Building your Personal Board of Directors with Lauren Schuman (Sidebar, Mural, MailChimp)
Leading can be lonely
Lauren Schuman’s professional life had just been turned upside down.
The company where she was VP of Product Growth had just gone through a dramatic strategic shift that directly impacted her role in a big way.
The new CEO was hiring a lot of people from their previous company, and Lauren was suffering from a major case of self doubt as she tried to find her footing in the new business model and company culture. “I started questioning if I even knew what I was doing,” she says. “I didn’t understand why I couldn’t convince the new CEO that I was good enough and had the right pedigree to stand on my own.”
It was a really rough time, but Lauren made it through with a little help from her ‘personal board of directors.’
“As leaders, it gets lonely,” Lauren says. “Sometimes you have support internally, but sometimes inside the company isn't a safe space. During that time, my ‘board of directors’ — my hype men and women — helped me see beyond the situation.”
In my experience, having a group of peers you can lean on is one of the most valuable professional assets you can have. We all have our ups and downs, and when you’re down there’s nothing like having a crew of professional peers who give you perspective, keep you steady, and pump you back up when you need it. Having that personal board of directors gives you a very real competitive advantage.
In addition to sharing how she navigated corporate upheaval, we also talked about:
Using a common language when educating your team on the value of growth
How to assess feedback, and find helpful insights from the worst criticism
How employees are putting themselves in the driver’s seat of their careers
Starting growth from scratch at Mailchimp
Knowing when it’s time to move on
Starting growth from scratch in your company is a big responsibility. Not only do you have to teach people about its processes, but you also have to evangelize it, letting them know why they need it in the first place. It isn’t without its ups and downs. Lauren Schuman (former growth at Sidebar, Mural, and Mailchimp knows all too well.
In this episode, Lauren shares her story of starting growth from nothing at a growing company and how she’s learned to take feedback from other people. Listen to learn how you can effectively evangelize growth in your company while developing your internal relationships.
In this episode, you’ll learn:
Speaking a common language is essential to educating your team on the value of growth
Finding a professional peer group provides you with the support you need to push through tough situations
You shouldn’t apply every piece of feedback you receive, but know that each has some truth to them
Things to listen for:
[10:20] Starting growth from scratch at Mailchimp
[17:40] The value of a professional peer group
[19:51] Swallowing brutally honest feedback
[21:32] Dealing with significant changes within a company
[32:08] Being selective about the feedback you apply
[35:17] Finding the company that meets your standards
[36:42] Knowing when it’s time to move on
Resources:
A huge thanks to our sponsor Navattic. The next chapter of PLG is about LEADING with product value. Letting users see and interact with your product directly on your website. Not gating it behind a signup form.
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