I love this emphasis on the value of authentic relationships! They pay huge dividends for Product Leaders.
With the volume of requests (features, defects, pilots, etc.) product managers receive, it's impossible to give everyone they want and when they want it.
Having authentic relationships with all of your stakeholders and making the time to listen to them goes a long way when higher priorities keep you from meeting their desired dates or functions.
Invest in authentic relationships with your stakeholders. It doesn't take a lot of effort to let them know you care about them and their goals.
Authentic and trusting relationships within an organization can lead to more support when additional funding is needed for a product or when an engineer must be swayed to include a quick bug fix in the next sprint. Outside an organization, these skills could encourage existing customers to beta test a new feature for early feedback or to convince a target customer to try the MVP of a product still in stealth mode. These relationship skills can also be what makes the difference between having irate customers because of a bug introduced into the product and those who say, “No worries, we know you’ll fix this!”
https://hbr.org/2017/12/what-it-takes-to-become-a-great-product-manager
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