Of Trials, Tribulations, and Lessons Learned

They say you learn more as you grow. Make it up as you go. The same also preach that nothing in life comes easy. So what, then, do you get when you take a bunch of strong-opinionated individuals, all with opposite but equally valid arguments, and leave them to duke it out, with the winning blow set to determine an important element of product strategy for the next 3 years? Nobody told me that sticking your neck out with a good chance of having it chopped off at some point was part of the job description. Well, maybe they did and I didn't quite understand what that meant, exactly. Ahh, the life of a Product Manager! Which comes back to my original point; you learn more as you go, I mean, grow.

The growing part of this lesson is that, despite my innate tendency to play the diplomat and nurture peaceful collaboration, sometimes you need to stand up and call the shots. I have no problem with standing my ground; the issue is the shades of gray that I see which seem to creep into any given debate. I have always believed that it makes you a stronger leader when you have the ability to see all sides of an argument, assess the pro's and con's, and make an educated decision. What I am coming to understand, though, is that it is sometimes tough to put your stake in the ground and call the tough shots when you always seem to somehow identify with opposing data being placed on the table. I usually have a strong opinion on everything, and the risk-taker in me always wants to sway on the side of "ah, fuck it, with no risk comes no reward so lets go for it" but somehow the intellectual side (who knew that I had one of those) often manages to kick in right when definitive words are about to come out of my mouth. Old man, you taught me so well! Unfortunately, synopsis is important but at some point you need to make a decision, stick to your guns in the face of fire, and defend your position. That, for better or worse, is a skill that I am definitely learning from my boss. He may be wrong, and on certain issues I sometimes strongly believe that he is, but he isn't afraid to make decisions and defend them. Because that's what leaders do; they call the tough shots. Lesson learned. Neck going on the line again sometime in the very near future.

I may still be the nurturer in the group (hey, my name means "healer" after all) but today I added another implement to my toolkit...