Last week, I talked about the ways in which we incorporate strategies of PLG (or product led growth) at ForecaaS Software Inc. but there’s another “PLG” that’s just as, if not more important – Personal Leadership Growth (yes I made that up but go with me here 😄 ).
Everyone who’s started their own business has had to do it for the first time. That too benefits from continuous and early end user feedback which in that case, will come from your employees (and in those early stages likely just you). Now it may seem weird to “decide” what kind of leader you’ll be, but I’d argue it’s as important to the long-term success of your organization as defining a product market fit. We hear the refrain “people don’t leave companies, they leave managers” often for a reason. If you are unable to attract and retain quality help, you can similarly struggle with maintaining growth goals and the capacity to execute.
So how to decide? 🤔
As a tactical exercise, it can be helpful to create a mission statement that encompasses your personal purpose, goals, and values as a leader. But even before doing all this, start by finding alignment between what your skills (what you’re good at.. or not) and your passion (what you love doing or not). Here’s a link to a post by Elena Verna on that very topic. Once you’ve done that, find a template to help you formulate what that mission statement looks like for you. If you’re building a product, I highly recommend Radhika Dutt‘s Radical Product Thinking methodology!
And when it comes to garnering feedback, share it freely with potential employees, in job descriptions, during one-on-ones, and with other leaders in your network. This doesn’t mean pivoting in a million directions but that the more real-life data you have, the better informed your leadership decisions and style can be, providing a win-win-win scenario:
Best-in-class leadership = happy employees = happy customers = 💰
So I always try to keep in mind that just like with Product Led Growth, when it comes to Personal Leadership Growth: Ask, Receive, Iterate! 📈