“Steve Jobs was a dictator and look what he created,” so goes the argument in favour of Product Manager as dictator. But that argument disregards a few facts:

  • Steve Jobs ran the company, he wasn’t the product guy. He was the founder, owner and chief executive. He had the power and authority to make bold moves without too much questioning from his staff.
  • Jobs was the exception to the rule. Usually dictators fail in the long-run because they don’t get enough buy-in from others.

I was a dictator once and I failed. I founded a company in Prague in 1991 that produced the first phone directories in post-communist Czechoslovakia. The subscriptions-based business was profitable from the first year. I built it up to about 40 employees – 15 office staff and 25 researchers in the field.

In 1994, we launched a new product called Resources 300 that listed all the newly public companies on the freshly-established Prague stock exchange. I had a crystal clear vision of what this directory would look like, how it needed to be laid out, and the minutia of how to display categories, phone numbers, names, share data, etc.  My small office staff and I worked late nights and weekends to meet a self-imposed deadline set by a grand launch party we were hosting at a big palace in Prague.

During those frenzied few weeks, I was in complete command-and-control mode. I had to approve every minute decision, proofread every fact, approve every bit of branding and messaging. Everyone else was just a foot soldier there to take orders. I didn’t even hear anyone else’s ideas – I didn’t give them space and time to air any. I was a smart 30-year-old who knew best. I gave no power to anyone else to decide anything. It must have been hell for all the bright, young, sharp, idealistic Czechs who I employed.

We pulled it off – the new directory launched and party was a grand success. We had lines of stretch limos carrying the newly-christened capitalist bosses and (usually) their mistresses to the beautifully decorated palace garden. The warm summer sun and wild sounds of Shum Vistu (a fantastic Czech band) got everyone off their seats to dance. That evening seemed to repay all of us for the long hours put into creating this publication. It was magical.

A few weeks later, back in the office, on a single day all of my office staff quit except for one. They had all been given offers from a new guy in town that doubled their pay. But, more importantly, he promised them autonomy. He said he would give them clear responsibilities and they were free to exercise their own judgment within certain boundaries.

I was heartbroken. For most of these young Czechs, I was their first employer. They had grown up with me. My head of research said “You just didn’t listen MB.”

Since then, I’ve been a listener first. It started the very next day when I began the difficult job of rebuilding my staff in record time. But, that lesson in leadership styles has stayed with me over the past 20 years. I’ve learned to steer, not by command-and-control, but through influence, face-to-face workshops, and one-to-one chats that build rapport.

I know there are some people who consider this diplomatic approach to getting results to be weak. They prefer a good public brawl in a meeting to show “who’s boss.” They like the dictator approach and give poor marks to those who don’t practice “command-and-control.” But I don’t believe this leadership style works in a digital arena.

To make a great digital product, everyone has to be on board for the long-haul.  The launch is only the beginning. You need to insure that day in, day out, that product is getting the operational care it needs from everyone in the organisation – the customer service agent who talks on the phone to customers, the infrastructure engineer who keeps the systems running smoothly, the marketing executive who is promoting it, the writer who is creating new content. Product is only part of the equation. So the art of being a great product manager is recognising that you must drive change; you must do it in a way that brings all parties with you each and every day; and yet you must not compromise on the core objective of that change. I think that is the definition of a diplomat.

I agree with Baroness Catherine Ashton, the EU’s top foreign policy official,  “You can achieve an awful lot if you’re prepared not to take the credit.”