Here is a nice piece from CMS Newswire on how web professionals often have to take on a leadership role: Why Web Managers are Leaders.

You’re in a delicate situation. You need to show leadership for your website, while at the same time not being seen to usurp the leadership of your senior managers. How do you bring them along? How do you make them feel that they are still the ‘real’ leaders?

This is a common theme in association management to begin with: how to lead while appearing to be led. Usually it is about working with volunteer leadership but the same techniques can be used internally by mid-level web leaders who are trying to get their execs to get behind the best ideas for the site.