Name: Christina Inge

Title: Founder

Organisation: Thoughtlight, LLC

Christina Inge is the Founder and CEO of Thoughtlight, a tech consulting company that specializes in digital marketing and analytics strategies. She has worked with well-established brands such as Nissan, Smithsonian, and Pega Systems, as well as a range of startups and nonprofits. Based in Boston, Massachusetts, she is a member of the Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council and has served on the board of the American Marketing Association-Boston. An instructor at Harvard University Extension School and Northeastern University College of Professional Studies, she is a frequent and sought-after speaker and has been published in numerous industry publications.

Thank you to the 2,000 leaders who’ve generously done the 7 Questions on Leadership!

I hope Christina's answers will encourage you in your leadership journey. Enjoy!

Cheers,

Jonno White

1. What have you found most challenging as a leader?

To be honest, as a recovering people pleaser, it's been providing structure and accountability. I like to give people the freedom to be creative, self-directed, and empowered to make decisions. That has led me to be a bit too hands-off in the past. Learning to find that balance between support and control has been challenging but rewarding

2. How did you become a leader? Can you please briefly tell the story?

I was always the little girl tasked with coming up with ideas for games and organizing activities. Teachers sometimes left me in charge when they had to step out of the classroom. In my career, my first leadership role came when I became VP of Social Media for the Boston chapter of the American Marketing Association in the 2000s.

In that role, I led teams of volunteers in managing the online community and social media presence of the organization, as well as producing industry events on emerging digital media. I'm eternally grateful to AMA for giving me and so many other marketers the opportunity to learn new skills. It was a great experience learning how to best identify and channel the talents of creative professionals to create something useful

3. How do you structure your work days from waking up to going to sleep?

I wake up early, like 6 or 6:30, make coffee, let the dogs out, and check my Slack. I deal with anything that needs my attention that came in overnight - I have clients and team members around the world. Then, my partner and I take the train to our respective offices, and I take that time to either catch up on emails or read. Right now, I'm reading a lot about the impact of AI both on marketing and society as a whole. I get to the office, and then it's go go go all day: I try to balance meetings, responding to messages, and doing deep work, such as working on thought leadership or sorting a challenging technical problem.

I teach Master's courses in the evenings at both Northeastern and Harvard, so my evening schedule varies by semester. If it's a teaching night, I head to class, which is energizing. It's great to share what's going on in marketing with brilliant graduate students in professional studies. If it's not a teaching night, a hard rule is to be home around 6:30 and eat dinner. We eat at the table, and there are no phones at the table.

After dinner, I aim to catch up on whatever is most urgent, but I try to limit that work to under an hour. By this point, I will have been "on" and working since 6:30 am. It's important to have time together as a couple, time with friends, and time with my pets. In summer, we take the dogs to the park, chat with friends who are there with their dogs, and enjoy some sunshine. In the winter, reading is where it's at.

4. What's a recent leadership lesson you've learned for the first time or been reminded of?

People need structure and vision to do their best work. You may have a great vision, but if you are so focused on execution that you don't take time to communicate it often and clearly, your team may not be able to follow because they are not clear on where you're leading them. You need to not only have a clear, powerful vision but also be sure you convey not just the details but the passion behind it. That is not fluff. It's not just energizing, but it also gives teams a more actionable roadmap

5. What's one book that has had a profound impact on your leadership so

far? Can you please briefly tell the story of how that book impacted your leadership?

Boundaries by Henry Cloud. It changed the way I thought about how we engage with the world. It shares how being passive and people-pleasing are dysfunctions and that truly engaging with others kindly and healthily involves setting standards and expectations.

6. If you could only give one piece of advice to a young leader, what would you say to them?

Find your leadership style and identify its strengths. I believe that you give your team clear vision and structure, and trust them to be self-starters, give them room to grow, and focus on results. This means tons of accountability but also a lot of flexibility, for instance, to work when and where it works best for a team member. Everyone has their own way of engaging with work and with people. Know yourself, be self-critical, and be honest with yourself.

7. What is one meaningful story that comes to mind from your time as a leader, so far? It would be from my first leadership experience as VP of Marketing at AMA. We were hosting shoestring budget events to address the demand of marketers at that time to learn about digital marketing, an emerging field in those days. Our first meeting was on the night of the Final Four, a huge basketball tournament in the US, and the weather was pouring rain. No one showed up, just me and my team, but we sat together at the venue and had dinner and had a great time.

I said we would keep trying. The community needs what we are offering: these affordable, quality educational events. My team was 100% behind the vision, so we didn't let that setback matter. The next month, we had a good turnout, and less than a year after that setback, one event not only sold out, but we had to turn people away because we were at capacity. Having that collective faith to weather initial setbacks is the responsibility of a leader. You need to have unshakeable faith that what you're all doing is important, valuable, and makes a contribution to the world.