Conscious unbossing isn’t just a Gen Z thing. I’m a CMO who did it

"Conscious unbossing" is not exclusively a Gen Z trend. In fact, senior professionals, including myself as a former CMO, are increasingly opting out of the management track and returning to hands-on work. In the tech industry, this phenomenon is referred to as the "Super IC," with top individual contributors now earning salaries comparable to directors.

My own experience mirrors this trend. Having climbed the ranks from product marketing to CMO, overseeing a 65-person team, I recently chose to relinquish my team and resume doing the work myself. Now, as the founding marketer at AGI Inc., I handle all aspects of the function, from crafting copy to designing decks and managing every channel.

In the past four months alone, I've secured two major partnerships, orchestrated a complete rebrand, and simultaneously marketed three product directions tailored to distinct audiences. The intensity of this workload continues to astound me. I recently crafted a partner newsletter, including design and systems, within just 4 hours—a task that previously required a brief, a designer, and a week of waiting.

I've also organized 16 events in the last three months, with 10 being independently hosted and 6 co-hosted with partners, each event typically necessitating a team of three or four. One such event even resulted in the recruitment of four new hires. I am not alone in this decision. Elena Verna, a prominent growth leader in tech, recently abandoned her position as head of growth at Lovable to return to hands-on work.

She subsequently single-handedly developed an enterprise pricing page, a process that usually involves a product manager, a designer, and an engineering team. She has coined the term "high-impact IC," which encompasses individuals who can manage a project from inception to completion on their own. The shift in career dynamics can be attributed to the rise of artificial intelligence.

A recent Microsoft work trend report revealed that two-thirds of individuals utilizing AI reported it liberates them for more meaningful work, with over half stating they are creating things unattainable a year prior. This aligns with my experience—AI enables me to accomplish tasks that once required an entire team. At the early stages of one's career, the data supporting the correlation between higher pay and managerial roles holds true.

However, at the senior level, this correlation loses relevance. In the tech sector, this shift is already reflected in compensation, with the most skilled individual contributors beginning to surpass the earnings of their managerial counterparts. The advantages I have gained include sharper instincts, as I can intuitively sense what is working, and ample time to focus on my primary expertise: connecting people and ideas.

This skill remains consistent whether I am managing a marketing organization or a community of 10,000 individuals. The AI revolution not only allows me to bypass a management layer but also eliminates the need for junior hires. The routine tasks I previously delegated to a 23-year-old are now handled by AI, a development that PwC has observed in AI-heavy industries.

Entry-level roles in these fields are now seven times more likely to demand senior skills, and marketing hiring has declined by 36%, according to SignalFire data. Stanford's payroll data further indicates a 16% decrease in early-career workers in exposed roles. To thrive in this new paradigm, I would advocate for a departure from the notion that management is the sole path to advancement.

Organizations should instead establish a dedicated senior track that offers substantial compensation and significant responsibility. This approach would enable the retention of top-tier talent who prefer to concentrate on work rather than managing teams.