Episode 85: 4 Key Ways to Quickly Lead Without a Title

Aug 5

True leaders know they're never going to be perfect. Continuous improvement in all areas of our lives is really what differentiates people who impact others and those who stay stagnant. Leadership is about behavior and influence, not titles. Take initiative to identify problems and propose solutions as opposed to accepting the status quo.

Hone your communication skills to inspire and motivate others, build meaningful relationships that go beyond transaction, have to be genuine, and then commit to continuous learning and adaptability. Leadership skills are valuable in any role, whether you're closing deals, serving customers, or running your own business, and embodying these qualities is just the kind of core competency that you continuously work on.

You're not only going to stand out in your current position, but you're also gonna prepare yourself for future growth and future opportunities.

Welcome to Prospecting on Purpose. I'm Sarah Murray. And today we're diving into a topic that's crucial for everyone in business, whether you're in sales, customer service, project management, or you're running your own company. And surprise, surprise today's episode is about leadership. We talk about leadership concepts frequently on this show, but I want to get into what it means to be a leader without a title and influence from any position you're in at whatever stage you're at in your career.

When we think of leaders, we often picture CEOs or executive-level individuals, managers of people, or department heads. I think people bucket leadership into, you know, you're a leader if you manage people, but there's a big difference between the words management and leadership. Leadership is not about the position you hold, it's about how you act and influence others, ideally for growth and forward positive momentum.

In today's fast-paced environment, companies need individuals at all levels, especially at the individual contributor level, who can take charge, inspire others, and drive results. For sales professionals, showing leadership can mean taking ownership of client relationships and guiding them toward solutions.

For business owners, it might be setting the tone for your company culture, and steering your business towards growth. And for customer service reps, project managers, and product managers. In internal, maybe non-customer-facing roles, leadership might look like going above and beyond to solve problems and improve processes.

The ability to lead regardless of your title sets you apart in your field. It boosts your career prospects and ultimately contributes to your organization's success. And the core message I want you to take away from today is that leadership is about influence and behavior. It's not about your title.

Anyone at any level can develop and demonstrate leadership skills to enhance their professional effectiveness and ultimately drive results and drive success. And it's not about waiting for a promotion or that fancy title. It's about choosing right here and right now to lead from where you're at. So let's break down four key ways you can demonstrate leadership regardless of your formal position.

First, we need to take initiative and solve problems. Leaders do not wait for others to tell them what to do. They see what needs to be done and they do it. Execution is a big part of this. This proactive approach is really critical in demonstrating leadership because it communicates the type of integrity you bring to your work environment, and that's what other people are going to feel when they work with you.

Let's dive into some specific examples. If you notice a reoccurring objection from potential clients, don't just sit on it or stumble through it or just report it. Develop a strategy to address it and then share it with your team or ask your teammates for support. Understand, Hey, have you gone through this before?

How do you handle it? Being vulnerable and asking for help is another. The area where you're showing that you're taking ownership. And sometimes taking ownership might mean I'm actually unsure how to do this. Can you help me? So we can't solve problems if we don't have the right resources. So it's okay to ask for help, but if you have, let's say you have customers always oohing and awing about a certain feature or benefit, pass that feedback up to marketing and say, Hey, whenever I pull this out of my presentation, everyone responds really well to it.

Maybe we should do a campaign around it. Or if you're missing a feature that seems like it'd be really relevant or people ask for it, make sure you're passing that up to project product management. If you notice inefficiencies in the sales process, design and propose a new workflow that might be able to streamline your internal operations.

If you're prospecting efforts aren't working, try something new, adjust your tactics when we're facing a challenging market. You know, let's not just sit and wait for conditions to improve or an election to be over. Instead, let's analyze trends, and listen to our clients. Solve new problems and then pivot our strategy accordingly.

And then maybe team morale is just low. Take the initiative, organize a team-building activity, or send a note to your colleagues and let them know how much you appreciate them. Limitless examples of this, but a good way to reframe this is that if you're taking initiative and solving problems, then you're not operating from a place of victim mentality.

