The resistance, the doubt, the fear, the imposter syndrome…
That’s what’s standing between me and my mission of Humanifying the corporate world, one manager at a time. I’m scared to fail; I’m terrified that no one will listen to what I have to share.
The voices in my mind are split into two camps: the first one is pulling me towards my comfort zone, while the second one screams: “I can do it! Stress-free!”.
I can do it because:
- I have over 12+ years of experience in the IT market.
- I studied computer science; I was a developer for 10 years before fully switching to management.
- I developed many applications, websites, and tools for startups, corporates, and for myself!
- I went through the pain of meeting unrealistic deadlines! With each delivery, I made a promise to myself:
One day, I will be at a position where I will be setting the deadlines, and I will NOT burn my team out. No one in my team will ever have to work a single overtime hour.
Ambitious, right? Well, I made it.. I became a “manager”; I started as the lead developer in my team before I slowly took ownership of the scrum process. Months later, I took the leap to be the bridge between tech and business. I was a project manager, then a product manager before becoming the development team leader at a reputable company.
Ever since I stopped coding full time, I lived by the promise that I made to myself while I was a developer. I learned how to negotiate with stakeholders, how to get my developers to think efficiently, and how to deliver beyond what was initially scoped, without burning my team out. I made it a priority to keep everyone happy. Both my team (developers, designers, QA, analysts, etc.,…) and the business stakeholders.
I took so much pride in what my teams delivered; I always gave them full credit for their hard work. Until the day someone stopped and said, “we would not have done it without you!”. For many years, that did not sync in, until recently. It dawned on me that not only did I have to teach myself practical strategies to deliver within time and budget without burning my teams out, but I also had to learn how not to burn myself out during the journey. And Man, that was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to teach myself!
I used to view the PM role as the punching bag in the middle… The devs are not happy; they come to the PM, the client is frustrated, they lash out on the poor PM who is supposed to stay professional, keep a smile on, and not spread the frustration around. Let me tell you this… It takes practice and discipline to actually enjoy working in IT – a fast-paced environment.
It took years, but I actually DID IT! I am not stressed when I negotiate deadlines with stakeholders; I have no issue saying no and setting boundaries both for myself and my teams. All this while remaining super productive and laser-focused on delivering quality solutions to the clients.
Recently, someone said that I am “such a natural”. Let me tell you, I’m not… There was a time I would get so grumpy in a meeting that I got kicked out of the room (yup! True story! 😀 ) But in the last 10 years, I have come such a long way and became a “natural” at knowing when and how to manage and when and how to lead. I built a bulletproof reputation of being “the PM with all the answers” regardless of whether we’re speaking tech or business. And this is what I want to teach the world.
So as of today, I commit to take the leap and deliver to the world what I know is valuable.
Here is where you can follow my journey:
If you have any questions or simply want to connect, feel free to drop me a line via the site’s contact form or email me directly at yousra@theproductivemanager.com.
