You're Stronger Than You Think

Have you ever found yourself in a situation where you have to manage others who don't directly report to you? Maybe they're from different departments, offices, or even your peers. We more or less experience this, and it could be tough to align others with your priorities especially when they have different focuses. Managing people is a common challenge, no matter what your role is - as a product manager, project manager, or any other. Here is my personal story on why I stepped up and how I overcame it, I hope you can gain some insights.

Here is the background. Many years back, I was a graduate student, and I was invited to join a five-person team in a national competition. Every participating team would conduct market research to evaluate the investment potential of the same public company, deliver reporting and then presentation in 2 seperate phases within 5 months. There were 5 sections in each phase, meaning, every teammate took one section. But as we just kicked off, one teammate left, leaving another to shoulder double the workload. In evaluation, even though my section was recognized most outstanding, two other sections missed the deadline mainly due to being short-handed. Of course, our report suffered, and morale plummeted. Skipping the second phase seemed smart after we had invested three months in the first phase and lost.

Now, here's the twist. At that time, I was a new immigrant, still lacking confidence in my speaking ability. So, I did what many would do—I tried to minimize mistakes by speaking as little as I could. For example, I stayed silent in most of the group discussions. If I had to, I'd just say basic words like "yes," "I agree," “I’m good, thank you”. But at that crucial moment in the competition, I realized success wasn't just about my part—it was about the whole team. We couldn't change the reality of being short-staffed and lost the first phase because of it, but we could have someone manage the project in the 2nd phase, meaning, balancing the limited human resources - people, and refocusing the team’s priorities. At that time, my desire to win as a team beat out my fear of speaking, so I took on the role of project manager.

I was still afraid of speaking, but I knew actions could speak louder than words. So I delved into studying decks from all previous winning teams that I could find, and analyzed requirements to ensure our deck met every criterion. More importantly, I didn’t keep this knowledge to myself, but shared it with the entire team by crafting the roadmap and the deck structure, while I prioritized the backlog and kept everyone informed of any updates and deadlines. And my actions cheered up my team, and we moved forward together.

As the competition progressed, I know what you're thinking about, no, our challenges didn't disappear. Actually, they seemed to multiply. But every setback was met with determination and a renewed sense of purpose. We adapted our strategies as priorities changed, and supported each other by pairing up teammates. In the end, we delivered the presentation successfully and received recognition for significant improvements.

To sum up, my takeaway from this article is - Actions speak louder than words. Also, don't be afraid to speak up because - you fail fast, learn fast, which leads to the current version of me giving a speech today. Finally, focus on your strength, you're stronger than you think even when it comes to managing people.