people feel that they are at the heart, that they're part of making things happen.

1. Make people feel valuable .

Spend time getting to know those you're leading. Don't lord it over anyone; instead, listen. When you connect, you are investing in building even more connection.

2. Make the time to connect.

Place a higher value on team spirit than achievement. When you concentrate on spirit, you gain long-term success.

6. Build team spirit, and encourage inclusiveness .

Always speak honestly and with candor. Show that you are not afraid to speak the truth in any situation

3. Be honest and straightforward even when the news is bad.

A great leader posses a clear vision, is courageous, has integrity, honesty, humility and clear focus. He or she is a strategic planner and believes in teamwork. Great leaders help people reach their goals, are not afraid to hire people that might be better than them and take pride in the accomplishments of those they help along the way .

8. Articulate a Clear Vision

Great leaders make the hard choice, and self-sacrifice in order to enhance the lives of others around them. As a business owner, not only does your family rely on you – so too, do the families of those who work for you. Each employee has a family. Even if you’re a small business owner with four employees, you’re in essence potentially responsible for an additional ten or fifteen people. Being an effective leader requires constant focus, perseverance and building a team that is accountable and designed get results. Without the team there can be no real leadership.

10. Make the Hard Choice .

To become a better leader you must have best qualities . So some of these qualities make you a better leader and also a better human too. 

All business owners and executives have varying experiences and perspectives on the approach and qualities necessary for effective leadership. And not all situations require the same type of leadership style. Great leaders adapt to their surrounding environments and empower the team to succeed together. Many experts across countless leadership books and articles [...]

personaldevelopment

Personal Development

teamwork

Teamwork

10 Unique Perspectives On What Makes A Great Leader

Experienced product people with strong soft skills are low in supply in most markets. One can derive the characteristics of good product leaders from the high level traits of a successful team. One key aspect in this respect is a product leader’s ability to align team members around a shared goal or vision.

How To Identify Product Leaders

Having a deep interest in learning, enthusiastically accepting new challenges, encouraging others to speak up, and listening to their perspectives are all actions driven by curiosity.

Curiosity

The primary focus has to be on the problems faced by customers. Instead of features, one can opt to provide themes, based on what the customer wants and what problem is solved.
Themes are a promise to solve problems not to build features. Once you’ve truly understood customer problems, you can start prioritising. Prioritisation is best done through the lens of the core product management principles: first, is it valuable; second, is it usable and third, is it feasible?

Focusing On Customer Problems

The kind of leader that needs constant recognition and praise is not likely to be the best person for this job. 
The top product leaders hardly ever get recognition for their hard work and dedication. Furthermore, they tend to turn any limelight they receive back on their teams.

The Team First Approach

The job profile of a product leader is akin to a CEO of a company.
A product leader is ultimately responsible for the success and failure of a product, and by extension, the company itself. This raises the question of what makes a true product leader.
We find out the traits of a model product leader and the product team in this book.

The Product Leader

Product leaders are typically comfortably wearing the hats of marketer, manager, technologist, customer advocate, and facilitator, to name a few. 
This doesn’t mean they are experts at each of these roles; rather, they are comfortable working across all areas as the role evolves or as the product demands.

Wearing Multiple Hats

Common characteristics of Successful Product Teams: <ul><li>Lifelong learning.</li><li>Strong communication.</li><li>Empathy.</li><li>Diversity.</li><li>Business savvy.</li><li>Cross-functional representation.</li><li>Collocation.</li><li>Autonomy.</li><li>Interdependence.</li><li>Accountability.</li></ul>

A Successful Product Team

This might be controversial, but when you consider what product leaders do each day, it’s no surprise that selling is one of the things to look out for in product leaders. 
To be clear, this is not the type of selling associated with business development; rather, it’s not the type that works to change minds and get buy-in from others.

Every Job Is A Sales Job

The ability to share information in a clear, concise manner is a necessary and desirable skill for a product leader. 
Whether they’re talking, listening, writing, planning, sharing, or facilitating, the goal is always to be understood.

Clear Communication Ability

More and more organisations are moving away from a traditional top-down approach, whereby senior management determines ‘upstream’ what people ‘downstream’ should be doing. 
Companies like Spotify have been very successful in creating autonomous and cross-functional teams. The success of this approach doesn’t only come from the cross-functional and collaborative nature of Spotify teams; people within these teams are also very close to the customer. The People in the company are the product.

Employees Are Paramount

Successful product teams do NOT require hard skills, such as engineering, design or even specific product management expertise. 
In contrast, with product managers, the focus is much more on soft skills.

Product management and product leadership are people-first roles. Teams are made up of individuals who each bring their own personalities, perspective, and opinions. Understanding what makes people tick makes it easier to get the best out of them and identify when there is a problem.
Being an empathic product leader doesn’t mean you have to be all things to all people but you’re able to engage emphatically with others, even if they don’t have a lot in common with them.

Playing Well With Others

<ul>
<li>Equanimity.</li>
<li>Working with ease under pressures and deadlines.</li>
<li>Having an understanding that shipping products is a race against time.</li>
<li>Displaying grace even under fire.</li>
</ul>

Other Traits of A PL

Best Practices to Align Stakeholders, Guide Development Teams, and Create Value Together

product

Product & Design

Leading in Product Management 

Product Leaders and Product Teams: Management Basics

In today’s lightning-fast technology world, good product management is critical to maintaining a competitive advantage. Yet, managing human beings and navigating complex product roadmaps is no easy task, and it’s rare to find a product leader who can steward a digital product from concept to launch without a couple of major hiccups. Why do some product leaders succeed while others don’t? This insightful book presents interviews with nearly 100 leading product managers from all over the world. Authors Richard Banfield, Martin Eriksson, and Nate Walkingshaw draw on decades of experience in product design and development to capture the approaches, styles, insights, and techniques of successful product managers. If you want to understand what drives good product leaders, this book is an irreplaceable resource. In three parts, Product Leadership helps you explore: Themes and patterns of successful teams and their leaders, and ways to attain those characteristics Best approaches for guiding your product team through the startup, emerging, and enterprise stages of a company’s evolution Strategies and tactics for working with customers, agencies, partners, and external stakeholders

In today’s lightning-fast technology world, good product management is critical to maintaining a competitive advantage. Yet, managing human beings and navigating complex product roadmaps is no easy task, and it’s rare to find a product leader who can steward a digital product from concept to launch without a couple of major hiccups. Why do some product leaders succeed while others don’t?This insightful book presents interviews with nearly 100 leading product managers from all over the world. Authors Richard Banfield, Martin Eriksson, and Nate Walkingshaw draw on decades of experience in product design and development to capture the approaches, styles, insights, and techniques of successful product managers. If you want to understand what drives good product leaders, this book is an irreplaceable resource.In three parts, Product Leadership helps you explore:<ul><li>Themes and patterns of successful teams and their leaders, and ways to attain those characteristics</li><li>Best approaches for guiding your product team through the startup, emerging, and enterprise stages of a company’s evolution</li><li>Strategies and tactics for working with customers, agencies, partners, and external stakeholders</li></ul>

Micromessaging: Why Great Leadership is Beyond Words

Thinking in Systems

Ignore Everybody

It's time to Read like a Pro.

10 Unique Perspectives On What Makes A Great Leader

It's time to
Read like a Pro.