It’s natural to think of leadership as something that works from the top down. But what’s to say that it can’t come from within a team’s ranks? With strict hierarchies in place, it may be less intuitive to look at individual contributors and find leaders, but finding and encouraging the trailblazers in a team’s rank and file may have outsized rewards in a changing workplace.
“Cultural revolutions like the #MeToo movement and Black Lives Matter are revealing a new generation of modern leaders who don’t see leadership as something that establishes and protects power,” said David Sturt, executive vice president at the O.C. Tanner Institute. “They want power to be shared as a means of enabling change for all.”
In an editorial for Forbes, Sturt examined the benefits of a modern leadership style over a traditional one. The author noted that, according to O.C. Tanner data, workplaces that embrace and encourage a less structured approach can increase the quality of employee experience by 55 percent, increase measures of employee well-being by 66 percent and even increase the odds of revenue growth by more than 80 percent.
By spearheading projects, shifting perspectives in fruitful ways and shaping a collaborative environment, individual team members can have far-reaching influence on company culture and success, and they can do it while encouraging peers to excel in a similar fashion.
Built In Colorado recently sat down with five team members whose contributions and leadership skills are proving increasingly important in a rapidly modernizing work environment.
FRONTSTEPS is a SaaS-based resident engagement platform created to simplify how property management companies, homeowners associations and other groups build, connect, operate and secure more than 23,000 modern communities.
Describe your role at FRONTSTEPS and the most exciting project you’re working on right now.
I am the resident engagement manager at FRONTSTEPS, and I partner with property management companies to help raise awareness and usage of their FRONTSTEPS solution with homeowners.
Building a resident engagement program from the ground up is the most exciting project I’m currently working on. I’m testing different strategies and communication methods to drive portal registrations and online payment adoption. I get to provide marketing consultation and build communication campaigns that generate excitement and showcase the value of new technology.
I’ve used my leadership skills to be innovative and fail forward, always adapting and changing.”
How have you shown leadership in your current role?
For years, our company has mainly focused on B2B efforts in the form of providing a fully integrated association management platform that optimizes productivity and profitability for the clients we serve. We’ve realized that in order to be a key differentiator in a competitive marketplace, we must develop a connected platform that keeps management companies, community managers, boards and residents on the same page.
Focusing our efforts on both B2B and B2C provides value and stickiness with our clients. We not only provide the most complete, connected and homeowner friendly software available, but we also help clients market this technology to residents.
In my current role, I’ve had to rely on cross-functional collaboration and partnership to grow B2C initiatives. This is a new and exciting venture for our company so challenges and opportunities are expected. I’ve used my leadership skills to be innovative and fail forward, always adapting and changing. I’ve had to persevere and be resilient.
What do you see as a potential career path in the near future, and who or what will help you get to your next level?
I see myself continuing to develop and grow our B2C initiatives, potentially leading a resident engagement team one day. Building a strong diverse team and fostering relationships to deliver an excellent customer experience is of utmost importance to me. The wisdom and guidance I receive from my manager and our leadership team is invaluable and will help me achieve my next career opportunity.
Neat Loans’ mission is to provide a transparent, organized and digital-first home loan experience. The company leverages technology to provide mortgages, purchase loans and refinancing services.
Describe your role at Neat Loans and the most exciting project you’re working on right now.
When I joined the inside sales team, my position wasn’t fully written out, but that was part of the excitement. As the senior inside sales operations specialist, my position involves pipeline management, call-center software management, sales incentives data collection and team licensure management. In addition, I have been able to join projects across various departments including marketing and compliance.
Recently, what excites me the most is researching new loan product opportunities that align with my ability to create a greater social impact in my professional work.
How have you shown leadership in your current role?
I have an introverted soul, so I demonstrate leadership in my current role through my work. I serve in a critical position where I keep the wheels turning as we grow and scale our fintech startup. In the background, I assist with sales, but more so, I work hard to encourage and motivate every single person on the team, both individually and in group discussions. And I make sure to acknowledge each person’s accomplishments the same way as well.
I may not be the loudest person in the room, but I demonstrate leadership by being dependable, accountable and a great communicator. I have come to learn that you don’t need to be aggressive, overly talkative or extroverted to be in a position of leadership. Listening is an important quality common to some of the best leaders, as listeners ensure that employees are seen and heard.
I may not be the loudest person in the room, but I demonstrate leadership by being dependable, accountable and a great communicator.”
What do you see as a potential career path in the near future, and who or what will help you get to your next level?
What excites me the most about being a part of an evolving startup is the growth potential. At Neat Loans, I have found that there are numerous potential career paths with coworkers jumping around to different departments and positions of leadership. I have been fortunate enough to have supportive managers who are always looking out for their employees and want to actively train me for a position of leadership.
As a young professional, I am excited about the new challenges ahead of me. I value the support I receive from my current management as I learn how to tap into my strengths and grow into the leader I aspire to be.
FluentStream provides a suite of cloud-based software apps that offers businesses a single system to manage and improve live customer communications, replacing legacy business phone systems with video conferencing, screen-sharing, and other messaging channels.
Describe your role at FluentStream and the most exciting project you’re working on right now.
