Leaderly Quote: You don’t have to lead the team to do amazing things
By Jo Miller
Want to make a bigger difference at work? You don’t have to wait to be promoted into a leadership role. It is possible to make great things happen even though you lack the leverage of a large team reporting to you.
“What are some ways to be more strategic when there’s not a large team to take on necessary tasks?” asked Rebecca, a participant in my recent webinar on transitioning from tactician to strategist.
I put that question to my guest speaker, Dona Munsch, Vice President of Cloud Operations with NetApp. In her response, Munsch spoke directly to a misconception implicit in the question. “You don’t have to lead the team to do amazing things,” says Munsch.
It is possible to lead change and make a large impact while in an individual contributor role, but it takes setting aside a “worker bee” mentality, to think like a strategist and influencer.
Munsch shared three steps for getting started:
1. Find a meaningful problem
2. Enlist broad-based support to define and address it.
2. Utilize a problem-solving methodology, like DMAIC.
3. Start small, go fast, grow as you go.
Jo Miller
Jo Miller is a globally renowned authority on women’s leadership. She’s dedicated two decades to helping women advance into positions of influence by leveraging their leadership strengths. Based on her work with hundreds of thousands of women, she developed a pragmatic and powerful roadmap that guides women to become the leaders they aspire to be. Jo shares this proven process in her book Woman of Influence: 9 Steps to Build Your Brand, Establish Your Legacy, and Thrive (McGraw Hill, 2019.)
Jo is CEO of leadership development, consulting and research firm Be Leaderly. Learn more about her speaking engagements at www.JoMiller.com and follow @Jo_Miller on Twitter.
By Jo Miller
Want to make a bigger difference at work? You don’t have to wait to be promoted into a leadership role. It is possible to make great things happen even though you lack the leverage of a large team reporting to you.
“What are some ways to be more strategic when there’s not a large team to take on necessary tasks?” asked Rebecca, a participant in my recent webinar on transitioning from tactician to strategist.
I put that question to my guest speaker, Dona Munsch, Vice President of Cloud Operations with NetApp. In her response, Munsch spoke directly to a misconception implicit in the question. “You don’t have to lead the team to do amazing things,” says Munsch.
It is possible to lead change and make a large impact while in an individual contributor role, but it takes setting aside a “worker bee” mentality, to think like a strategist and influencer.
Munsch shared three steps for getting started:
1. Find a meaningful problem
2. Enlist broad-based support to define and address it.
2. Utilize a problem-solving methodology, like DMAIC.
3. Start small, go fast, grow as you go.
Jo Miller
Jo Miller is a globally renowned authority on women’s leadership. She’s dedicated two decades to helping women advance into positions of influence by leveraging their leadership strengths. Based on her work with hundreds of thousands of women, she developed a pragmatic and powerful roadmap that guides women to become the leaders they aspire to be. Jo shares this proven process in her book Woman of Influence: 9 Steps to Build Your Brand, Establish Your Legacy, and Thrive (McGraw Hill, 2019.)
Jo is CEO of leadership development, consulting and research firm Be Leaderly. Learn more about her speaking engagements at www.JoMiller.com and follow @Jo_Miller on Twitter.
