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Presented by
Dustin Levy
May 27, 2015
Leadership and Influence for Product Managers

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Product Managers are often asked to Lead Without
Authority
Our Challenge:

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• A MANAGER is task-oriented and has the authority to control behavior
through compensation
• A LEADER is people-oriented and has the ability to guide work efforts,
create a feeling in others that they are valuable contributors, and
provide the support and freedom needed to succeed
• An INFLUENCER has the ability to gain agreement or support for an
opinion or perspective without having to exercise authority
Working definitions for this session:

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• Family
• Friends
• Cultures
• Religion
• Teachers
• Athletics
• Military service
Our experiences shape our leadership styles…

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…but, leadership styles developed early in our careers
may or may not make us effective Product Managers

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• Graduate School/Postgraduate Research
▫ Expertise, publications, being the smartest person in the room
• Product Developer/R&D
▫ Expertise, task execution, with a dash of collaboration
• Product Manager
▫ Bringing products to market, cross-functional execution
• Product Management Director
▫ P&L ownership, people leadership & development, best practices
My career path, and measures of success along the way:

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“Countless books and advisers tell you to
start your leadership journey with a clear
sense of who you are. But that can be a
recipe for staying stuck in the past. Your
leadership identity can and should change
each time you move on to bigger and
better things.”
Herminia Ibarra, HBR Jan-Feb 2015
The Authenticity Paradox

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• Applied as a researcher, developer, and first-time product manager
▫ Worked well as a researcher, okay as a developer, not at all as a PM
• What it looked like:
▫ Lots of answers, weak listening, made sure people knew how smart I was
• Where it limited me and my team:
▫ Too little attention paid to others’ ideas…I didn’t have all the answers
My First Style: Leading via Expertise

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• Applied after taking my first lumps as a product manager
▫ Made strong individual contributions, but weak team leadership
• What it looked like:
▫ Worked hard, but not necessarily smart, focused on outworking peers
• Where it limited me and my team:
▫ Only some individuals respond to this leadership style
My Second Style: Leading via Example

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• Applied as a struggling product manager with poor team performance
▫ A combination of leading via expertise and example
• What it looked like:
▫ “I’ll show you how to do your job the right way”
• Where it limited me and my team:
▫ Poor team accountability, neglection of my other PM responsibilities
My Third (& Worst) Style: Leading via Gap-Filling

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• People who become Product Managers share some common traits:
▫ Intelligent
▫ Self-motivated
▫ Hard-working
▫ Competitive
▫ Rewarded in the past for superior individual performance
• These traits, when mis-applied, make us less tolerant of others’ ideas,
work styles, motivators, and behaviors that are incompatible with ours;
all to the detriment of team performance
Personal traits of Product Managers:

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Leadership and influence requires us to be other-centric
instead of self-centric
Big Idea #1

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Regardless of past or current performance, your team
members are good people, with certain unique talents,
want to do a good job, and will do a good job when they
have a conducive work environment
Big Idea #2

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Followers follow leaders because leaders help followers
do and get things they couldn’t without the leader
Big Idea #3

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• What it looks like:
▫ Leaders serve followers instead of trying to control them
▫ Leaders understand the personal needs of their followers
▫ Leaders help followers accomplish what they couldn’t on their own
▫ Leaders remove obstacles to let their followers’ talents to shine through
▫ Followers earn greater autonomy and creative freedom
▫ Followers take ownership and are held accountable
▫ Followers are rewarded for great performance
▫ Followers make the leader look good
▫ New leaders emerge, allowing the existing leader to move on to bigger things
My Fourth Style: Leading via Service

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• The Exceptional Leader, Zenger & Folkman, 2009
• Influence without Authority, Cohen & Bradford, 2005
• What Got You Here Won’t Get You There,
Goldsmith & Reiter, 2007
• The Servant, Hunter, 1998
Suggested Reading

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• No single leadership style works in all situations
• Leading via expertise, example, gap-filling, or other styles is performed
best in the context of Servant Leadership
• Don’t be afraid to experiment with new styles, particularly when the
stakes are low
• Trust yourself, trust your people; take some risks, let others take risks
Final Thoughts: Developing a Leadership Toolkit