That definition of politics from my parents has stayed with me to this day: politics is about human relationships and it occurs naturally whenever there are two or more people involved. It’s present wherever people are involved, whether that’s in the office, at the highest levels of government, or on the school playground.

I think of navigating the politics as a career “superpower” that keeps you from stepping into minefields without realizing, and maximizes your chances of creating successful outcomes for everyone involved.

1. A top-down approach
   People tend to mimic their superior’s behaviour. Top leadership and “higher-ups” need to start with themselves. Lead by example – it can be a positive or a negative lead. Choosing compassion, transparency or motivation over indifference, compartmentalization or demotivation. The ball is in the leader’s court.
2. Meaningful Work
   Most employees want more than a paycheck. They want to believe that their work has purpose. People are more engaged when they believe that it matters to the success of the company and executives are valuing it.
3. Be Flexible
   Provide employees the freedom to alter their work schedules or location to better suit their needs. It has been statistically proven that workers with flexible working hours and locations are more productive, untroubled, and engaged than the ones in a cubicle from morning 9 to evening 5.
4. Serve as a Mentor
   When an employee experiences disengagement, their manager should step-up, be a mentor, be empathetic and support the employee for higher engagement levels.
5. Clarify Goals and Responsibilities
   Offering clarity on goals and responsibilities is one of the largest factors contributing to higher engagement levels.

• Communicating the vision and mission of the company to its employees innovatively.
• Encourage innovative and interesting breaks during the working hours.
• Create a unique environment at the workplace that offers thrill and excitement.
• Roll-out sensitive company polices like ethics and compliance, preventing sexual harassment at the workplace using a human touch.
• Organize sports, creative and art based team building activities.
• Educate employees to help them grow financially, emotionally, socially and professionally.
• Spread awareness using performing or visual arts on employee physical and mental health benefit programs.
• Use digital media to make communication more accessible.
• Eliminate stress by introducing spiritual upliftment programs.
• Publicly acknowledge and appreciate employees for their work well done.

 (Image credit: Pragmatic Marketing blog)

1. Empathy: You can can call it ‘user sense’, ‘sensitivity’ but its basically the ability to put yourselves in the shoes of the ultimate consumer. This can be the user who buys and uses your phones, or can be an enterprise team that will use your SaaS software. Whoever the ultimate user is, a good PM has the ability to put themselves in their shoes and feel their pain points and frictions. The ability to do that well allows a PM to craft really good thoughtful products. In my career, every time we started with the user, we built better products (Moto phones, Google mobile apps). And whenever we got caught up in other strategic imperatives and missed out on what the end user really wanted, we lost the plot (Google+ being a good example).
2. Breadth of understanding of the ecosystem: The best way to describe this trait is that you should look for someone who could be an Associate in a VC firm. A strong PM has good, thoughtful opinions on everything from Video Ads, next generation of Android phones, VR to latest on ride sharing, ecommerce in India/China, the list goes on. This does not mean we hire a savant who can provide deep analysis on all these topics. But familiarity, a general sense of understanding, and what I call — breadth across the ecosystem is very useful. This is because strong PMs are often generalists. They can pick up any area and in a few months become very deep in it. A general understanding of the technology landscape helps.
3. Technical Chops: A strong PM might not need to have an engineering degree (though I have a strong bias towards those that do). But they do need to have a strong technical background either through hacking or learning on the job. If you do not understand the technical implications of the choices you make as a Product leader, either you will lead the engineering team down a wild goose chase, or you will lose credibility almost instantly with the engineering leadership. And I know no examples of great product leaders who do not have the trust of their engineering counterparts. This is critical. Do not get into the business of technology without learning technology. (and pls don’t throw examples of exceptions to the rule to me. Exceptions are just that…exceptions. You don’t want to bet your career on a one in a thousand chance you succeed in this role without understanding tech)
4. Sweating the details: Great PMs are usually very detailed and obsessed with every aspect of their product. They do not tend to rely on Program Management (unless the product scope is crazy big). They run their own spreadsheets, roadmaps, and have an uncanny habit of picking up on things that could go wrong. This requires an unnatural level of fussing over things. A key principle that works well here in almost all settings is: “Prepare for the Worst and Hope for the Best”. Great Product Managers plan every aspect of their product and its launch assuming the worst, and then radiate the optimism and calmness of a person whose ship is in the right direction.
5. Communication Skills: A strong PM is almost always a strong communicator. Your role demands negotiation, inspiration, influencing people, listening thoughtfully, and learning the delicate art of coercion while being on the same side as the person you are working with. You will be faced with a lot of human scenarios in your role. Ranging from getting on the stage and articulating the passion behind the product, to going for a walk with someone who is struggling and understanding how they feel, to reaching across teams and companies to ensure things get done. Communication skills is a critical skill for PMs to have and is tied very closely to the next one, perhaps the hardest to judge in an interview.
6. Emotional Intelligence: PMs are supposed to be leaders. But this is not the get on the stage, rah-rah, I lead — you follow kind of leadership. This brand of leadership can be from the front, back or the middle depending on the needs of the team. Understanding the motivations and needs of your team, your users, your execs is a critical aspect of a PM’s job. This is where most PMs stumble unfortunately. A lot of naive PMs think Product Management is a lead from the front position and the team has to do what they tell it to do. Others find it hard to scale as teams get larger because they micro-manage. Most of the failings in this role stem from this bucket. It is also a trait that is super difficult to evaluate in an interview. I recommend thorough vetting and talking to past companies, bosses, teams to understand how the prospective candidate fares in difficult situations.