Acumen Leadership Workshop: The culture we deserve
This is the third entry in my leadership journal for Seth Godin’s Leadership Workshop on Udemy. Read the previous post on this here.
What does it mean to do the right thing?
Mr. Godin poses this question to us. He says that sometimes, leaders become obsessed with getting the job done and forget about what truly matters. It’s interesting because this is a pretty controversial idea. How much will you choose to do the right thing when push comes to shove? How do you build a culture of collaboration, encouragement, and strong values you care about? How much are we willing to sacrifice in order to become that leader who protects?
Prompt Questions
What does it mean to do the right thing even when there’s a popular shortcut?
It means being brave. It’s often very difficult to do the right thing. A lot of things get in the way of this such as pride, ego, and sometimes cowardice. I’m the first to admit that sometimes I let these things get in the way, trying to avoid the conflict and politics as much as I can.
It means being accountable. I think people forget that what we do affect people’s lives and jobs. As a designer, I know that I’m first and foremost responsible for our customers’ experience in our app. There should always be a shared understanding that a user’s goals are our goals and that most of the time, quick wins aren’t the best route to take because those doesn’t necessarily solve the core problem.
It means knowing who I am. I’m a very honest and straightforward person. I say it how it is, no fluff. I’ll always fight for the user and that’s just who I am. In your career, no one can make you do anything you don’t want to do.
Consider the journey that you and your team are on. Do the ends justify the means? What’s right and where do you draw the line? Does everyone in your culture draw the line in the same place?
This is a difficult question to answer and I think I touched on this a bit in the previous question. In product, there are trade offs you have to make in order to provide value to your customers. I think in my company, there’s a misconception that we need to continuously be delivering customer-facing features. When the reality is, an investment in our infrastructure, both in technical and design terms, are necessary for success. I still find that we don’t test our product enough and therefore have a hard time understanding what our users are actually going through, what they’re trying to accomplish, what kinds of information they are looking for from our app.
I personally think that I foster a culture of collaboration in the different teams I’m a part of. I ruffle feathers sometimes because I look at the bigger picture and propose for things that are not currently possible. But again, there’s a lot of forward thinking involved when it comes to building a great strategy. When I keep championing and embodying the importance of our company’s overall experience — I do think that the end justify the means because you reap what you sow. I’m not sure everyone draws the line in the same place.
What sort of control are you willing to give up to get closer to your goal?
I think the natural path to my goal is actually spending less time designing, and more time building relationships. A lot of design actually happens outside of tools. It’s the conversations you have, the buy-in you get because of how you present things. I guess for the longest time I’ve always wanted to become that technical person who can produce perfectly, but as my career develops, I’m more and more curious on how businesses operate and how high-performing teams can be an output of culture.
