Instead of promoting the best salesperson or hiring externally, identify potential leaders and put them in a 12-month development program. This builds a bench of prepared leaders, lets some self-select out, and avoids costly hiring mistakes. It requires long-term thinking.

Companies mistakenly bundle management with authority, forcing top performers onto a management track to gain influence. Separate them. Define management's role as coordination and context-sharing, allowing senior individual contributors to drive decisions without managing people.

Formal leadership roles are not the only way to lead. Aspiring leaders should seek opportunities to guide projects, initiatives, or teams they don't directly manage. These experiences provide valuable feedback and demonstrate leadership capability long before a promotion, removing the mental boundary that a title is required to lead.

An Individual Contributor (IC) who takes the initiative to lead a company's AI adoption gains immense visibility and cross-functional influence. It's a rare opportunity to demonstrate leadership far beyond one's defined role, opening doors to high-profile projects, interactions with senior leadership, and external recognition.

Traditional top-down mentorship is obsolete. An effective organization facilitates knowledge flow in all directions, like a traffic roundabout. For example, a junior employee can coach a senior leader on AI tools, while the leader coaches them on customer empathy and navigating corporate politics.

Kipp Bodnar attributes his rise at HubSpot to both scaling the blog and actively helping other marketers. This made him the natural choice for leadership roles when they opened up, as he had already informally demonstrated leadership and value beyond his specific role.

High-performing ICs shouldn't view management as a one-way promotion. Instead, it's a temporary "tour of duty" taken on to solve a specific problem that has scaled beyond one person. The goal is to build a team, set a direction, and then transition back to an IC role to find the next challenge.

Transitioning from a top-performing rep requires a mindset shift from doing to enabling. A new leader's role is not to teach their specific 'Michael Jordan' method, but to align company and personal goals, then focus on removing obstacles for each team member's unique path to success.

A sales leader's value isn't in managing from headquarters. It's in being on the front lines, personally engaging in the most challenging deals to figure out the winning sales motion. Only after living in the field and closing landmark deals can they effectively build a playbook and teach the team.