7. Archie Puri - Declaring Values To Drive Organizational Success

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Being a manager

• Archie avoided being a manager for the longest time in her career.
• Being a manager for the first time will be very hard for the first few years. You need to understand the balance between giving your direct reports enough rope so they feel independence and having enough of a pulse on the work so they have enough direction.
• Being a good manager is also about figuring out what your specific management style is. For example, Archie is not the best at reading people’s emotions, so she needed to be more explicit in setting up check-ins, setting expectations, etc. Adjust accordingly!

Signs of a dysfunctional organization

• “Self-to-others airtime ratio” - one sign Archie says to look out for is the ratio of time you spend talking versus others in a meeting. If the ratio is high, that means others are not giving their input and engaging - this is a sign that something is not going well.
• Shared context and collective success - only when cross-functional teams have shared context do you get to reap the benefits in collective success.
• If the vision has been communicated well, anyone in the organization should understand the “why” behind an initiative.

Great leadership traits

• Archie has worked with some amazing leaders over the years, so I asked her what are the traits of some of the best leaders. She categorized the most influential leaders into four types:
• People-first leaders  - those that operate with a moral compass and set of tremendous values
• Product-first leaders - product visionaries that have helped her hone her craft of product management
• Urgency-first leaders - leaders that have a bias towards action and results
• Risk-management leaders - leaders with a bias towards data, understanding and calculating risks, allocating capital and resources accordingly.
  

My guest today is Archie Puri. Archie is the Chief Product Officer at Galileo following a long and successful career as a Product Leader and General Manager at Braintree Payments. In this conversation we discussed how calligraphy set her foundation for becoming a product manager, signs of a low performing organization and the power of declaring your company values to your team. Archie is filled with wisdom and I took away some new ways of thinking about management and leadership. I hope you enjoy this one!

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Archie’s LinkedIn

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Show Highlights

(2:08) - Calligraphy as a foundation for good product work

(5:18) - Archie’s story at Braintree

(11:25) - Her first reality check as a manager

(14:50) - Signs to look out for when the organization is not running smoothly

(17:40) - The power of declaring your values

(19:43) - Great leaders she’s worked with

(23:00) - Diversity & inclusion

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