Adopting a CEO mindset even when you are not one
I recently read Indra Nooyi's memoir - My Life in Full. Memoirs give me a glimpse of people's entire lives in a few hundred pages. There's so much to learn and leave feeling inspired.
I'm no CEO of a Fortune500 today, but I got a few ideas on adopting a mindset to think like one.
The cliche of a Product Manger being a mini CEO is controversial. At its core, a CEO's job is to enable businesses to move forward. As a PM we do the same. How might we channel our inner CEO everyday?
Being a CEO is hard work
This is stating the obvious. She worked hard throughout her days of academics. She gained a lot of credibility and trust among her peers at work by going the extra mile on projects.
By applying her smart and innate talent for business with hard work, she rose the ranks in her career. It has its own tradeoffs but making conscious choices about them can help us achieve our ambitions.
Detailed oriented
When the company required to take on a massive technical infrastructure upgrade project, she knew very little about the nuances. To make informed decisions, she read up and went prepared to ask insightful questions to make decisions.
A mindset of constantly learning is key to guide projects. There's a difference between being an expert and knowing enough to ask the right questions. As a CEO, the latter is exhibited often.
People centric mindset
No matter how busy she got, she found time to check out the PepsiCo product aisles at supermarkets. She put herself in the shoes of a customer.
As a PM, talking to customers and testing products is time well spent. We often skip it for roadmap decks or execution. This was a good reminder to make time to prioritize learning from customers. It has always been my Gatorade!
Expounding on a vision
She introduced a strategic pivot to PepsiCo with her charter on "Performance with Purpose". Yes sodas and chips are terrible for our health, but change has to start somewhere. This is a business thats been around for 123 years and she was the 5th CEO for a 12-year stint.
It is incredibly hard to make small changes for the good in our personal lives (aka avoid buying those chips on the next roadtrip!). She led a proposal on "healthier" alternatives at a massive business with capitalistic stakeholders.
With a balanced viewpoint and an inspiring vision for the future, change is set into motion. This is good leaders do.