Whether you’re a manager, lead, CTO, VP, Director or any other position that requires you to lead a team, the fundamentals of what is needed you are the same. People – my team, the team around me, what do they need from me, how do I support them? Product – what are we building, software for customers, software for our company, everything is a product? Partner – who do I work with, who do we…

And here you thought the hardest job you had when you started to lead a team was going to be the actual “Leading of the team”. Not always the case. Leading Up is the process by which you need to start managing your manager or their manager or someone else that you need to report to. Maybe they are causing dysfunction on your team with a myriad of requests. Maybe they don’t know how everyone…

It’s why we brought you on. It’s why you’re leading the team. It’s why you were sent to the customer site. It’s why you are on a plane to deliver that sales presentation. It’s why you started your own company. It doesn’t have to be the popular call, the right one, or the best one. But you need to make a call… because we’re all waiting.

It’s the only way you are going to realize what you need to do to get better for next time. And if you’re leading a team, then the impetus to fall down is even greater. Because they will learn from you and follow the path you lay out for them.

In everything you do, you are a leader. You might not know it yet or maybe you look at other leaders in your team and think “that’s not me, I can’t be like them, they just “know” stuff… sigh”. You don’t need a formally structured team to be a leader.  Helping a customer’s development team understand the latest coding interface you created is leadership, working with internal users on user experience testing or demonstrating…