From the military, into Product, part 2 In Part 1, wrote about how I learned the difference between servant leadership and sacrificial leadership. Now, I would to share how the perspective gain on the battlefield, has helped me better respond to emergencies and incidents that happen in Product every day. In several companies I have […]
Tag Archives: leadership
October
18
Servant leadership is not sacrificial leadership
posted by Max
From the military into Product, Part 1 I spent nearly 11 years in the British Military. I started in Bomb Disposal and ended my service working on strategy in NATO. I made a huge amount of mistakes and learnt a great deal. Among the many lessons I learnt, three things have stuck with me over […]
April
12
Leadership hack 023 + pull leadership
posted by Max
The more I learn about software development and systems, the more I admire the Lean movement. Central to the lean movement is the concept of moving from push to pull. Push systems In a push system, work is fed into the system at the rate at which those controlling the system decide. For example, on […]
January
15
What you could learn from Blitzscaling by Reid Hoffman and Chris Yeh (2018, 299 pages)
posted by Max
In their book, Reid and Chris argue that blitzscaling is a general framework and specific techniques that allow companies to achieve massive scale at incredible speed. The authors use examples of Airbnb, Google, Uber, Zappos and Tencent (among others) to bring their frameworks to life and rienforce thier asertions. The main tenant of blitzscaling is […]
November
30
Leadership hack – the role of Product Owner
posted by Max
In my previous leadership post, I discussed the role of the Chief Product Officer. In this post, I want to focus on product leadership at the team level. There is much discussion over the what a product owner or product manager does, and if there are differences between the two. While there are many […]
October
25
What you could learn from ‘Powerful’ by Patty McCord (2018, 148 pages)
posted by Max
Netflix is now the global superpower of streaming. How did they get there, and how did they out-compete Google and Amazon? Patty McCord in her book ‘Powerful’ suggests that the Netflix culture and a strong HR team, under her guidance, played an enormous part in that success. In the book, Patty divides advice into nine […]
September
13
What leaders can learn from Google’s Project Oxygen
posted by Max
Google ran an experiment to prove that managers are unhelpful. The found something different – the right managers can be very helpful. Google established the 10 Oxygen behaviours of Google’s best managers (behaviours 3 and 6 have been updated and behaviours 9 and 10 are new): Is a good coach Empowers team and does not […]
August
24
Intuition in decision making, lessons learnt from the British Army
posted by Max
In 2015 I wrote a dissertation on military decision-making to complete my MBA. You can find the executive summary below, and the full dissertation at the link at the bottom of the page. This dissertation was designed to be an independent analysis, and should not be seen as a critique of the military (in which […]
July
23
What leaders can learn from Google’s Project Oxygen
posted by Max
Google ran an experiment to prove that managers are unhelpful. What they found was the opposite – that managers are helpful. Google established the 10 Oxygen behaviours of Google’s best managers (behaviours 3 and 6 have been updated and behaviours 9 and 10 are new): Is a good coach Empowers team and does not micromanage […]
July
20
Leadership hack 022 – it’s OK, teams change
posted by Max
I have found it helpful to use Tuckman’s (1965) stages of team development (expanded by Edison) to show how teams change over time, and it is normal for teams to dip and rise in performance.
July
19
What you could learn from ‘Drive’ By Daniel Pink (2009, 202 pages)
posted by Max
Few books lead to new organisational paradigms. Daniel’s book ‘Drive’ and his theories on motivation have catapulted Netflix and Spotify to global success. Drive suggest that there is a gap between what research has shown increases motivation, and what business do. Daniel indicates that the current motivation model (carrot and stick) is no longer suitable […]
July
13
Leadership hack 021 – getting out of the comfort zone
posted by Max
Encouraging your team to adopt a ‘growth mindset‘ will benefit you, your team and your bottom line (see HBR article here). When Satya Nadella took over as Microsoft’s CEO spent considerable time and energy encouraging those around him to adopt a growth mindset (see this HBR article), and while he has also made some great strategic decisions (e.g., Azure, reducing Windows’ […]
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