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My favorite weekly finds

🛠️ Tools

• Metronome helps you power your AI business with usage-based pricing (UBP)—the revenue model behind industry giants like OpenAI.

• Use Brainnote as an AI thought organizer to summarize your ideas in seconds

• Gemini has an app now for talking via voice chat to get answers, summaries, and help with tasks.

• DeepL translates text instantly between 33 languages and helps you write better in your target language…

• Lamatic builds and deploys custom apps using a visual builder, without you writing code, handling everything from the database to hosting.

📰 AI Insights

• Sam Altman apparently wants to do a $1T training run at some point, which he believes will help solve physics + nuclear fusion

• Gartner predicted that 40% of AI data centers would face power shortages by 2027 due to rapid growth in energy consumption from generative AI systems.

• OpenAI released a “Student’s Guide” to writing with ChatGPT without having GPT write the whole thing for them. Good luck with that!

• Microsoft released 210 use-cases of organizations “large and small” and how they use AI in their businesses today.

👀 ICYMI

• The 5 Levels of AI Agent for Autonomy (Listen or read Link)

• The Future of Teamwork: Squad Dynamics (Listen or read Link)

• How AI Agent Platforms are Transforming Products (Listen or read Link)

How to Build Emotional Resilience

Why should I care?

I know a talented principal product manager who is stalled by emotional sensitivity to feedback.

In today’s fast-paced corporate world, emotional resilience is a critical skill for leaders. Yet, many promising professionals find themselves held back by their sensitivity to feedback.

Today, we’ll explore the story of a principal PM who struggled with this very issue, and how he transformed his mindset to break through his career plateau.

It’s a common scenario: talented managers who excel in their roles but falter when faced with criticism.

In this article, we’ll cover:

• Why emotional resilience is essential for leadership.

• How to identify and manage emotional triggers.

• Practical strategies for handling feedback without taking it personally.

Let’s dive in and discover how mastering these skills can help you reach your full potential as a leader.

Meet John: The senior product manager stuck in place

John (not his real name) is a principal product manager at a leading tech company. His track record speaks for itself:

• He has led several high-profile projects that significantly boosted user growth and revenue.

• His team respects him, and his peers admire his dedication.

• He’s seen as a rising star in the organization.

Despite everything, John feels stuck. He hasn't been promoted to Director, even though he's been considered several times. He realizes it's because he takes all feedback personally.

John’s challenge isn’t about his competence — it’s about how he reacts when things don’t go according to plan. Here’s how it plays out:

Feedback: “John, I think we should explore another approach for this product enhancement.”

John's Internal Dialogue: “They must think my idea is terrible. Maybe they don’t trust me anymore. I’m not good enough for this role.”

This kind of thinking is:

• Draining: It consumes mental energy that could be used for problem-solving.

• Unproductive: It prevents him from learning from feedback.

• A barrier to growth: It signals a lack of emotional maturity necessary for executive roles.

In short, John’s sensitivity is preventing him from demonstrating the leadership qualities required at the Director level.

4 Strategies for building emotional resilience

Leadership isn’t just about delivering results but also about handling feedback professionally.

Here are four strategies we used to help John shift his mindset and build emotional resilience:

1. Pause before reacting (The 24-Hour Rule)

One of the first steps was helping John create space between receiving feedback and responding to it. We implemented the 24-hour rule:

1. When receiving feedback, take a step back.

2. Wait 24 hours before responding.

3. Use this time to reflect on the feedback with a clear mind.

This simple practice allowed John to process emotions before engaging in discussions, making his responses more thoughtful and measured.

2. Reframe feedback as growth

Instead of viewing feedback as a personal attack, John learned to see it as an opportunity for growth. We practiced shifting perspectives by asking:

• What insights can I gain from this feedback?

• How would an outsider interpret this situation?

• What can I learn that will help me improve?

By adopting this mindset, John was able to detach his ego from the criticism and focus on continuous improvement.

3. Self-affirmation over external validation

John had developed a habit of seeking constant external validation, which made him vulnerable to negative feedback. To counter this, we worked on building his internal confidence by:

• Recognizing his own strengths and accomplishments.

• Setting personal growth goals that aligned with his vision.

• Balancing negative feedback with positive self-reflection.

This shift helped John become less reliant on others’ approval and more focused on his own progress.