Five Ways To Lead... Without Title

Pay It Forward

In my current gig, I don't have direct reports. (Not a complaint; just where we are as a company.) No one has to do what I tell them, and most folks that I work with have much more experience in the field. And yet, I feel like I have a great deal of sway in my role, and can make a real impact in a wide range of factors.

At the risk of this sounding like a humble brag, how does this happen?

1) Positioning. By bringing in experience from outside of the field, I've been able to predict which campaigns are going to work, and which ones are going to tank... not through my ability to See The Future, but by being able to extrapolate from the relevant past.

2) Timing. If life in an office is somewhat analogous to a game of poker, then my contributions are more like the player who doesn't play that many hands, but does bet big when the cards are running in my favor. I choose my battles more, instead of having to contest every pot. It also makes for a far more effective outcome on the decisions that I feel more strongly about, since I'm collecting favors for future payoff.

3) Standing. I try to ground my opinions in precedent and optimal practice. The only way you get those points is to do the homework of looking through data for clues, and read a great deal of outside work to keep inspiring the new findings. (There may be a method to this whole "no direct reports" thing, in other words.)

4) Deflection. The numbers that I run could generate all kinds of self-aggrandizing points like what happens when the subject line is something I wrote, what the campaigns were generating before my hire date, and how other aspects of what we do drive more engagement and value. But that's not how I do my business, because it would be, well, unseemly. I'd rather teach my colleagues and clients my practices and techniques than be "magic"... because that sort of thing just isolates you, and makes it clear in the long term that you care more about your career than your employer. Take care of the latter, and the former will take care of itself.

5) Perspective. We cut our trending work all the way down to 24 yearly periods (i.e., every 15 days), and it's easy to try and make bigger deals out of outliers and possible trends, or to try to take the short cut with game-changing "big" moves. But that's not how the world works, or at least, how it's worked for the past three decades in the space, at the places where I've worked. Instead, you do better by building your case for optimal practices, brick by brick, flight by flight, case by case. Especially with anything that has elements of direct marketing, moonshot development moments are rare, and should be given exceptional scrutiny for mitigating circumstances.

That's because true growth isn't generally found in single shot moments of transcendent wisdom, but in the 90% of life that is just showing up. And having the right habits to help ensure that you aren't getting in the way of growth.

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