Every once in a while i come across some sort of framework trying to help you with self-zoning. Manifestos are often similar sounding :
Take this quick quiz to know :
- ” What is your management style – are you a servant leader or a dictator” ;
- “Are you a strategic product manager or an operator or a visionary leader”
- “Is your product leadership style team first, user first, or business first”
- “Are you a master procrastinator or master planner“
You can apply these frameworks to yourself, to your reports, to your direct manager(s) and so on. But these can be extremely dangerous if used for anything beyond fun or behavioral recognition restricted to an infinitesimally small time frame .
There is a missing ‘dynamic’ dimension in these types of categorization attempts. Humans are not static but self-adapting organisms. And we reflect that in both our personal / professional selves. The “dynamic” dimension is usually different places, time, situations, emotions, triggers etc etc.
We aren’t static co-ordinates in a multi-dimensional representation of attributes. We are ever-changing vectors evolving, regressing and adapting quickly to situations.
One day we wake up in the morning roaring through our to-do lists. . Some days you are supporting a team member with careful nudges, soft feedback and handholding while others you are pushing hard to get things over a finish line. Your product management styles take different forms as well, you could shift from being a long range thinker very quickly to go into the weeds of a particular build with your engineering team, or diagnosing accessibility issues with your researchers.
Boxing is a dangerous activity. Very harmful when we apply to others around us, but deadly if we use it unchecked on ourselves.
Sure, let’s take these tests for fun, or to understand ourself better. But don’t use it for
- a representation of who you are.
- an evaluation of your team members
- a representation or predictor for future performance
- making a judgment call when staffing lead for a new challenge
- a hiring decision
.. and just about anything that requires more cognitive understanding of behaviour and not a reductionist attempt at boxing humans.