Let’s talk about a myth that holds too many people back.
The myth is that leaders know how to proceed. Do you really need to know how to make all the right choices before you can reach that next step in your career?
Let me explain.
We each do a lot of different things in our daily jobs. If you've got some experience, you can do many of those things – most even – with little thought.
But what about those leading product strategy? Leading companies?
Confident leaders can seem like they know how to make good choices. We trust their choices, after all. These folks seem legit – or more than legit, they seem downright inspirational.
How did they learn everything they needed to know to make all these calls? How could you ever catch up?
But, that's the myth talking.
Whether you’re ambitious or just lucky, you will hit a point in your career at which there is no right choice. Every path is a different bet. There is no playbook. Sure, people have led products before, led teams, led companies. You can learn about how they made decisions – their values, their process. But at the end of the day, none of those tells you the right choices to make.
Deciding on a vision, deciding on the values and principles you’ll use to guide your decisions, deciding how to proceed at each juncture… this IS the work of leadership.
When you've spent your career in “getting things done” mode, it can feel like time spent talking about vision, values, and decisions gets in the way of “real work”. But if you rush through decisions just to get to the execution, you can end up wasting a ton of time.
At Slide UX, our process will force you to articulate the underlying facts that should drive product strategy. They give you an excuse to zoom out and reconsider what your organization knows and believes so you can do the important job of making good decisions.
My challenge for you today: Recognize that good decisions are hard work and good decision-making is a skill you can work on in any context. Make time for that thinking, challenge that thinking, and give it the time, space, and communication it requires. You might be further along than you thought!