Lead on Purpose

Promoting Leadership Principles in Product Management

Tag Archives: intuition


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Heart, Soul, and Intuition in Leadership

Guest post by John Daily

Stepping up to the plate in a business or office setting takes more than knowledge of how to run the organization. To become an effective leader and direct a successful enterprise, heart, soul and intuition are key traits you should have. With passion, wisdom and drive, a leader can effectively direct a workforce and turn it from a simple office to a goldmine in an instant. If you are planning to create and lead your own small business, pay attention to communication. If you are expecting a promotion soon, here are some tips and tricks you should keep in mind.

It is a fact that leading a company isn’t easy or simple, guaranteeing business continuity and success is an entirely different topic altogether. It is also reality that creating and leading a company takes labor-intensive work and time-consuming responsibilities. While the pay grade doesn’t significantly increase along your leadership promotion, there are a lot of benefits entailed from being a leader, which exceeds that of mere financial merits. There are a range of things to oversee and accomplish within your enterprise, a number of workers and staff to manage, and a huge amount of tasks and responsibilities to complete.

One tip to perform your leadership roles correctly is to be a positive leader. This tip is not only applicable for a particular business but rather for all kinds of employment you work in and for any role you step as. It is normal for any type of work to have its own up and down days, yet a business leader should be capable of overseeing anything and everything at a positive insight during all times. An issue invariably has a solution and a mistake always has a lesson you can pick up. Business leaders with positive outlook are capable of withstanding any challenges much more professional and effective since they don’t let minor issues and problems ruin their concentration on the job. Rather than blundering in stress and frustration over a deal or contract that went wrong, an effective business leader at heart should not let feelings and emotions control them and their decisions.

Another tip is to recruit the best staff. It is true of how great friends and people around you can affect your life in a positive way. This belief goes the same way for businesses. Surround yourself with great employees and professional workers, and your output can significantly improve. Employees contribute greatly to the advancements and achievements of any enterprise or workforce. This makes it necessary to look for the best kind of staff to work with everyday. While the decisions you make for sourcing out staffing members are short term, the effects can definitely affect your business for the long-term. Devising an effective employment screening process that involves thorough background checks, criminal record checks, and several interviews can help you separate the good employees from the bad ones.

Third tip is to develop a positive and lucrative working medium. Acting as a business leader, you must know that encouraging great workers and keeping them well satisfied in working everyday is just as essential as looking for the right workers. Motivate yourself as well as your workforce by providing them with a conducive working environment coupled with occasional compensation and incentives to show your appreciation for their efforts and a job well done. Other means of maintaining workforce satisfaction is by organizing recreational activities that put you and your employees away from the busy and stressful work lifestyle you are used to. You can also direct seminars and lectures to enhance knowledge and skills as well as provide treats, such as coupons and discounts at retail stores and restaurants.

John Dailey is a small business owner who tries to treat his employees as friends. As a small business owner, he realizes that knowing the history of his employees is important. That is why he checks out backgroundcheck.org when hiring employees.

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The Product Management Perspective: As a product manager you may not get a say in recruiting staff and establishing a positive working environment; however, you have a great opportunity to be a positive leader among your peers. Take a positive attitude to work every day and use it to your advantage to inspire the teams you work with to build great products.


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Leader or pusher?

Leadership, by its nature, involves being out in front, cutting a trail through difficult surroundings and confronting problems as they arise. Leaders spot opportunities and through the combination of market evidence and intuition pursue the right course for themselves and their organizations. They figuratively walk ahead and make sure the surrounding conditions are suitable for their people and organization. They are involved in the day-to-day activities of those they lead.

The label ‘pusher’ is often associated with illegal drugs and is the opposite of leader; this behavior is bad and wrong by any stretch of its definition. The label ‘pusher’ can also be attributed to managers or others who goad their people to action for selfish or otherwise negative reasons. They are pushers in the sense of compelling their people to walk ahead and set off the business land mines so they do not get burned. They make their people do things that they are unwilling to do themselves. They are ‘too busy’ or feel they are above doing the ‘grunt work’ they expect their people to do.

Are you a leader or a pusher? Answer the following questions:

  • When times are tough, do you make decisions based on fear?
  • Do your personal motives drive your decision-making?
  • Do you feel your ideas and decisions are more important than those of the people who work for you?

If you answered ‘yes’ to any of these questions, you might be a pusher. There are obviously many degrees of ‘pusher’ and they are not all bad. However, generally speaking a pusher is the antithesis of a leader. The outcome of the actions of a pusher never turns out positive. The outcome of the actions of a leader always turns out positive (though not always how you’d expect). Pushers make you do things; leaders make you want to do things. Pushers force, leaders inspire.

To become a leader, practice these principles:

  • Courage: Leaders do not allow fear to direct their decisions. They possess the poise to make tough decisions, and they stand by the consequences. When times are tough they have the mettle to persevere.
  • Integrity: Leaders are consistent in their actions, values and principles. Integrity plays an important part in their work life and their personal life.  Their motives are aligned with their organizations and with their own internal beliefs.
  • Humility: Leaders are humble. They are not weak or spineless but they posses an inner confidence that guides their actions. They are not in it to glorify themselves but to lift others.The best leaders are confidently humble.
We all have tendencies to push at times when leading would produce much better results. Let us evaluate our thoughts and actions and make changes (where necessary) to become leaders.

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The Product Management Perspective: The principle of leader vs. pusher applies nicely to product management. Product managers who push rather than lead do not succeed. Because you have to work with people you do not manage, it is imperative that you lead out and not try to push. Product managers who are leaders gain the respect and trust of their teams, and the quality and timeliness of the resulting products is evident.