Staying Calm, Confident and Focused as a PM When Your Job Looks Like This

Only Product Managers know what it’s really like to be a PM. Expectations are sky high and the job requires master juggling skills. Amongst it all it’s important to stay calm, confident and focused on what is most important while keeping your sanity. 

Many coachees I work with get caught up in the chaos and management of the day to day. It makes sense when you’re trying to execute, while being strategic, navigating stakeholders and working with a scrum team filled with talent, ideas and personalities. 

You need to find emotional, intellectual, and practical habits to keep you grounded. Here are some ideas that I’ve found helpful:

• Give yourself a mantra - I use “Give Yourself Grace.” I got this mantra from my therapist when I was struggling with imposter syndrome at a time in my career. This means giving yourself permission to be imperfect, to learn everyday, while acknowledging that you are here for a reason. 

• Write it all down - every day, at the end of the day, write down everything you have to do the next day (or even next week). You can write it physically in a journey (as I do) or use a kanban board or digital project tracking tool. Experiment and find out what works best for you. Writing it down helps you take inventory of everything on your plate and allows you to decide how to prioritize it all. 

• Prioritize daily - don’t be precious about trying to do it all. You can’t. You need to focus. So take the list of everything you’ve done and rank order it. #1 is the most important thing and just keep ranking it. Suddenly, you’ve got a clear action list. 

• Try using a simple daily prioritization framework of What is Most Important and What is Most Urgent. Draw a 2x2 grid, and start with the work that is most Important and Urgent. 

• Ask for help, you are not alone - discuss your list weekly with your leader and with your peers and team. Get other perspective. 

• Use the “4 D’s” framework to help decide where to ask for help - for everything on your list decide if it something you will “DO,” “DELEGATE,” “DELAY,” or “DISREGARD.”