Becoming a Leader in Product Development: An Evidence-Based Guide to the Essentials

It is becoming increasingly challenging for product development leaders to effectively lead as workplace demands continue to increase. The rate of change in technology, society, and business places immense pressure on leaders to ensure their groups move in the direction of their goals. What might have worked in the past no longer works.

Organizational surveys show that firms struggle with leadership. Product development leaders routinely complain of burnout and stress while their teams members complain of workplace dissatisfaction, resulting in organizational underperformance.

The lack of evidence-based leadership literature for product development leaders means that many leaders are left to figure things out with little guidance. They do not have a reliable resource that they can refer to when they face leadership challenges and, as a result, struggle during times of crisis and change. This book addresses this challenge by providing a theory-informed set of techniques for product development leaders.

Becoming a Leader in Product Development provides an evidence-base set of practices for product development leaders. In doing so, it explores what leadership is and the leader’s role in the leadership process, the impact of national culture and organizational culture on the leadership process, and the need for product development leaders to practice adaptive and servant leadership, followership, and self-care. The underlying theories for each topic are reviewed and then brought to life through stories and examples.

What You Will Learn

• See the difference between authority, persuasion, and influence and how leaders can use these constructs to benefit their organizations
• Gain the skills for practicing servant and adaptive leadership in your organization
• Examine the blind spots of each leadership theory
• Discover the importance of adapting leader behavior to the national culture and organizational culture where you find yourself

Who This Book Is For

Product development leaders (starting with product development managers) who want to go beyond leadership anecdotes to evidence-based leadership practice. A secondary audience is individuals aspiring to product development leadership positions.