Upasna Gautam: evaluation

Transcript context

…So I was doing a little research on you before this chat, and I noticed that you've been teaching and studying meditation and mindfulness for, I don't know, maybe a decade? And I imagine that comes in handy at a company like CNN, which also I imagine is quite hectic at times with breaking news all the time. And so here's my question, what have you learned or brought from that practice to your ability to lead and ability to just like keep your team calm and focused during I imagine many hectic moments? Love that question, and working in product in news is a very [inaudible 00:04:22]. We hear a lot about having the skills to thrive in ambiguity in order to be a successful product manager, but to be a successful product manager in news you have to be able to thrive in chaos. And equanimity is the most important skill I've developed I think across my entire life, and it's due to all of those years of practicing mindfulness and meditation. And equanimity is one of my favorite words, it means mental calmness, composure, evenness of temper, especially in crazy, stressful situations. It's the ability to remain un-rattled in like the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. And if you think about it in the dynamic of a workplace or human interaction, it's really the ability to pause before reacting. And reactivity is the root cause of so many of our workplace woes and product management frustrations, and when you're able to pause before reacting you can start to undo and break a lot of those negative patterns in your brain. And in news, and especially the world's biggest breaking news organization, you can cut through that chaos with equanimity because it also really gives you this outsized advantage in everything from stakeholder management, team morale, to the way you're able to translate user feedback, to product development philosophy. And the thing is is you're always going to hear things and feedback that you don't like, and opinions that you don't like, and you're going to get frustrated. That's product management, that's life. But real power to me comes from equanimity, and that comes from managing your emotional reactions, and not trying to control others. So I think when you're able to cultivate that level of self-awareness for yourself, you're able to chart a clear path forward for your team and serve as a compass in the chaos. Is there a story or an example that comes to mind where things were just like, "Oh shit," and you were able to tap into that skill that you built to stay calm and focused, or even just like help your team stay focused?…

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