What do you do if your leadership skills are lacking as an executive in Product Management?

To enhance your leadership abilities, it's crucial to begin by pinpointing your strengths and weaknesses in leadership. Employing diverse tools and methodologies like self-assessments, feedback surveys, 360-degree reviews, or coaching sessions facilitates obtaining an unbiased and comprehensive understanding of your leadership style, behaviors, and effectiveness. It's essential to strive for honesty and objectivity in this assessment process. Furthermore, you should evaluate how your leadership skills correspond with the demands and aspirations of your organization, team, and clientele. This introspective journey lays the groundwork for targeted growth and development as a leader.

Acknowledge the gap, seek mentorship to enhance leadership skills. Join forums, attend workshops, and lead by empowering the team. In my experience, I took on a mentor at my previous company to refine my leadership approach and witnessed improved team dynamics and project outcomes.

If you receive feedback that your leadership is lacking the first and most important thing to do is to figure out what "leadership" means to your manager, skip level, etc. Leadership means different things to different people and understanding, with accuracy, what you can do better - from their perspective - is the first step. The second step is to have many conversations with your manager about how they see "leadership" showing up in your daily routine and interactions with your peers and managers. I highly recommend the Clifton Strengths Assessment, too. In summary, seek to understand, with clarity, what is expected of you by the people who evaluate your performance, then figure out ways to demonstrate it. Never assume. Seek clarity.

If your leadership skills are lacking as an executive in Product Management, it's essential to invest in personal development. Seek feedback from colleagues and mentors to identify areas for improvement. Enrol in leadership training programs or workshops to enhance your skills in areas such as communication, decision-making, and team management. Practice active listening and empathy to understand and connect with your team members. Set clear expectations and provide guidance to inspire and motivate your team. Lead by example, demonstrating integrity, accountability, and adaptability in your actions. Continuously reflect on your leadership style and seek opportunities to refine and evolve it to effectively lead your team towards success.

If you feel your leadership isn't strong enough as a product management executive, the first thing is to figure out what you do well and where you can improve. There are different ways to do this, like taking quizzes about yourself, asking people for feedback, or getting a review from all directions. This will help you understand your leadership style and how it affects your team, the company, and the customers.

After identifying leadership strengths and weaknesses, fostering resilience emerges as a crucial aspect. Embracing setbacks as learning opportunities and persisting through challenges are essential for growth. Additionally, nurturing a supportive network of mentors, peers, and resources facilitates continuous development. Moreover, cultivating adaptability equips leaders to navigate changing landscapes effectively, ensuring relevance and efficacy in diverse contexts.

- Upon identifying areas for improvement in my leadership skills, I found it effective to establish specific and measurable goals to guide my development journey. - For instance, realizing the importance of enhancing my communication skills, I set a goal to conduct monthly one-on-one meetings with team members to foster open dialogue and provide constructive feedback. - By setting clear objectives and defining metrics to track progress, I was able to focus my efforts and measure tangible improvements over time.

If you feel like your leadership as a product management executive isn't quite there, start by figuring out your strengths and weaknesses. Think about what you're good at, and areas for improvement. You can take quizzes, ask people for honest feedback, or even get a full review from different levels in the company. This will help you understand your leadership style and how it affects your team, just like how a coach analyzes a player's strengths and weaknesses before developing their skills. Once you know what to work on, you can set goals and find ways to improve!

It may be wise to seek feedback not just from those in your organization but from a professional leadership coach. Your colleagues may or may not be candid with you but it's a coach's job to push you out of your comfort zone to achieve results. Seek out coaches who have been in your shoes before and have great reviews. As an executive, your network may be able to refer great executive leadership coaches.

In addition to seeking feedback and support from others, fostering a culture of continuous learning within your team is paramount. Encouraging open dialogue, knowledge sharing, and peer-to-peer mentoring fosters a collaborative environment conducive to growth. Furthermore, promoting a culture of experimentation and innovation empowers team members to explore new ideas and approaches, driving collective learning and evolution. By nurturing a learning culture, leaders not only foster individual growth but also cultivate a dynamic and resilient team capable of adapting to emerging challenges and opportunities.

Communicate! Leadership is all about understanding the perspective of the team and getting it aligned with your perspective. The team is an asset and its up to the leader where and how to utilise and work with the assets. When we communicate effectively in a team and develop a feeling of mutual understanding, things automatically starts to work around.

While practicing leadership in real situations is invaluable, incorporating deliberate reflection elevates the learning process. Regularly setting aside time for introspection allows leaders to gain deeper insights into their actions, decisions, and their impact on others. Moreover, leveraging tools like journaling or peer debriefs enhances self-awareness and promotes continuous improvement. Additionally, embracing a growth mindset towards both successes and setbacks fosters resilience and innovation, empowering leaders to evolve and adapt in dynamic environments. By intertwining action with reflection, leaders cultivate a holistic approach to skill development, driving sustained growth and effectiveness.

To change or improve you have to act. This is the most important step aside from deeply understanding what is expected of you. But, acting without a better system is probably going to take a long time and have mixed results. So, the key is to ask for feedback, reflect and adjust as you go along. Reflection is the most important skill and habit to develop. If you can develop the discipline to reflect regularly and adjust you will improve.

As a Product Leader, it's imperative one keep open to learning and improving because that's a way to sharpen one leadership skills. You should be willing to learn from your team members and explore new ideas and practices. Finally, always ask for feedback from your peers and team, by so doing, you will be able to gauge how far your skills have grown.

In my experience, feedback on "leadership skills" can sometimes regress into subjective assessments of style, rather than a clear evaluation of core competencies or business results. There could be a tendency for companies to favour specific leadership approaches, potentially over other styles, regardless of outputs, outcomes and results. If/When you are having this specific conversation with senior executives, it's crucial to maintain a high-level perspective. This conversation should be an open and constructive dialogue, one conducted in utmost good faith and a focus on optimising leadership effectiveness for the company's benefit.