Aiming for a Career in Disruption? Here’s How to Make It Work.

Welcome to Leading Disruption, a weekly letter about disruptive leadership in a transforming world. Every week we’ll discover how the best leaders set strategy, build culture, and manage uncertainty all in service of driving disruptive, transformative growth.

People thought I was crazy when I took a job at the San Jose Mercury News right out of business school.

This was in the 90's when the internet was starting to take off, and I knew it would be a game changer. Newspapers had been around for over a hundred years and were about to be upset by something unimaginable!

I wanted to be in the middle of that disruption — so I took that path of being a disruptor inside a company, before switching gears and taking the second disruptive path as an expert disruptor for the rest of my career.

In Tuesday’s Livestream , I shared how you too can have a successful career as a disruptor – via internal or external disruption.

Internal vs. external disruptors (and how they’re alike)

When I started at the San Jose Mercury News, I had a clear goal: I wanted to learn how to lead and create change from the inside. I wanted to explore what our future could look like – and break it down into pragmatic steps.

But after a while I knew I didn’t want to lead from the inside anymore. I wanted to become an analyst, studying disruption and creating change from the outside.?

There are two characteristics these disruption paths have in common:?

• A vision for the change and
• The ability to connect with and lead people

So what’s the difference? One path is focused on disrupting the organization internally by forging deep relationships over time. The other centers on becoming an expert disruptor, moving constantly from one assignment to the next and enacting change externally. Let’s break these down:

Disrupting from the inside

As an internal disruptor, you’re a stakeholder. You work inside the company, you know the organization, what processes work (and don’t), and the power players.

You develop alliances with management and the employees. You gain credibility by delivering over and over again – seeing the future and creating a change. People start to trust you because they know you get things done.

It’s a long game, but eventually you get permission to create larger and larger disruptions because you’ve earned credibility.?

Building this power in your organization might seem difficult, but an internal disruptor’s biggest challenge is actually walking the fine line between spurring people to change, while maintaining the relationships that are key to your success.

One of the ways I did this at the newspaper was to forge connections with key people, in this case, with the heads of classified advertising and editorial content. While I took their concerns about cannibalization seriously, I also focused our collective efforts on developing a cross-channel relationship with readers that would serve us in the long run.?

Driving change from the outside

Now, an external disruptor is an outside expert. An organization hires you as an employee or consultant/advisor because you have a proven track record and years of experience.

The most important thing for an external disruptor?

Having a disruption standard operating procedure or proven framework you can customize for each company. After you lead disruption for one company successfully, others with similar challenges will be reaching out to you.?

You’ll also need the ability to develop relationships quickly, but your success is ultimately tied to the approach you bring in.

For external disruptors, your main challenge is assessing risk. Before you accept an assignment, you have to ask yourself: “Do I understand the situation? Does this organization have the capacity for change?”

If the circumstances are not right, you have to be able to say no to the opportunities where you aren’t set up for success — no matter how compelling the assignment might be.

Thriving no matter which path you choose

Both kinds of disruptors can be successful! And there are three things you can do to be the best disruptor possible, whether you operate internally or externally:

1. Formalize your standard operating procedures and best practices, and communicate them consistently. When you write these down and share them regularly, people will have a clear picture of the change you’re creating and how you’re doing it – plus, they can reinforce the structure, even when you’re not in the room.?
2. Network internally –?and externally. To grow as a disruptor, especially when you’re working inside the echo chamber of a company, you have to talk to other disruptors. Join groups and go to conferences – make sure you’re connecting with other people and getting outside your bubble.
3. Share what you know. Publishing ideas or best practices can help you improve and get validation. The more you share, the more you’ll get feedback and make connections through your own thought leadership as a disruptor. And, for internal disruptors, bringing in outside perspectives and approaches that have worked elsewhere can add to your credibility.

As a disruptor, your career takes the road less traveled. There’s no clear career ladder to climb. You can’t major in “disruption.” You learn on the job.?

You can be wildly successful – as long as you think strategically about your path.

I’ll be away on a mindfulness retreat next week. Then I’m kicking off a three-week series on culture starting Tuesday, August 3rd, at 9 am PT? / 12 pm ET. We’ll be unpacking Peter Drucker’s famous quote: “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” See you then!

Your Turn

What was one move that really advanced your career as a disruptor? Did you make a big decision? Take a job? Leave a job? I’d love to hear about one of the pivotal moments in your career!