"Leadership is the ability to inspire people to do what they never thought they could."
I find inspiration from my teammates and colleagues just as much as from creative tasks. I've managed teams for many years in almost every job I've had. Developing my skills and experience has boosted my confidence in working with diverse people and supporting their careers.
While talent can be taught, Culture and growth must be attended to like a ship stern or new plant. It needs attention and nutrients.
My experience helping designers find their direction and growth has been fulfilling for them and myself. Watching someone excel and expand their influence is what leadership really is about.
Designers need new skills that aren’t just related to visual impact. I’ve helped designers grow their skills using tools like Pendo, Maze and Design Partners to bring informed decisions into their skillset.
Creating Paths, funnels to understand user engagement is helpful. Also knowing where we should be focusing our designer energy is key to quality products and designers spending the most time what they are good at. Designing awesome solutions!
Planning is key to success with big teams. Expectations run high when exciting work starts. Ensuring that teams are aligned to complete projects is important for obvious reasons like business success but also employee morale and quality products.
With a distributed team in multiple time zones i’ve worked to help designers feel empowered to make decisions while being available to give them feedback and support when needed. Micromanagement can be the death of morale but not making enough time or supporting people that are remote can also leave them feeling alone and not really part of the team.
It’s an amazing human trait that the spark of inspiration and excitement has the ability to get people to do things they never thought possible or to try ideas that they would have left on the shelf. It’s truly exponential the energy that can be harnessed by allowing others to dream big. One of my favorite quotes is: “Be Bold. It has genius, power and magic in it.”
I’m a hands on leader. But even if I wasn’t authenticity can’t be faked and one of the strongest ways to ensure your team supports and trusts you is to do and exmplify the things you would also like them to embrace. Want people to meet deadlines? Then being on time for your work and other visible tasks needs to be the norm, not the exception.
Be the manager you would want. One of the most classic sayings is, people don’t leave bad jobs, they leave bad managers. I mostly agree. Sometimes the whole thing doesn’t work but often in the mid sized companies, there is no other place to transfer to or jump teams and poor leadership can lead to attrition and more company spend.
Personal growth and development plans don’t just happen. Helping team members grow in their careers using a framework that allows them to share where they are coming from and where they want to get to can be very impactful and meaningful for both manager and individual.
Unfortunately what many workers experience is someone is asking them to write goals that go in a tool like Workday to check a box. I can hardly think of more undesirable task if that was me. Especially for designers.
Goals don’t have to be that way! I’m a firm believer that if you work with them to understand their career path ideas and move towards actionable items, it helps them feel valued, energized and motivated. Inspired team members can be a force to reckon with! If a system like OKRs helps, then great. Whatever works do it.
Lots of companies talk about culture. It’s easy to discuss and even have offsites about, but you have to cultivate and work to grow the parts that people want to engage in and be a part of. Encourage experimentation and learning. If design members know that going the extra mile is encouraged, they will be more likely to put in the extra effort.
Have fun, create fun. In a world of zoom meetings, hybrid work and ever changing budgets, finding real ways to foster creativity and engage designers is super important. An example we did when two teams were joining forces was to have everyone illustrate themselves and fill out a card about themselves and then we used zoom rooms to share. It’s still one of my favorite things we’ve done as a team.
Not all times in a companies journey is smooth sailing. When the excrement is hitting the fan, you don’t need to have all the answers but often, people just want to know what’s going on and to feel heard. Managing to that is key. It’s far better to say, “I don’t know but i’ll find out” than to say nothing or give false information.