Corporate heroism: What I learned from a Product Launch Keynote

Have you ever felt like the stars aligned in your career? Were you at the right place at the right time? Do you attribute it to chance? Luck? Coincidence? Hard work? Did you feel like a hero in your own professional saga?

I thought I wanted to be a corporate hero and save the day. Worse, I thought I could single-handedly save the company. Turns out, after two years as a Product Manager and delivering a keynote to thousands, becoming the hero isn't really what I thought it was.

“At the end of the day people won't remember what you said or did, they will remember how you made them feel.”

―?Maya Angelou

Before we talk about the keynote, here’s some background:

I was given an opportunity to join a high-growth tech company in 2016 with no software, sales, nor public speaking experience. At the time, I was merely developing Audit Programs and delivering services for a Big 4 Accounting Firm; I had no coherent understanding of how my work returned value to our clients. Each and every day that passed fortified my attitude of professional skepticism. I took a leap in search of something more…

Alas, with 2 years of presales experience, I thought I had figured it out. My stars aligned. I was now working in a role that leveraged my domain experience, illuminated my strengths, and had fair compensation. Most importantly, it was clear how I was adding value. Yet, why was I still unhappy?

As an Auditor and vocal strategy-skeptic, I believed that I could never be recognized as a hero—not as an Auditor, not as a Sales Engineer. I wanted to be the hero. I believed that the “hero” was the one person that FIXED the problem, NOT whom identified it.

I then attended my first Workiva Amplify in September 2018. My first major professional conference! An important milestone of my own growth, an opportunity earned. In my eyes every Company leader and executive I encountered, was a celebrity. As far as I was concerned, these were the real heroes: the celebrated problem fixers.

That specific Product Launch Keynote would, in time, have a lasting motivating influence on me. This particular calm, cool, and confident VP of Product Management took the stage and delivered a perfectly-engaging story. It was an analogy so pure, I can remember his exact bullet points to this day.

What did I need to do professionally to earn the opportunity to be him one day? I set out to be the hero. The fixer of all problems.

I returned to my Presales Solution Engineering career for two-and-a-half more years. As a Solution Engineer; I became the hero of every sales meeting working to have nearly every answer to any question that arose. I had the best-configured account to dazzle prospects with the promise of ease: easy implementation, easy configuration, easy reporting, etc..

I poured myself into work taking on more and more. I aimed everyday to be the best problem solver in any sales setting. Surely, this will put me on a Keynote stage. This will be my rise to heroism.

WHAT A SHAME! I’VE BEEN MISGUIDED FOR A LONG TIME.

I was wrong. As a reader, my hope is that you avoid this self-righteous trap and unnecessary self-applied pressure to fix every problem under the guise that it is valued and the only path to recognition.

In early-2021, I made a career change to learn a product management skillset. I did this to impact the Organization by leveraging my customer empathy to re-ground us back in our customers’ biggest unmet needs—going from Engineer of Solutions to Student of the Problems.

After now nearly two years as a Product Manager, I earned the opportunity to deliver a Product Launch keynote in Las Vegas and Amsterdam in front of thousands.

Here’s what I learned: a hero is not made as a result of a single act, or resolving the problem. The hero is not made by way of giving a talk on stage.

Rather, the “hero” label is a one-syllable word to represent the attitude and virtue of one who was able to successfully solve a problem. To represent the collective skillset necessary to lead a team to overcome ambiguity and deliver final products. It is clear to me now. Without the right attitude and virtue, any single individual cannot rally a team to solve the problems worth solving.

After going through months of Keynote preparation, practice, collaboration and coordination it is clear that no one-person “measures”, “solves”, or “fixes” a problem individually. The idea that one-person is a “hero” for what may look like a one-time act, is naive and promotes a dangerous corporate culture of self-reliance.

True corporate heroism is in found in:

• leadership by example,
• collaboration with & mutual respect for all stakeholders (even frustrating personalities),
• patience with shifting timelines & scope ambiguity,
• resilience against setbacks, and
• honest constructive feedback aimed at up-skilling one another.

To be clear, I am not indicting high-performance for individual contributors. However, if you are chasing hero status by attempting to “save” the Organization from some problem, and seeking subsequent recognition and reward for doing “one thing”, you may want to re-evaluate.

The manner in which you collectively—as a high performing triad and team— identify the most important problems and collaboratively reduce to the best solution, holds your key to Corporate heroism.

At the end of the day...

My advice is simple: Chase job satisfaction and fulfillment, not recognition and compensation. Cool things will happen that you never expected.