Lessons From a Career Well-Led

A quick look through Linkedin these days reveals an interesting foible of modern business: everyone is a leader. It is reminiscent of the AAA survey that revealed 73% of people think they are above-average drivers. I won’t divulge my age, but with over 25 years of bosses, managers, supervisors, and skip-levels, I learned that being smart and performing well is not what makes a leader. The leaders I most admired, most wanted to emulate, were not the smartest people in the room but the ones who made me want to be better and who valued more than just intelligence.

I want to make the case that these leaders who invested in me got back more than any directive or incentive structure would have produced: my loyalty, my anticipation of their needs, my advocacy for their success, and performance that exceeded their expectations (and mine).

Understanding a person's motivation drives performance

My PhD advisor in chemistry understood what drove his lab members. He knew I was motivated by discovery, finding something no one had found before and studying everything I could about it. He would come to me with an area of research that was still open, hand me a name or a paper, give me a brief summary about what was interesting and unresolved, and step back. I discovered multiple new chemical compounds during my PhD because he understood exactly what to dangle in front of me to make the work feel like a treasure hunt rather than a job. 

He did something different for a lab mate of mine who was motivated by seeing a project through from first experiment to published paper. He would say: “This could be a paper. Why don’t you take a look?” That person would immediately start designing their research plan, composing the paper in their head, and they became one of the most prolific writers in the lab. He taught me what it looks like to see people clearly and cultivate their strengths by trusting them to motivate themselves. In return for this nuanced understanding of what drove each of us, his lab was one of the most prolific in our field. Decades later, on his 60th birthday, former students and postdocs traveled from around the world to celebrate his legacy and their experiences working with him. There is now a mineral named after him: Kanatzidisite.

Years later in my industry career, a new manager who had inherited me in an acquisition restructuring knew I had joined to work in new product planning but landed in a market research role. He sat me down to understand what I wanted to work on, and volunteered me for new product planning projects that popped up. He understood that the gap between the job I signed up to do and what I was actually doing was worth closing because both I and the company would benefit from it. What I remember from this experience is that I felt seen, and when it was time to decide whether I wanted to move to New Jersey and join the corporate office or stay in our little subsidiary in San Diego, I didn’t hesitate to stay and work in his org. Over the next nine years, we worked together on numerous commercial strategies, including launch plans, life cycle management, franchise expansions. What he received in return for noticing a gap and closing it was a loyal, driven, and reliable direct report for almost a decade.

Trusting frees up mental energy

This manager also had a way of presenting problems that I still try to emulate to this day. He would share a problem he was thinking about, ask how I might approach it, and then just listen. Sometimes I would say “Let me think about it” and come back to him with a proposed approach. We would refine it together, and over time I needed less and less refinement. I had learned to trust my own instincts because he had trusted them first.

More recently, a supervisor handed me a problem and said: “I think you’re the best person to figure this out. We need alignment across functions on our scientific story. Why don’t you take a crack at it?” She didn’t tell me how to approach it or check in to make sure I was doing what I was asked, but she did reassure me I would have her support if I needed it. She trusted me with it completely, and that trust empowered me to own and embrace the problem. I drew on seven years of knowledge in that space, wove together a narrative that articulated the product’s value proposition in partnership with my Med Affairs colleagues. I shopped the narrative around to every function we could reach, gathered feedback, refined it, and came back with something the whole company embraced.

This outcome was only possible because she was secure enough to share the problem with me, understood what I was capable of, and trusted me to execute. What she received in return was the resolution of a structural problem she could not fix at her level — a company-wide scientific narrative that aligned functions which had been working from different frames of reference. The result exceeded her expectations. I knew I had the capability to do this task, but what I had lacked until then was a leader secure enough to empower me to try. She shared with me that one of her own motivations was seeing her people grow, and this project was a win for both of us.

Being open to different perspectives encourages innovation

I think most people understand intellectually that looking at things from a fresh perspective can bring about innovative thinking. In practice, however, it can be hard when knowledge gained from years of experience is challenged by someone with less experience. Effective leaders I've worked with are open to new perspectives and thinking because they come from a place of security, and are not threatened by new ideas even if they come from less experienced people. 

I witnessed a leader evolve her thinking from targeting a broad patient segment to focusing on a narrower one where the product had stronger data — which is what the clinical team and I had originally recommended. She ran the scenarios independently and realized that while each targeting strategy had a tradeoff, stronger data meant more compelling marketing collateral and a clearer message for the field force to implement. She didn't outright dismiss the narrower focus but came in with a hypothesis (broad = more revenue) and pressure tested it, and revised her approach based on the data. In return for her willingness to challenge her own thinking, she arrived at a more defensible commercial position with a stronger business case that was supported by the clinical data and aligned with, and validated, the clinical team's original conclusion.

Providing context generously empowers others

Good leaders share context. They update their people on decisions even when those decisions are hard to reach or imperfect. There is nothing more demoralizing than being trusted to do the work but not trusted to understand why. Even when you can’t influence a decision, having the context behind it is the difference between a team member who is engaged and one who is just executing. That context is often considered a privilege, but as a knowledge worker I see it as a form of respect. Respect and trust are great motivators.

During a point in my career when I was undergoing what I considered to be a significant setback, a trusted mentor helped me through it by providing context. She helped me understand the setback differently and find a way through it. She shared examples from earlier in her career where similar things had happened, showing vulnerability, validating my feelings, and supporting me in moving forward. The context she provided didn't change the situation but enabled me to manage it. In return, she earned my goodwill, trust, and loyalty, even though I didn't report to her. Later, when I did join her team, I excelled at my first task because I wanted to impress her. She had won me over long before she needed to.

