There is a version of career advice that makes leadership sound like a finish line. Get the title. Build the team. Make it to the table. And then, presumably, you have arrived.

That is not how it actually works. And if you have spent any real time in marketing, you probably already know that.

The most meaningful shift in my career was not a promotion. It was a change in how I started thinking about the work itself. At some point, execution stopped being the goal and became the vehicle. The goal became something harder to name: understanding why a program worked, what it meant for the business, and how to build something that could scale without falling apart the moment I stepped back.

That is when I started leading…even before I had the title to show for it.

Raise Your Hand for the Hard Ones 

Early in my career, I focused on doing the work well. Learning the business, understanding the customer, delivering programs that held up. That foundation mattered. You cannot shortcut it.

But growth accelerated when I stopped waiting to be assigned the interesting problems and started moving toward the complex, cross-functional ones. The initiatives that were messy. The programs that touched multiple teams and required someone to hold the thread. Those moments were uncomfortable, and honestly? They were also where everything clicked.

If you are in marketing right now and wondering how to build toward leadership, that is my honest answer: raise your hand before you feel ready. The stretch is the point.

Strategy is Execution that Asks Better Questions

One thing I have had to unlearn is the idea that strategy and execution are separate tracks. They are not. The best strategic thinkers I have worked with are also deeply operational. They understand the mechanics of how things work, which is exactly why they can see what needs to change.

What shifts when you move into leadership is not the work itself — it is the level of the questions. Instead of asking how to run a campaign, you are asking what business outcome the campaign needs to drive. Instead of optimizing for leads, you are asking what the right accounts look like and why. Same instinct, higher altitude.

The Skills that Carry You Furthest

I have been asked a version of this question a lot lately: what should marketers be building right now?

It is something I explored in a conversation with iTech Series, and my answer has not changed much since. There is a long list of technical capabilities that matter, but the skills I keep coming back to are the harder ones to measure.

Communication. The ability to walk into a room with a clear point of view and hold it under pressure. Critical thinking. The kind of empathy that lets you understand what a buyer actually cares about, not just what they clicked on. These are not soft skills…they are the ones that separate marketers who can execute from marketers who can lead.

And mentorship, in both directions. I am genuinely grateful for the people who challenged my thinking when I needed it most. But becoming a mentor yourself does something different. It forces you to articulate what you know, which is how you find out what you actually believe.

Leadershup was Never the Destination

Here is what I have come to understand: leadership is not something you arrive at. It is something you practice, in the way you approach problems, in the way you show up for your team, in the way you decide what deserves your attention.

For women building careers in marketing, that reframe matters. Because the path is not always linear, and the title does not always come on schedule. But the orientation, the decision to think like a leader before anyone calls you one, is a choice you can make at any point.

That is the move worth making.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Have a Story Worth Sharing?

Her POV is actively looking for contributors — women with a point of view, a story, and something worth saying. Whether you are a marketer, a founder, or someone who has built a career on your own terms, this is your space to share it. Share Your POV.