Steal my Wisdom: Career Advice Worth Borrowing

Put a group of experienced CMOs in a room and ask one simple question:

What’s the best piece of career or leadership advice you’ve ever received?

Here are the ones worth stealing.

1. Turn “I have to” into “I get to.”

Hard things feel different when you stop seeing them as burdens and start seeing them as opportunities. The difficult assignment. The challenging team. The uncomfortable problem.

You don’t have to do this. You get to do this.

Today's challenge becomes tomorrow's experience.

2. Lead like you.

There is no single archetype of a great leader.

Stop trying to imitate the person who had the job before you. Stop contorting yourself into what you think an executive is supposed to look or sound like.

Your difference isn't something to overcome. It may be your advantage.

Be yourself. Do it your way.

3. Being good at your job isn't enough. But being enjoyable to work with matters as much.

Competence matters. But so does how people experience you. People want to work with people they trust, enjoy and respect. And exceptional performance rarely compensates for leaving damaged relationships in your wake.

Your results build your reputation. So does the experience of working with you.

4. Let your team take the credit. You take the bullets.

When things go well, shine the light on your people. When things go badly, step in front of them. Great leaders don't need to collect the credit. When your team shines, the leadership behind them is usually obvious anyway.

Give away the spotlight. Absorb the heat.

5. Don't fix every weakness. Build around your strengths.

Development plans often begin with gaps: What aren't you good at? What do you need to fix? Start somewhere else.

Know what makes you unusually valuable — and get even better at it.

Smooth out weaknesses that could derail you. But don't spend your career sanding away your differences in pursuit of being well-rounded.

Your strengths are where disproportionate value lies.

6. If you can't say it simply, you may not understand it deeply.

As leaders get more senior, brevity becomes a strategic capability. Find the headline. Make the choice. Say what matters. If people need more, they'll ask.

Don't confuse more words with more thinking.

Clarity is one of the most visible signals of strategic leadership.

7. Your organization can't give you a future you can't articulate.

“I want the promotion” isn't a career aspiration.

What do you want to do? What value do you want to create? What responsibility are you ready to own? What is the next target you're accelerating toward?

It's difficult for a leader or organization to help you get somewhere when you can't tell them where you want to go.

8. Don't make decisions for your future self.

Today's discomfort can masquerade as tomorrow's disinterest. Before closing a door, ask:

Am I genuinely uninterested — or am I uncomfortable?

You don't know what experiences you'll accumulate, what capabilities you'll develop or who you'll become five years from now. You don't have to walk through every door.

Just be careful about locking them too early.

9. Move before you feel ready.

Don't wait until you've extracted every possible lesson from your current role before taking on the next challenge.

New roles. Lateral moves. Unfamiliar functions. Bigger problems.

They increase the slope of your learning.

Sometimes the best next move isn't up. It's toward something that stretches you.

10. Invest your time where only you can.

The more senior you become, the question to find disproportionate success isn't:

“What can I do?”

It's: “Where am I uniquely valuable?”

If ten other people can do something well, let them. Find the places where your judgment, experience, relationships or authority can uniquely deliver a better outcome. Because at senior levels, one of your scarcest resources isn't capability.

It's where you spend your time.

The Wisdom Behind the Wisdom

Early in our careers, we tend to think success is about proving what we can do.

As we become leaders, the equation changes and success becomes less about doing more and more about:

Knowing who you are.

Knowing where you're going.

Knowing what only you can do.

And creating the conditions for other people to be great.