Two Lessons for Aspiring Leaders

Happy belated 2022!

The Growth Report is back from hibernation ??

As every year, the first week is a little special, I only got one article for you to indulge in.

BUT, with the time that you would otherwise read my "Reflections from the Trenches" essay, I would be eternally grateful to you, if you could fill out this 2-minute survey on how I can improve this publication.

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There are nine questions (six of which are multiple choice) and it's completely anonymous.

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...Today's topics

?? Leadership: The Transition From Practitioner To Leader

???Tools of the Trade: Articles, Tools and Inspiration for Marketers

???What do you think? 2-Minute survey on how to improve this publication

?? Leadership

The Transition From Practitioner To Leader

Most of us are starting our careers by wrestling with operational day-to-day problems. It’s exciting and rewarding, as we learn the ropes of our professions.

But at some point (after we have excelled at our jobs for many years and have gained enough experience) we are asked to lead a team and teach some of those hard-earned lessons to the up-and-comers.

The crossroad

Becoming a manager / leader is a crossroad of sorts. Leading people requires different skills and entails entirely new responsibilities than you were used to as a practitioner.

How this role will look like depends on the stage of the company you are working for.

Your job will look very different working deep in startup mode, experimenting your way through to the best go-to-market strategy, vs. working at a business in growth stage, where you are figuring out how to scale.

But for those who decide it’s the right path for them to take, my podcast guest Tara Robertson, CMO at?Teamwork.com?has identified two mindset shifts that go a long way in making you an effective leader regardless of the stage your company is at:

1. It’s not your job to know everything. Don’t pretend to.

Many new leaders are crippled by imposter syndrome early in their career. They think they are responsible for needing to have an answer for all the things. They are scared and worried that if they don't, they'll be found out as incompetent.

But wherever you are in your career, you will never have all the answers and you are not expected to. You are not the expert anymore. In fact you can’t be an expert on the all the topics your employees are covering.

Sometimes the best answer simply is:?"I actually don't know that right now, but I'll find out". And then you and your team go out and find that answer. Together.

2. Just because you can do something, doesn’t mean you should.

You come into a leadership position because you have experience and probably have been in the trenches yourself for years. That is a good thing, you have walked your talk. BUT this is not your job anymore.

→ Your job is to empower and serve the people that work with you.

→ Your job is to enable them to find the right answers and support them to grow and blossom in their careers.

Instead of knowing and doing all the things yourself, your job as a leader is to hire people smarter than you and empower them to achieve their goals and move the company forward.

Whether you are a CEO, a marketing leader, an agency owner, a creator or a middle manager at a large enterprise, incorporating those two lessons alone will make you a much more effective leader.

PS: If you want to hear the full conversation with Tara Robertson (Spotify):

???Tools of the Trade:

Articles, Tools and Inspiration for Marketers

?? On Living up to Expectations

You have no responsibility to live up to what other people think you ought to accomplish. You have no responsibility to be like they expect you to be. It’s their mistake, not your failing.

— Richard Feynman

?????Marketing & Leadership Education

• Thoughts of Work Invaded My Life—Until I learned how to unplug?- A simple key to achieving healthy work-life balance: Only deal with work-related tasks when you can give them your full attention. Otherwise, you’re just feeding your brain distractions to worry about. (Source:?Science)
• Designing Team Rituals?-?Some great inspiration on how to bring your team together through rituals. From the design teams at Figma and Lattice.

???Brands and (digital) Products that caught my eye

• Image Extractor?- This free and nifty tool enables you to automatically display and download all images from any website.
• Omnivore?- Share your personal notes and highlights from any link with your friends. Instead of just sending them the whole article, send them only the parts that stood out to you.

???Interesting reads

• You Can Learn Anything Through Reverse Engineering?- A three step process for building new skills and learning from the best in your field: collect, analyze, and score. (Source:?HBR)
• To Find Clever Solutions, Think Subtraction?- Stuck on a problem you can’t seem to solve? You may be overlooking “subtractive solutions”—ideas that involve taking something away instead of adding something new. Research has found that people don’t always consider these solutions, even though they’re often more effective. (Source:?Ars Technica)

???What do you think?

2-Minute survey on how to improve this publication

Okay, here is the deal. This publication is made for you. And only with your feedback can I make it more relevant and valuable.

If you could please take out 2 minutes of your time (you know the time that you would usually take to read the third article down here) and fill out the nine questions in this survey, I would be eternally grateful to you. ??

Take the 2-min Survey

And in return I pinky-promise you to keep delivering what you care about the most: Thoughtful content on how to grow your business and your Self.

That's it for this week.

Talk soon,

Sandro