Victims and whiners aren't leaders, people who solve problems are. And so if you're giving feedback about a process that isn't working, don't just complain about it not working, come prepared with ideas for how to fix it. Our second point here is to communicate effectively and inspire others. Great leaders are great communicators.

They articulate ideas clearly, they are good listeners, and they know how to motivate others. In a sales context, this might mean crafting compelling pitches that really resonate with your client's needs. Or maybe for an internally facing role, it could be clearly conveying your vision and your initiatives to other departments to get buy-in.

But if you're able to influence You're going to be able to communicate effectively. That's really what leads to positive influence. So practice being concise, persuasive, and empathetic in your communications. This entire podcast is really focused on effective communication, but if you want to expand on this more, I'd recommend listening to episodes 36 and 37, eight tips for being an active listener and eight tips for Increasing your empathy at work.

And then I also really like episode 12. Why storytelling impacts purchasing decisions. The 3rd thing that we need to be good at is the ability to nurture relationships. You know, leadership is fundamentally about working with people. So if you can focus on building strong trust-based relationships with colleagues, clients, and partners, that's going to be it.

Always worth your time investment and the key is to really go beyond transactional interactions. We have to show genuine interest in other people's success. The wider your relationship network is, the more effective you're going to be because you're going to be able to be creative. About solving problems, because you have more visibility to different perspectives, which stimulates creativity.

You're going to be able to pull from these different data points that you've collected from your network. And we all know this is your net worth. Is your network true leaders never work in a silo episode 21 the art of relationship building and business dives into this more and then the 4th piece here is to continuously learn and adapt.

The best leaders are always learning and evolving. They know that they're never done. They've never reached their destination. They're never there because they know it's an evolving process. So staying curious about the industry, new technologies, and best practices, being open to feedback, being willing to change force when necessary, attending industry conferences, reading different books, listening to podcasts like this one, and seeking mentorship.

Someone shared this example with me and I thought it was so brilliant. My background, as you know, from the show is selling into the design community. So architects, developers, interior designers, but I'm not an architect. I'm not a developer. I didn't go to school for those things. And so if I'm trying to sell into that type of clientele, how much more effective would I be as an individual contributor?

If I researched and asked questions. Someone shared with me recently that a book that I didn't know was called “101 Things I Learned in Architecture School by Matthew Frederick”. What a brilliant way that I could have, I didn't, but I could have bought that book and educated myself and just gotten more data points on that particular, that particular client and what they went through to get to that level of their business.

So that's an area that I missed, an area of growth that I missed, but it's kind of a clever way to. Frame this and think there are a lot of different ways that we can learn and grow and it's not just innate how to be a better leader. It's really compiling all of these resources and making it authentic to you.

Two episodes that would be great resources for you if you want to dive into this one more are episode seven, Four Foundations for a Growth Mindset, and then episode 79, 10 Tips for Finding the Right Mentor. True leaders. No, they're never going to be perfect. Continuous improvement in all areas of our lives is really what differentiates people who impact others and those who stay stagnant.

And so just to wrap up our key takeaways here. Leadership is about behavior and influence, not titles. Take initiative to identify problems and propose solutions as opposed to accepting the status quo, hone your communication skills to inspire and motivate others, build meaningful relationships that go beyond transaction has to be genuine, and then commit to continuous learning and adaptability.

Leadership skills are valuable in any role, whether you're closing deals, serving customers, or running your own business, and embodying these qualities is just the kind of core competency that you continuously work on. You're not only going to stand out in your current position, but you're also going to prepare yourself for future growth and future opportunities.

This wraps up our episode on being a leader at any level. If you found this helpful, please share this episode with a friend or colleague who could benefit, and don't forget to subscribe for more insights on personal and professional growth and success until next time, Sarah Murray here reminding you that leadership starts with you right where you are.

Thanks so much for tuning in and I'll see you next week.

Thank you so much for listening to the Prospecting on Purpose podcast. If you loved what you heard today, subscribe to the podcast and please rate and leave a review for more info on me, or if you'd like to work together, feel free to go to my website, SarahMurray. com on social media, I'm usually hanging out at Sarah Murray sales.

Thanks again for joining me and I'll see you next time.