PRODUCTHEAD is a regular newsletter of product management goodness,
curated by Jock Busuttil.
punchdrunk productsick singalong #
every PRODUCTHEAD edition is online for you to refer back to
tl;dr
Vocal self-confidence in the midst of uncertainty has become a desirable trait in leaders
There must also be space for quieter, more contemplative leadership styles
hello
This week I’ve been continuing to read Quiet by Susan Cain, and found myself reading through the complete set of Nour Sidawi’s deeply introspective reflections on her participation in a leadership accelerator programme run by the UK’s Civil Service (h/t Dave Burton and Tom Dolan).
Early in Quiet, Cain describes how her visit to Harvard Business School in search of introverts highlighted how the potential future leaders of US business and politics were being conditioned and selected for their extroversion — or at least their best impersonation thereof. There, voicing an opinion confidently is valued more than pausing to evaluate the challenge at hand. Failing to organise or actively participate in group activities, even purely social ones, counts against you.
By Cain’s account, there was no space for quiet individual thought and creativity. Only vocal collaboration was of value.
In a similar vein, Sidawi’s candid writing about her thoughts and feelings over the two years she participated in the Future Leaders Scheme examines the conflict between the unspoken coercion to conform to the leadership ideal defined by the organising body (the UK Civil Service) and her desire to be a thoughtful, nuanced leader on her own terms.
Whether intentional or otherwise, the effect of the scheme was to mould heterogeneous individuals into homogeneous leaders. Rather than develop future leaders whose individuality would help to evolve the Civil Service into something better, the scheme instead sought to keep things static.
“The scheme is a peculiar place. One of its many peculiarities is its penchant for fads — fuelled by poor science and outdated thinking — and what can only be called social reproduction. I think that the overarching effect is it creates a monoculture that paves the way for (more) conformity and exclusionary leadership norms.
“Our cadre of future senior leaders is formed by a system that exposes people to the same ideas and gives them the “in” language and habits. These serve as a badge of identity, a sense of specialness. And the homogenisation of training i.e. the one-size-fits-all approach means fierce, independent, important thought gets eroded. So far from being open to entertaining different thinking, the curiosity and open-minds of some of our brightest are dulled by the weight of social pressure.”
“Lost and found on the Future Leaders Scheme (FLS)”, Nour Sidawi, 13 April 2023 (retrieved 6 July 2024)
Cain and Sidawi both describe systems of cultivating future leaders that serve to perpetuate the established monoculture, rather than being receptive to people with alternative ways of thinking and doing that will improve and evolve the established culture into something different.
A cynical reading is that this is an intentional design by the people with power to retain that power. A more charitable interpretation is that it’s difficult for existing leaders, who only know one way to lead, to design a system to cultivate new leaders who are unlike themselves.
Final thoughts #
Either way, in the world of work, we find ourselves embedded in a system that is either receptive to change and diverse ways of thinking or more often is not. When it isn’t, we have choices.
We could adapt ourselves to conform to how we’re expected to behave, although for some it is exhausting to have to perpetually wear a mask at work. More importantly (assuming our good intent), we shouldn’t have to.
We could attempt to change the system from within to be more accommodating of diversity, although change is almost always slow, laborious and has to be sanctioned and supported by the existing leadership to stick. Again, some people are more predisposed to working effectively within an existing system in order to change that same system.
We could choose to seek a different organisation that embodies more desirable values and ways of working, although it is difficult to discern an organisation’s culture solely from a traditional job interview process, and it’s impractical (though possible) to be perpetually changing jobs.
The one thought I want you to go away with is that it is okay to feel that you don’t fit in somewhere. It remains up to us whether to respond by adapting ourselves, changing the system, or seeking a different organisation to work at.
Speak to you soon,
Jock
I’ve included an affiliate link to Amazon this week, so if you were to make a purchase I would make a small commission.
what to think about this week
Quiet
At least a third of us are introverts, and yet shyness, sensitivity and seriousness are often seen as a negative. Some of the world’s most talented people are introverts – without them we wouldn’t have the Apple computer, the theory of relativity and Van Gogh’s sunflowers. In Quiet, Susan Cain shows how society misunderstands and undervalues introverts while giving them the tools to better understand themselves and take full advantage of their strengths.
[Susan Cain]
Future Leaders Scheme
This collection of blog posts by Nour Sidawi charts her journey from applying and being accepted to join the UK Civil Service’s Future Leaders Scheme, through to completing it. She identifies as an introvert, and her posts are intimate, personal reflections on her experience throughout the course, and the dissonance arising from not conforming to expectations.
There should be more space for diversity of thinking
[Nour Sidawi / Medium]
recent posts
Moving up to a CPO or VP Product role
Stepping up to a Chief Product Officer (CPO) or VP Product role doesn’t so much change what you do. Rather it amplifies everything. This guide lets you know what to expect.
Liberating and terrifying in equal measure
[I Manage Products]
I want to update my pricing strategy. Where do I start?
“My product currently has one tier of per-seat pricing for all customers. I want to change my pricing strategy to cater differently for SMEs and enterprise customers. Where do I start?”
A few pricing concepts to consider + further reading
[I Manage Products]
How do I make my product roadmap a better communication tool?
“My product roadmap is not getting the right information across to other people in my company. In particular, my customer success and marketing teams are struggling to plan their work for upcoming product releases. I’m also not sure how I can show my roadmap’s relationship to the half-yearly OKRs we set. How can I improve it?”
Your product roadmap is a communication tool
[I Manage Products]
can we help you?
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PRODUCTHEAD is a newsletter for product people of all varieties, and is lovingly crafted from the traditional ceremony of cutting the cord on the hedge trimmer.