Carry Your Backpack

Super Bowl–winning head coach Tony Dungy once said that to make a difference as a leader, you have to walk alongside your people, lifting and encouraging them along the way. That mindset has become one of the biggest lessons I’ve learned as a 3× SDR Manager. But it wasn’t always that way. Early on, I tried carrying everyone’s backpack, essentially doing their work, only to find there weren’t enough hours in the day.

It was all my fault. I didn’t want to miss quota, and we didn’t, but in the process,  I was holding the team back. The more backpacks I carried, the less responsibility my team took. The more Saturdays I worked.

At Namely, I was promoted from SDR to SDR Team Lead after being named SDR of the Year. I wanted to prove I could achieve the same success as a leader, but my ego got the best of me. I ignored the feedback that leadership wasn’t about carrying everyone’s backpack, a weight I wish I had let go of earlier.

Later at Bitwarden, I knew it was time to change my ways. So, I began listening to podcasts, reading books, and learning from mentors.

Today, I:

| Discuss each task

| Define success

| Assign the right owner

| Schedule next steps

Now, I trust my team to carry their own backpacks. If an SDR can’t handle it, I’ll step in, preventing bottlenecks. This lets me focus on leading while driving impact. Tony Dungy said it best: “To make a difference as a leader, you have to walk alongside your people, lifting and encouraging them along the way.”