Member-only story
Leading From Any Position
I’ve worked with many people through the years both as a design leader in tech and now as a leadership coach. Many people continue to associate leadership with management, believing that you’re only a “real leader” when you have direct reports. This is a common limiting belief that we put on ourselves when we’re individual contributors. And on the other side of the coin, there’s been many years of my life when I’ve been a terrible manager of people. I had zero skills or training on how to lead and that negatively impacted the lives of people reporting to me.
One distinction I make between the two is that management is getting things done through others, namely your direct reports, however, leadership in its simplest form is influence. It’s both influencing yourself and the people around you to achieve maximum impact.
With this definition of leadership, you truly can lead from any position and I’m sharing four stories to illustrate this truth.
Story 1: Moving from Individual Contributor to Manager
There is a prevailing belief that after you spend some years as an individual contributor (IC), then the next obvious step up the career ladder is to move into management. I’ve spoken with hundreds of people who have this desire, and it resonates with me, because this is how I felt after working…
