For most organizations, individuals starting a new job have 90 days to prove themselves. What happens during this critical time can make or break your career.
Your goal is to get as rapidly as possible to the break-even point. This is the point at which you have contributed as much value to the organization as you have consumed from it. Putting together a successful strategy for getting to this point, and accelerating past it, is key to your transition.
Business owners and entrepreneurs are often asked this leader vs. manager question regarding their management style. For many, these two words are synonymous; both are important for motivating people to work towards a common goal. Each is different, yet both roles have their place in a well-functioning organization.
Guest post by Adrian Terry
A world-class sales team is a lot like a world-class football team. Think about it – they’re both competitive, talented, driven to be the best and big fans of the social side of the job (well, most of them anyway). Football is one of the only areas in which the term “world-class” is used to describe players and teams, but there’s no reason why you can’t put together a sales team that could also be described as world-class. What lessons could you take from world-class footballers and teams that will help you to build and coach a sales team of similar stature? Continue reading
Sports metaphors are everywhere in the workplace, but there’s no denying that the leadership and teamwork skills found in the sports setting teach important lessons. One approach to coaching that is rapidly gaining popularity is what is known as the Double-Goal Coaching Philosophy: emphasis is placed not only on winning, but also on team members’ learning and self-improvement.
In the world of business management, the game is played for keeps, but not all employees respond exclusively to a win-lose attitude. Follow these tips to promote a successful workplace that motivates team members and ultimately drives up productivity and profits.
Find out what motivates individuals
Monetary rewards are de rigeur in many competitive companies, but sometimes a bonus isn’t what motivates individuals. Perhaps it’s a little more time off, more responsibility, more rewarding work, or the chance to work collaboratively on a new project. You won’t know until you ask.
If you have a team, it’s important that they are able to work together – try some team building exercises such as lunches and other fun activities to ensure that there is a level of trust and respect between the various members of your team.
Avoid micromanaging
Nothing discourages initiative and strategic thinking like a hovering, critical manager. A middle ground can be maintained between complete freedom and micromanagement, but each employee requires a different balance. Getting to know your employees and the way that they work is essential. One useful exercise can be to do a Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) exercise with your team – this will allow you to identify strengths, weaknesses and different approaches to working life which will help you manage effectively.
Reward personal improvement
Do you want better employees? The best option is to encourage the ones you have. Not only does this approach build stronger workplace relationships, but it also gives employees a bigger stake in their own work, increasing levels of motivation. You could consider introducing ‘employee of the month’ systems or simply giving additional holiday time for overtime worked.
The Double-Goal Coaching Philosophy’s emphasis on being a leader that encourages personal development will not only build morale and motivation among your team, but benefit your bottom line, too.
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The Product Management Perspective: As a product manager you have a major influence on all those responsible for creating, marketing and selling your products. While you do not manage those individuals, you can have a major effect on their productivity and success. By implementing these principles, you will find your work to be much more enjoyable and the outcome much more attractive.
Full disclosure: The ideas for this post were influenced by duedil.com.
We all have more things to do in a day than the time needed to do them all. The key to moving forward without caving under pressure is maintaining balance in our lives. Effective leaders always find a way to meet the priorities of their life and their business. Here are three actions you can take right now to keep balance in your life:
Be realistic: To have balance in your life you have to be realistic. We all have more things we could do than we have time to do them. To maintain balance, look carefully at all the things that are important (i.e. “at the top of the list”) and then be realistic about what you can do given all relevant factors.
Be decisive: Don’t wait for things to happen. When you need to make a decision, don’t hesitate. After you’ve made the decision, put all you energy into getting it done.
Communicate: Make sure you communicate effectively with everyone involved. A big part of keeping balance in your life is making sure everyone is aware of your priorities. Don’t keep things inside; communicate openly with all the key people (family, friends, coworkers, etc.).
As you integrate these three actions into your daily life you’ll find yourself getting things done much more effectively. The anxiety that comes with having too much to do will give way to a bright outlook on life.
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The Product Management Perspective: Product managers balance a lot of priorities. With the exception of the CEO/President, there’s not a functional role (in most organizations) that has to interact more with others in the organization than product managers. You need to be proactive and balance the demands that come from all over the organization.
Today’s post comes from Jim Holland. Jim’s passion is product management and product marketing. With over 20 years of technology industry experience, he has a fresh and current perspective in leading product management teams and has a gift for taking conceptual ideas and turning them into strategic reality using methods based on market sensing best practices. Enjoy the post and don’t hesitate to tweet your comments to Jim.
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What images do you create when you hear the words, Flying Monkeys? Perhaps the creepy, winged creatures from the Wizard of Oz or the Broadway remix Wicked, the ones that are villains’ henchmen and carry you off to the inevitable showdown with the Wicked Witch?
While leading a team of Product Management and Marketing professionals not long ago, I coined the term “Flying Monkeys” for all unsolicited requests from executive management on behalf of customers and prospects that surfaced while executive were on the road. Imagine you’re sitting in a product planning meeting with your favorite product team. You’re engaged in a lively conversation when all of a sudden, Flying Monkeys dive into the conference room via as vibrating Blackberry’s, urgent emails, flashes of instant messages and sigh of the onslaught – Flying Monkeys – Flying Monkeys announce the arrival. The monkeys quickly grab product management, marketing and development resources, and quicker than you could say, “there’s no place like home” three times, your product roadmap, release content, development resources and team are tossed into turmoil like a Kansas barnyard in a summer twister. As a leader and messenger of the market, how do you handle these disruptions?
In my previous guest post, I introduced the Yin and Yang of Product Management and how balance and interactions drive success. This harmonic balance is easily thrown off when Flying Monkeys appear. Pressured with executive leadership commitments (usually in front of sales and customers) your team begins ducking and dodging the monkeys while trying to focus on bringing the right products to market. As product management leaders; “How do you watch out for Flying Monkeys?”
Product management and its leadership have to be vigilant and plan for the ambush of Flying Monkeys. While product managers know they have all the responsibility and none of the authority, you must focus on what matters most, and be grounded in product management best practices that bring consistency and irrefutable evidence to any conversation. Leaders of product management have a responsibility to establish and maintain visibility into the executive team, and provide regular updates on strategy, delivery and financial success, using the product team to support all conversations.
If your executives regularly connect with customers and prospects, prepare them in advance, and let them know that you are available to discuss any topic in a separate meeting. Another avenue that many product management leaders fail to utilize is internal relationships. Maintaining a relationship with executive administrators, travel, finance, sales and development can provide valuable information on travel schedules, agendas and the details that will reinforce the emergence of Flying Monkeys.
In the series, How to be a Great Product Manager, Saeed Khan shares the four C’s of Leadership that each Product Management professional and leader should strive to embrace. The Four C’s include:
How can Product Management and its leaders ground the Flying Monkeys? By creating credibility in their role and communicating effectively, and showing leadership they are committed and willing to stand by their beliefs and facts. As leaders of product management, it is your obligation to be the voice of reason and sound decisions.
If you like the post, please comment. If you’d like to connect with Jim, he may be reached on Twitter at jim_holland or drop him an email at jbhprivate[at]gmail[dot]com.
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The Product Management Perspective (as Mike would say): As the messenger of the market, product management cannot be carried away by Flying Monkeys or allow the disruptions. Product managers and those leaders who manage them must establish and maintain credibility internally, in order to confidently communicate externally. When you create a foundation of leadership based on strong executive relationships, you eliminate the Flying Monkeys before they ever appear.
Lead on Purpose 