This article is based on Angela Byers’s inspiring talk at the Seattle Product Marketing Summit, hosted by our sister community, Product Marketing Alliance.
If, years ago, you were looking for the least likely person to become a marketing leader, it was probably me. I grew up as an East Asian immigrant, and I fit the typical stereotypes – I was quiet, followed the rules, and focused on my studies.
Fast forward to today, and I’m a senior marketing director at Microsoft, where I’ve spent two-thirds of my career. I’ve led teams for mature products like Project, SharePoint, OneDrive, and Dynamics 365, as well as newer innovations like Viva, the first employee experience platform in the industry.
A few years ago, I was honored with Microsoft’s Pinnacle Award, which is given to just 30 employees out of over 200,000. This recognition wasn’t just for my business impact, but for how I’ve influenced the people I work with.
I’ve always tried to be the kind of leader who inspires and supports others, much like a partner I worked with early in my career. She pushed me to be my best, while still being incredibly caring and supportive – a model I’ve tried to follow ever since.
So, how did I get from that quiet, studious kid to a leader? I had to become a student of leadership. I don’t fit the traditional mold of someone with natural charisma or extroversion, so I had to learn. I read books, listened to podcasts, and observed great leaders throughout my career.
My goal today is to share some of what I’ve learned along the way. Whether you’re just starting out and never saw yourself as a leader, or you’re a seasoned executive, I hope you’ll walk away with at least one or two ideas to add to your toolkit.
Let’s dive in!
Three powerful leadership principles
When Satya Nadella took over Microsoft nearly two decades ago, he and the senior leadership team partnered with the NeuroLeadership Institute to distill the essence of leadership into three core principles.
They condensed a list of over 100 potential guidelines down to just three simple but powerful ideas:
- Create clarity: This principle focuses on aligning everyone toward developing the most compelling products and solutions for customers.
- Generate energy: It’s about fostering innovation and ensuring that the team’s enthusiasm and creativity meet the fast-evolving needs of the industry.
- Deliver success: This principle reminds us to focus on what truly matters – achieving meaningful outcomes.
These principles have stood the test of time. When I first joined Microsoft in the 2000s, our stock price was about $23. Just the other day, it hit an all-time high of $441. Safe to say the principles – and the culture they’ve built – are working.
So, let’s explore six practical tips based on these ideas, plus four healthy mindsets that can elevate your leadership.
Creating clarity: Synthesizing complexity
The first principle, creating clarity, is all about synthesizing complex information, ensuring a shared understanding, and defining clear courses of action.
Chances are, your team is being pulled in many different directions. Things are changing rapidly, especially with the rise of AI, and it can be tough to stay aligned with stakeholders. However, creating clarity is possible – it’s about implementing simple, effective systems.
Here are some tips to get you and your teams on the path to clarity.
Tip #1: Manage by OKRs
“We must realize – and act on the realization – that if we try to focus on everything, we focus on nothing.”
– John Doerr
One of the most powerful tools for creating clarity is managing by OKRs (objectives and key results). OKRs help you align your team’s efforts around a few key priorities.
Objectives are qualitative, aspirational goals, while key results are the measurable drivers that help achieve those objectives. The initiatives are the actions or projects your team takes to reach these outcomes.
I usually organize my team's objectives by product or funnel stage. For example, you might focus on driving awareness or improving perception for one product, while another objective could center around generating specific revenue outcomes.
Within each objective, my team discusses a mix of short-term key results (like hitting a certain positive sentiment rate on an upcoming feature launch) and long-term key results (like getting leadership sign-off on a product strategy paper). This balance ensures you’re hitting immediate goals while also securing your team’s future.
One of the key strengths of OKRs is that they force you to prioritize.
When everything is important, nothing truly is. The things that don’t make the cut – what I call the “no OKRs” – are just as important because they clarify what’s not a priority right now.
OKRs also promote shared accountability by allowing you to create joint objectives with partner teams, ensuring everyone is aligned and working toward the same goals.
Studies have shown that when companies use OKRs, 96% of employees understand how their work ties to the company’s overall priorities, compared to just 60-70% when OKRs aren’t in place.
Finally, OKRs aren’t just about business results. My peers and I almost always have an objective related to team health. For instance, you might set a key result like ensuring every team member has a career check-in every six months.
Tip #2: Get into an operating tempo
"You don’t rise to the level of your goals, you fall to the level of your systems."
– James Clear
The next tip is all about establishing a rhythm for both long-term strategic planning and regular check-ins. Typically, you’ll want to have an annual or semi-annual review of your overall strategy, along with quarterly, monthly, and even weekly touchpoints to track your KPIs or OKRs. The goal is to see how you're progressing, make necessary adjustments, and stay aligned with your objectives.
Now, you might think, "Isn’t this just about setting up more meetings?" In a way, yes, but there’s more to it than that – it’s about establishing systems that keep you on track towards your goals. Without solid systems in place, achieving your OKRs becomes a matter of luck rather than deliberate action.
So, how do you make sure all these planning sessions and check-ins are productive? Here are a couple of bonus tips to guide you:
- Embrace messy meetings: Don’t focus on having the perfect presentation every time. Instead, use that time to problem-solve together, focusing on learnings, insights, and actions. Dive into the drivers behind the KPIs rather than overwhelming everyone with endless data.
- Remember that not everything needs to be a meeting. Use a variety of communication and collaboration channels. You’d be amazed at how much can be done asynchronously through chat.