This mentor suggested I make culture a formal career objective for the year. Having been inspired by her emotional intelligence, I took this seriously and set a goal that included touchpoint milestones and onboarding materials for knowledge transfer. I made it a point to share everything: prior work, strategic context, and unwritten rules. The team members I have onboarded this way have stayed connected, recommended each other, and supported each other including through a recent RIF that impacted all of us. What I received in return for sharing everything was a cohort of equally (or more) capable colleagues who are not threatened by my competence and are invested in my success, as I am in theirs.

Helping people grow pays dividends

As someone who has historically tied her identity to academic performance, moving from academia to industry was a bit of a shock. It felt like receiving feedback was like running out into a paintball field without any protection. However, I learned over time that any constructive feedback is a gift. Anyone who has given feedback to a defensive recipient knows that it’s easier to withhold feedback. Therefore, feedback given is also a practice rooted in trust, that the recipient will appreciate the good intent with which it is given. [Note: if you struggle with feedback, I highly recommend “Thanks for the Feedback” by Stone and Heen]

I have also been lucky to work alongside people who were generous in a different way, not as formal leaders but as mentors or colleagues sharing what they had learned. A more senior colleague once handed me a book that changed how I think about leadership and growth: “What Got You Here Won’t Get You There” by Marshall Goldsmith. I think she saw in me someone who was very tied to my identity as a smart person, and saw that the career path ahead of me would need me to realize that I had to be more. She didn't say it outright, but I read the book and got the message. Months later, another colleague would share with me that she noticed I had matured, and was less invested in being right. Fast forward a decade later, and this is a person I would absolutely work for and with. Her generosity in seeing what I needed and offering it without being asked is its own form of leadership. She led me to a better version of myself. Recently, she reached out about a potential new role on her team. Because of what she invested in me years ago, long before she had any reason to, I would seriously consider joining her organization to work with her again. She won me over before she needed to, and it is paying dividends years later.

Humility earns respect

Lastly, the leaders I admire are not afraid to admit what they don’t know. They ask questions and are open to hearing things they hadn’t considered. Humility is one of the most disarming and powerful qualities a leader can have.

More recently in my career, I served as an interviewer for multiple positions within our commercial org. The objective I was given was not to gauge candidates' ability to do the job but rather their fit within the team. This reflected a genuine interest in preserving a collaborative culture and an acknowledgment from leadership that they would not be able to see the whole picture of a candidate without different points of view. Meaningfully, my conclusions were taken seriously and implemented in hiring decisions. That experience set the bar for what I expect a new team build to look like: hiring decisions made collectively, leadership open to new perspectives, and humility practiced and embedded in decision-making. What those leaders received in return was a lean, cohesive team of people who were secure enough to collaborate and capable enough to deliver.

I think all of us can relate to feeling insecure, and maybe even to having imposter syndrome. What might not be obvious is that other people can tell when someone's actions come from a place of insecurity and self-protection. The reassuring counterpoint is that rising tides lift all boats. In exchange for seeing colleagues as worthy of genuine investment and being open to their perspectives, there is the opportunity to refine one's own leadership and build advocacy for one's own success. To me, this is the ultimate antidote to insecurity: counteracting professional loneliness by building a community.

Walking the walk shows others how to follow

I recently caught up with a female leader that generously shared career advice with me. In our conversation, she mentioned how amazing her team was, how well they worked together and supported one another. I have seen a couple of her team members speak at marketing conferences and could tell that her assessment was accurate. What she didn't volunteer in her telling was what she had done to build such a team, because she truly didn't see it as her own accomplishment. When I told her that her team was exceptional in great part because of her own efforts, she thanked me and demurred, and I could tell it came from a place of real humility.

This is why her team is amazing: she hires for desire to learn and growth potential rather than experience alone. With each hire, she commits to developing them and providing them opportunities to stretch according to their interests, provided they perform as promised. She promotes them, formally and informally, without taking credit for herself. She shares context and vulnerability openly — I recently attended a talk where she described, to a room full of fellow marketers, a leadership situation that had made her uncomfortable. She models what she asks of her people.

In my experience, a leader defines the culture of a team by what they reward. A leader who practices and incentivizes collaboration, growth, humility, and compassion will develop those qualities in their people. It is very hard to build that kind of team on words alone; actions speak volumes. My implicit conclusion as an outsider is that her team cannot function this way without her diligent care and design in how they work independently and together as a team.

She told me that her model of leadership was inspired by a mid-career experience observing C-suite executives in a small organization. She noted that they were all successful in their own right and had no particular need to be kind or collaborative. Observing people who didn't have to be generous choose to be generous anyway inspired her style of leadership.

Good leadership's return on investment

Every leader who keeps people at arm's length to protect their position will never see the best those people have to offer, and those people will give that best to someone who deserved it.

My thesis advisor's lab is one of the most prolific in its field. My skip-level manager gained nine years of loyal, driven partnership from a single conversation. My supervisor received a resolution to a structural problem from someone who had been waiting for the chance to prove herself. My mentor earned loyalty before she ever needed it just by giving me a book. My commercial leadership team was made of people secure enough to collaborate and capable enough to deliver. My conversation with a marketing leader showed me what it looks like when good leadership is paid forward.

What I am describing is servant leadership, and embracing it is a choice that can be made at any time. When this choice is made consistently, it pays dividends not only by its impact on others but also its impact on the leader. Rising tides lift all boats.