How to find your leadership style (Product, Design, Tech, Non-Tech)?
Sharing personal experience and a recommended read for this week.
- Traditional Advice: Most of us often encounter the traditional advice: emulate the leadership styles of mentors and industry leaders. But what if the key to effective leadership lies within ourselves? How do we discover and refine our unique leadership approach?
- Personal experience: We were building zero to one multi sided marketplace and I was told my approach was very aggressive (timeline, commitments, unrealistic goals etc.) or i spent too much time with my cross functions (sales, partnerships, research) and I should rather focus on engineering as like most product managers. [this is very common for many tech company]
In reality, being "aggressive" was the need of the hour and there is no way you can build a product without getting feedback from all sides of the marketplace including the people who actually are involved in the supply chain. The right thing was to fan out, learn from every side and then build the product v/s build an engineering marvel which no one will use. [and we did that and built a winning product]
- Realization: This experience led me to question the conventional quest to mimic "top performers". Developing a personal leadership style while focusing on meaningful outcomes is more valuable than merely trying to replicate someone else's success - Two key points "Your Style" + "Focus on impact"
-Todays, read: This realization resonated deeply with me when I read Prof. Hitendra Wadhwa article on "Leadership in the Flow." It's a compelling read that helps you identify your leadership strengths by establishing positive intentions and tapping into the right energy to craft your unique leadership style. He highlights 5 core energies that will help you tap you your leadership style.
- My pick: Out of the five core energies, I found a strong connection with "Growth Energy" at my current professional stage. It's about embracing a growth mindset, learning from adversity, and continuously iterating - principles that have significantly shaped my leadership journey.
I highly recommend checking out this insightful article. It's a game-changer for anyone looking to discover and refine their leadership style.
Let me know which one did you resonate with in comments/reply (try it, its really cool)
You'll find it in the Harvard Business Review Jan/Feb 2024 edition. Link in the comments.