At FluentStream, the role of an individual contributor is dynamic and multifaceted. It’s critical that you be consistently willing to learn and improve in order to meet the needs of our fast-paced environment.
We interpret the phrase “improvise, adapt, overcome” — originally coined by the U.S. Marines and more recently popularized by Bear Grylls — quite literally at FluentStream. There are always interesting and complex problems to address and an awesome team of contributors ready and willing to rise to the occasion.
The most interesting project I’m currently working on is sunsetting our legacy platform. Performance, security, data retention, structural integrity and maintenance — all of it must be considered as we move toward a faster, more secure and more robust enterprise communications solution.
It’s critical that you be consistently willing to learn and improve in order to meet the needs of our fast-paced environment.”
How have you shown leadership in your current role?
As one of the longest-tenured contributors at FluentStream, I’ve carved a niche enabling folks to work quicker and more efficiently in our legacy repositories. I regularly advise the rest of the team on the nuances of our old code bases, writing documentation and implementing custom tooling that allows the rest of the team to make quick work of any potential legacy development.
I also contribute to my fair share of new projects. Understanding what is just around the corner allows me to better anticipate the needs of my teammates, as well as how I may need to adapt myself or my project in order to meet current or future criteria.
What do you see as a potential career path in the near future, and who or what will help you get to your next level?
My career goals for the near future actually don’t look all that different from my current position. I hope to continue improving personally and professionally, developing myself in ways that will allow me to become a better and more adaptable developer.
The technology in our industry is always changing, and doing so rapidly, so staying on top of the industry as well as improving my soft skills are both always at the top of my to-do list. For me, the goal is to stay ahead of the curve in terms of job expectations.
Additionally, I will continue to do my best to leave my comfort zone in constructive ways. As a naturally introverted individual, it feels important that I do my best to consistently improve my soft skills by pushing myself to lead more discussions, speak out when necessary and even contribute to Built In Colorado.
Boasting a technology department with more than 350 employees, FirstBank is one of the largest privately held banks in the nation with over $27 billion in assets and more than 100 locations throughout Colorado, Arizona and California.
Describe your role at FirstBank and the most exciting project you’re working on right now.
I work at FirstBank as a project manager in the enterprise team in IT. Currently, I am working on a project called Appian QuickHits. We started this project more than a year ago to allow business departments to automate some of the processes that were being managed manually.
In the initial stages, we built out a new framework in Appian as well as a checklist to help our internal business users determine if their process may be a good candidate for this application. We also created an intake template to help departments capture necessary requirements.
Some of the key features within Appian QuickHits offer automation by providing workflows that support work queues, notifications, escalations, task management and simple usage metrics. This framework helps streamline certain business processes and make them more efficient. It’s been exciting to see this project come to fruition over the past year.
Promoting diversity within the workplace is something that is close to my heart.”
How have you shown leadership in your current role?
I am an active member in the S.T.R.I.D.E. — which stands for Strength Through Recognition of Inclusion, Diversity and Equity — Committee at FirstBank. I’ve taken on a leadership role and manage several of our internal recognitions and holiday celebrations.
Being a part of this committee and promoting diversity within the workplace is something that is close to my heart. I came to the United States when I was eight years old. Coming from a different culture and linguistic background allowed me to provide a unique perspective and help us advance toward our overall diversity, equity and inclusion goals as a company. We are stronger together when we hear from all perspectives and viewpoints, especially those related to diversity and inclusion.
What do you see as a potential career path in the near future, and who or what will help you get to your next level?
Early in my career, I worked for multiple software companies in a variety of roles. I want to develop my career in software delivery and to manage my own team. I am surrounded by an amazing leadership team of people who help me learn more about our business and develop my skill set so that I can be successful in a management role in the future.
AdAction is a mobile app marketing platform that delivers more than 6 million monthly conversions for game developers and other companies.
Describe your role at AdAction and the most exciting project you’re working on right now.
My role as the manager of growth strategy and operations is a multi-faceted opportunity that allows me to couple my experience with mobile app growth and cultivating innovative strategies to being a business stakeholder on our newest endeavors. As we work to expand our user acquisition opportunities to our clients, we are generating exciting new products that will help AdAction cement its place as a leader in our industry.
How have you shown leadership in your current role?
In our most recent project, we were initially working with a very bootstrapped team which required leadership, organization and ownership. As we were all major stakeholders from a business and technical perspective, we worked cross-functionally, setting the groundwork for a product that has unlimited potential.
In addition to this, AdAction has also engaged me to participate in our Women in Leadership program, which gives me the opportunity to provide mentorship to my peers. This ties into one of our core company competencies to provide the tools to allow autonomous growth, both professionally and personally.
By staying curious and passionate, I am extremely hopeful about what is to come in the future.”
What do you see as a potential career path in the near future, and who or what will help you get to your next level?
AdAction leadership has done an amazing job of empowering me to define my own career path. In transitioning to our growth team, I was able to outline my ideal responsibilities and set key performance indicators for myself so that I had a blueprint to achieve the skill sets needed to execute in my new role.
Our team is full of industry experts, and I will continue to leverage their support and knowledge to help propel me to my next level. By staying curious and passionate, I am extremely hopeful about what is to come in the future.
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