How to successfully transition into a Functional Leader
My career journey has been a rather unique one thus far, and I’ve taken some time to reflect on where I was, and where I’m moving towards. Unlike the conventional routes of some of the many great leaders I know of, my personal route has been filled with twists and turns, but thankfully in a positive manner and I’m grateful for the opportunities that have been opened up for me! Here are some of my key learning points and thoughts provided to me by different leaders that I’ve spoken to about my career journey.
Business thinking takes time but is #1 to succeed
This is one of the key mindset shifts for any domain experts, where our key focus was originally deliverables and ensuring tasks are completed on time. Now, as a functional leader, not only do you have to keep the deliverables and task discipline, there’s an additional layer of business outcomes that you’re responsible for, and the business discipline is where the biggest jump is, in my opinion. One might think it’s not that different given that we’re all still gunning for the same outcomes, but as a functional leader, you’re now steering the ship in your function to meet the set outcomes for the business. How then does one shift his or her mindset into that? I’ve learned that rather than only thinking about the quantity of items being done and how to get them done, WHAT it’s going to get us from a results perspective is the next level of questioning to add into the mix. Is it easy? Not at all! This shift has been the most challenging for me so far, but we’re learning and improving as we go along.
Speak the business language!
Another key aspect of the shift is about speaking the same language. I’m not talking about english, mandarin or german, but the actual technicalities of the business speak. Something that I’ve come to learn (and fast) when I was 100% focused on design was that the minute I could debate alongside my other departments (say product or marketing), it was so much easier to defend my design decisions. Hence, the same now applies here where rather than only knowing the marketing language, it’s taking it one step further to speak the business language. This not only allows a shared common understanding between the units, it allows for a much more efficient process to take place and hence faster decision-making overall. Understanding terms like EBITDA, COGS, etc, has greatly aided my communications with the Commercial / Business team members to get things done. So, thank you online MBA for that!
Accept your differences and play to your strengths
Something that struck me pretty hard as I’m evaluating my journey and talking to some mentors, is that I DO have a unique set of skills that I could play harder into, rather than trying to fit myself into the same mold of traditional marketing leaders. In our current age and time, there have been so many shifts in how the digital world can be run, and we no longer need to be ‘the same type’ to thrive. Works for me! Since that revelation, rather than forcing myself into the same box, I’ve started to create my own form outside of the box. Not to say that we simply forgo the actual skills (which I’ll cover in the next point), but to accept that there are some differences in my skillsets and be okay to leverage that positively. For me, as a generally creative-led individual, my challenge now is how do I play that to my strengths 10x, while pushing towards a functional leadership role that works?
Continuous learning is still prevalent to succeed
And this is where lifelong learning still aids greatly in anything we want to achieve. While I’ve mentioned that I do not try to be the same leader as traditional leaders, in order to play to my strengths, get business partners to align, speak their language and lead teams in the right direction, there are still certain formalities that need to be kept. Hence, ensuring that I gain the necessary skills and understanding of the function is integral to success, and this can come in several ways - be it formal training, masterclasses, mentorships etc, as long as we do not stagnate ourselves and continue to add new skills, we will always stay relevant in the industry we want to be in.
I hope this little sharing will help anyone who’s thinking of making a change or is trying to push themselves into a new role. While I’ve a long way to go to grow into this as well, these tips have greatly aided my journey so far and I cannot wait to keep seeing where my trajectory goes from here!