Rahul (name changed) joined a series-B startup to lead the product function as Senior Director. He was the first product hire and had the mandate to build his team from scratch. He was excited about this new role and the prospect of faster career growth. At this stage, he needed solid PMs who can own things without much supervision. However, the founders wanted to be conservative on the budgets at least till the next round of funding. The implication is that Rahul cannot hire seasoned PMs and had to settle with hiring for potential and then grooming them. This meant he cannot fully delegate and had to focus a lot on delivery.
A few weeks back, I met Rahul. He told me about the new job. He confessed that he couldn’t do all that he wanted to do in the role. Life was becoming very hectic. I asked him about the size of the company, and the number of stakeholders he deals with. Those were not tiny by any means. Listening to this, I realized that he is all set for a disaster.
How?
I explained to Rahul –
Rahul – on one hand, you have to hire the team from scratch, groom them, review all their work, have a constant eye on delivery, and jump into things when they deviate from the plan.
On the other hand, you need to add strategic insights to the company – explore adjacent markets, find growth levers, help in investment decisions, etc. You also have to spend a lot of time with an ever-increasing list of stakeholders in this fast-growing startup.
I think it is very hard if not impossible to do both at the same time without the support of a fully functional product team. It is hard because you are not a superman 🙂
In these situations, leaders prioritize the former (deliverables and execution) at the cost of the latter (strategic insights). Though this approach is right, it creates its own problems when not dealt with right”
Rahul acknowledged this tough task and he was already seeing symptoms where some stakeholders view him as a good executioner than a strategic thinker. There were piles of strategic work & questions that founders had asked him to explore but he never got to that in more than 2 months now.
It felt like a catch22 situation. But Rahul was a grit leader who didn’t want to give up easily.
He asked me ‘Is there a way out? The situation is that I really can’t hire seasoned PMs and have to live with hiring potential (APMs) and grooming them’.
I responded – “Ideally you shouldn’t have taken this role where your title/skillset (Sr. Director) has some expectations whereas your day-to-day responsibility is of an entry-level PM leader (Associate Director or equivalent).
Given that you can’t reverse this situation, you can take this action now –
Talk to your manager about the two different parts of your role – execution & strategy. Tell him that at this juncture your focus would be only on the execution front and you would not have bandwidth on the strategic part. You would operate as an Associate Director for now. Once your team gets hired and starts to perform independently, you will slowly shift your time towards the strategic part. This might take 6 to 12 months depending on the quality of hires. Once you have an agreement with your manager (founder in his case), tell your stakeholders what your role would be for now and how that is going to change over time. This is crucial because it is very easy for stakeholders to size you up based on what activities they see you do instead of understanding the constraints with which you operate on. And it is very difficult to change opinions later on“.
Rahul was stunned but started to agree.
He questioned – “But then what if the company makes serious strategic mistakes during this period?”
I replied – “There are always trade-offs in startups. You cannot have the cake and eat it too.
Are you assuming that founders and other stakeholders are not capable enough to make the right calls without your input? Haven’t they done well so far without you onboard? I am not asking you to keep your eyes closed when bad decisions are taken. You can always question them without burning yourself out in the process.”
Rahul continued his questions – “But how do I tell my boss that I won’t be accountable for strategic things till my team is developed. Isn’t that a demonstration of weakness? What would my founder think of me?”
I replied – “See Rahul, at this stage in your career, you are supposed to be aware of your strengths and weaknesses. You are expected to be realistic rather than imagine that you would pull the improbable (of managing both delivery and strategy).
I am sure that your founder would appreciate this candidness. But if you attempt to run faster blindly, good luck to you. I bet that is not going to work. You are already seeing problems trying to do that”.
Rahul thanked me and we parted after having a cup of coffee.
Takeaways –
- When a leader is building a team or if the role necessitates grooming the team from basics, then delegating responsibilities fully might not be possible. One then has to be a very hands-on leader. In that situation, the leader needs to have an open conversation with his/her boss on the role expectations (what is critical for the role and what is not – at this point in time). Using that conversation, design a role that is practical rather than shooting for the moon and failing.
- Stakeholders are an important part of role expectations. One needs to communicate about the agreed role to the stakeholders and how you are expecting the role to shape up in the coming months. Remember, changing perceptions is not that easy.
