Why being grounded is the key to brilliant product leadership
What I've learnt coaching over 100 product leaders to be strong, authentic, creative and fulfilled.
Despite the advice you are surrounded by on LinkedIn, to be truly impactful as a product leader, it’s not about quick wins, knowing the latest product framework, doing more with less, sounding smart, stakeholder “management”, introducing a new process, learning to sound assertive or confident, or hacks or tactics.
You can’t build strong leadership from a collection of tactics and tips. Just as a pile of leaves doesn’t make a strong and resilient tree.
Instead, I’ve learnt that the more grounded someone is, the more likely they are to be a strong and authentic leader, a creative product thinker, and a fulfilled human.
“To be grounded is to possess a firm and unwavering foundation, an internal strength and self-confidence that sustains you through ups and downs and from which deep and enduring success can be found.”
Author of The Practice of Groundedness
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I feel lucky to know and work with some grounded leaders. They have managed to buck the trend of “always being too busy” or “not having time for deep thinking”. A lot of people talk about working smart, not hard but these people put that into action. They say no to most of the work that crosses their plate. They don’t see calmness and clarity of thought as a luxury that founders and executives miss out on. They understand that time away from their work helps them to be more effective when they come back to their work. They have consciously decided how much energy goes into work, and how much into their family and personal lives.
There’s the CEO who was able to be calm and find time to speak to individuals 1:1 in a crisis, the founder who was able to stick to their values when it was difficult to do so, the CEO who was able to be honest about their failures without beating themselves up, and the senior executive who always prioritises deep thinking time.
Being grounded is about a deeper understanding of who you are and what you stand for. It’s about finding time in the week to think deeply. It’s about valuing and building strong, trusting relationships. It’s about working on the foundations of great leadership.
What does grounded product leadership look like?
You are able to let go of the posturing and be honest with yourself about how things are - with your product, your team, and with your own performance
You know your strengths, the limitations of those strengths, and what it looks like to overplay them
You can talk about your weaknesses and failures, whilst maintaining a sense of self-worth
You know your values, boundaries, and principles. You know when to take a stand and when to be flexible and adaptable
You accept that you have to say no to the majority of what you could work on, to make space for creativity and complex thinking
You know there is not a “perfect” balance between work and life, but you know what works best for you and are intentional about that
You have strong work relationships. People trust you. You don’t get wound up by others’ behaviour
You have a sense of purpose and direction in your career
You are resilient and know that this is not the same as maintaining unhealthy levels of stress for a long time
You are confident, and can also show humility, generosity, and encouragement to others
What stops us from being grounded?
When you are not grounded as a leader, you find yourself feeling scattered and unmoored. Perhaps you can relate:
consistently spinning too many plates
ruminating over that tricky relationship that you can’t seem to repair
letting small things bug you more than they should
feeling unclear about how you’re performing
consistently feeling stressed or anxious
caught up in the day-to-day, with no long-term plan for yourself or the product
If being grounded helps you be better in work and life, then why aren’t we all working towards this?
These are not going to be the topics that your manager, CEO, board or investors are going to ask you to report back on. They are not going to be topics that easily fit on your to-do list.
They are topics that require you to think deeply and ask hard questions of those around you. When your calendar is full of back-to-back meetings and you feel that you’re just about keeping up with what’s expected of you, it’s hard to find time to make a shift in your approach.
How do you start the journey?
Working to become more grounded is an ongoing journey. For most people, it involves external support (therapy, coaching), learning about different life views, talking to friends and family, and self-reflection. So the answer is not going to be a snappy framework, but there are certain approaches that I’ve found the most helpful.
For a particular quality that stands out as something you want to develop, there are a few lines of questioning that I take:
Environment: What environments do I show this quality? What is different about that environment compared to others?
Understand competing forces: What’s the benefit to me showing up as the opposite of this quality?
Learn from others: Who does this really well? What can I learn about their mindset and behaviour?
Map out alternatives: What’s an alternative way that I could think through this situation?
I also think that most people, when given the opportunity to talk about it, know what steps are needed. Or have an idea of the change that will help them. So my biggest advice is to find a moment to slow down in the week, and someone you can talk this through with.
How I can support you to be more grounded
I’m launching a 5-week group coaching programme called Grounded, starting on June 13th.
Over 5 weeks, I will guide you to become more grounded through consistent self-reflection, challenge and support. We’ll meet weekly as a group of smart, motivated and curious product founders and executives.
I’m very excited to bring everything I’ve learnt from working with over 100 product founders and executives and put that into this group coaching space.
You can find more details about Grounded on the link below.