peta The PRODUCT MANAGER
Peta was early twenties, and hating - yes, you read that correctly - hating her role as Product Manager. And, Peta was burning out - not only was her job consuming 10 or more hours per day, she was also studying hard for a Distinction in her part-time degree.
Working with Peta I learned that she had completed her Product Manager training through a well-known and respected training institute - but what she learned there was not what she and the other Product Managers she was working with were doing on a day-to-day basis. Peta’s management expected her, and her peers, to perform all the roles of Product Manager, Scrum Master, Business Analyst … and Software Tester. All in a day, every day!
We looked at quite a few opportunities to grow over the months - stress management, learning to say “No!” and still achieving Excellent ratings, time management and coping with studies and life, growing her network and leadership profile within various work communities, and more. What really stood out for me was when she started mapping words like “fear” and “joy” to different parts of her lived experience and began to include her emotions in her decision making process.
As we worked, Peta’s increasing self awareness, self-leadership and team leadership quickly landed her a “burning platform” team and initiative that had severe cost of delay impact to the organisation. Large VUCA and risks had to be taken smartly. Whenever global executive management came to town, they came directly to her and her team to for their updates - bypassing essentially 25-30 years’ worth of layers of middle-managers. Peta performed her role with dedication, authenticity, focus and diplomacy.
In the meantime, Peta also successfully completed her undergraduate degree despite taking a 3 month study break to assist her family. Her resoluteness and commitment shone through again - she achieved her distinction!
Less than a year later Peta was promoted to Senior PM.
And less than a year after that, well ahead of the “norm” Peta was promoted again - deservingly - to her first line manager role.