My job isn't to be the smartest person in the room. It's to build a room where the smartest answer wins, no matter who it came from.
Early in my career I worked under leaders who ran their marketing teams like a hub-and-spoke wheel, every decision routed through them, every piece of creative reviewed by them, every strategy shaped in their image. It produced consistent output. It also produced teams that stopped thinking for themselves, because why bother when the leader was going to rewrite it anyway.
I lead differently, and I've been intentional about it for years: I lead from behind.
What that actually means
Leading from behind doesn't mean being passive. It means my job is to set a clear direction, build the systems and guardrails that let people move fast inside that direction, and then get out of the way. I spend my energy on the things only a CMO can do: setting strategy, protecting the team from noise, making the case for budget, and removing obstacles before they become blockers. I don't spend it micromanaging the work of people I hired because they're better at their specific craft than I am.
This shows up in concrete ways. I build scorecards and operating rhythms that give my team clarity on what winning looks like, so they don't need me in every meeting to know if they're on track. I hire for judgment, not just skill, because judgment is what lets someone make the right call when I'm not in the room. And I give credit publicly and take blame privately, because a team that trusts its leader to have its back will take bigger, smarter risks.
Why it works
The teams I've built this way have consistently punched above their headcount. At Simio, a lean marketing organization delivered 3x user growth and quadrupled market visibility. At TROY Group, a team of six delivered 125%+ to a multimillion-dollar budget. That doesn't happen because one leader is brilliant. It happens because a team of capable people were given real ownership and the infrastructure to execute on it.
Where I draw the line
Leading from behind isn't the same as being hands-off. When a decision genuinely needs the CMO, whether that's a positioning call with company-wide implications or a hard conversation with a stakeholder, I step in directly. The skill isn't staying out of everything. It's knowing which decisions actually require you, and trusting your team with the rest.
I write more about this in practice on the Insights page, including how it shapes hiring, budget conversations, and post-merger integration work.