You don’t need a title or role or permission to lead.<\/p>\n
A few years ago, I was given the opportunity to be a project manager.<\/p>\n
I left a very comfortable job to go to this company. After two years of challenging work, I was well established in a small management role. And then I was offered a new project management role. I took it, essentially risking everything I had built up to that point.<\/p>\n
The new role wasn’t a good fit. And, of course, it didn’t work out. It ended abruptly after 3 months.<\/p>\n
I was told that the job would go to someone name Matt. It was difficult for me to accept. I really wanted that project management role, and I had given up an equally important role (one that I spent a couple years working through) to take it on.<\/p>\n
Anyway, here’s an email thread from about a week after this transition:<\/p>\n
From:<\/b> Poojan Wagh
\nSent:<\/b> Friday, March 18, 2011 5:24 PM
\nTo:<\/b> Boss; ProjectX; ProjectY
\nSubject:<\/b> Re: ProjectX Technology updates 3\/18\/2011
\n<\/span>
\n… and awesome progress. ProjectX is in good hands.<\/p>\n—– Reply message —–
\nFrom: “Boss” <boss@company.com>
\nDate: Fri, Mar 18, 2011 4:46 pm
\nSubject: ProjectX Technology updates 3\/18\/2011
\nTo: “ProjectX” <ProjectX@company.com>, “ProjectY” <ProjectY@company.com><\/p>\nAwesome writeup\u2026<\/p>\n
\n\nFrom:<\/b> Matt
\nSent:<\/b> Friday, March 18, 2011 11:22 AM
\nTo:<\/b> Boss; ProjectLead
\nCc:<\/b> Coworker, Coworker
\nSubject:<\/b> ProjectX Technology updates 3\/18\/2011<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nHey guys,<\/p>\n
Below are some progress updates on our new network and software solutions over the last week. Please forward as necessary.<\/p>\n
…<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
In case you missed it, Matt emailed the team a progress update. Our boss praised his reporting. I praised Matt’s progress and gave him my support.<\/p>\n
I don’t want to overstate how hard it was to give Matt my support. I got along well with Matt, and most people did, too. I thought he was a good choice for the role. So, I wasn’t merely putting on a good face when I had to accept this change. But, it would have been much easier to say nothing than to give my support.<\/p>\n
Leadership isn’t always easy. It often means putting the team or an organizational goal above yourself.<\/p>\n
The most powerful leaders lead by example. And we need more powerful leaders.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Leadership isn’t always easy. It means putting the team above yourself. It doesn’t mean (simply) exercising authority.
\nThe most powerful leaders lead by example.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[216,215],"class_list":["post-792","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-careerwork-life","tag-humility","tag-leadership"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/poojanblog.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/792","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/poojanblog.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/poojanblog.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poojanblog.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poojanblog.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=792"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/poojanblog.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/792\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":802,"href":"https:\/\/poojanblog.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/792\/revisions\/802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/poojanblog.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=792"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poojanblog.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=792"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poojanblog.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=792"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}