Lead on Purpose

Promoting Leadership Principles in Product Management

Tag Archives: greatness


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Taking leadership to the next level

I am admittedly a creature of habit. I like to run and when I do I listen to books, podcasts and talks. This is a great time for learning and really letting things sink down deeply in my understanding. I also (as a creature of habit) find myself going back to books I’ve listened to in the past. In recent days I’m re-listening to Good to Great by Jim Collins.

Though I love every part of this book, I’m most impressed with the chapter on Level 5 Leadership. Collins’ definition is simple: “Level 5 leaders blend the paradoxical combination of deep personal humility with intense professional will.” This is, as Collins puts it, a “study in duality.” The following are among some of the phrases Collins uses to describe the duality of a Level 5 leader:

Demonstrates a compelling modesty, shunning public adulation. Creates superb results, a clear catalyst in the transition from good to great.

Acts with quiet, calm determination; relies principally on inspired standards, not inspiring charisma, to motivate. Demonstrates an unwavering resolve to do whatever must be done to produce the best long-term results, no matter how difficult.

Channels ambition into the company, not to self; sets up successor for even more greatness in the next generation. Sets the standard of building an enduring great company; will settle for nothing less.

Looks in the mirror, not out the window, to apportion responsibility for poor results, never blaming other people, external factors or bad luck. Looks out the window, not in the mirror, to apportion credit for the success of the company – to other people, external factors and good luck.

So can you and I become a Level 5 leader? Collins was asked this question and after stating he wasn’t sure (because their research didn’t delve into that topic) he said there are two categories of people—those who don’t have the Level 5 seed within them and those who do.

The first category consists of people who could never subjugate their own needs to the greater ambition of something larger and more lasting than themselves. The second category consists of people who could evolve to Level 5; the capability resides within them, perhaps buried or ignored or simply nascent. Under the right circumstances—with self-reflection, a mentor, loving parents, a significant life experience, or other factors—the seed can begin to develop.

This inspires me and should give all of hope that we can lead teams and products and companies to success.

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The Product Management Perspective: Product management provides a great opportunity to nurture leaders at your company. If you have responsibility for hiring product management or product marketing professionals, take the time to find the right people. Be rigorous in your search and interview processes and put your best PMs on your biggest opportunities.


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Capturing ideas

Ideas are the seeds from which all greatness grows. Every book and every company started from the spark of an idea. Ideas come on their own time and in their own way. Those who understand this principle find a sure path to success.

The key to benefiting from ideas is to capture them. You need to write them down in a place where you can review them and use them when the time is right. In his audio book “Capturing Million Dollar Ideas,” Richard Paul Evans recommends keeping and “idea journal” with you at all times so you can capture ideas as they come. This is important because you can never control or predict when ideas will come. He further discusses five things to know about your ideas:

  1. Your life if the sum of your ideas.
  2. Ideas are like butterflies, they come at any time and they appear unannounced, flittering through your mind as if to find capture. Creating a place to capture the ideas seems to attract them, and in greater number. “A discovery is an accident meeting a prepared mind.”
  3. Ideas, no matter how brilliant, have a very short shelf life.
  4. You may not understand how big an idea is until later; some ideas need to age like cheese and wine to come to value. In come cases, you need to grow before you realize just how big a concept is.
  5. Ideas beget other ideas.

Remember, ideas come on their own time. When ideas come to you, write them down.

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The Product Management Perspective: Ideas are the fuel for great products. The difficulty for many product managers is capturing ideas and filtering the potentially great ones from the not so good. That topic deserves its own post (or perhaps its own book). The key point here is that you, as the PM, capture the ideas that come to you regardless of the source. The more ideas you capture the more likely you are to get the perfect new product or feature. Many times ideas will seem silly or absolutely unobtainable; write them down anyway. Over time circumstances change, technology improves and opportunities appear that you do not expect. The more ideas you have captured the better prepared you will be to develop your ideas into the next great product.


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Preparing to win

One of the most well known, yet least practiced principles of success is the need to prepare. Regardless of the pursuit, if you want to succeed and feel the thrill that comes from winning (however you define ‘winning’), you need to prepare ahead of time. As the marathon runner Juma Ikanga said after winning the New York Marathon: “The will to win is nothing without the will to prepare.” You can want to win more than anyone else in the world; yet if you do not want to put in the work to prepare, it will not matter.

When you consider successful leaders whom you admire, and think about what they did to achieve greatness, it may seem like things come easily to them. Over time, no doubt things do come more easily. However, most if not all great leaders have learned this truth spoken eloquently by Vince Lombardi: “The only place success comes before work is in the dictionary.” So the next time you are contemplating why things seem to come easy for others, just remember they most likely spent a lot of time somewhere along the way preparing for what they are accomplishing today.

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The Product Management Perspective: Product managers face an interesting challenge: they are responsible for the success of their products, yet the people they rely on to get their products successfully out the door do not (usually) report to them. This situation lends itself to planning and preparation. Take the time upfront to prepare, and do the work necessary to make your products successful.