The Thing About Leadership

To set some context;

I’m a designer.

I have 9 years practical experience.

I love design — of all flavours.

That’s me in a nutshell. Everything else in my career is based on chance— but this essential mix has lead to me becoming a ‘leader’ of other designers and a wider community of people outside my specific domain, whether they like it or not.

This all came early in my career, at a point where my sole objective (was) to climb the ladder quickly and aggressively – take risks and make the most of every opportunity which came my way. My focus until this point was to design beautiful things that people would love to use, and as a result, be recognised for the work I did both by the people I designed for as well as reported to.

But the last year has taught me so much about what leadership means and how my path has dictated and influenced my decision making as well as my general approach to leadership.

After a year of leadership — some good and some bad — I have stories of elation at a team member’s growth and the subsequent success of a product, as well as stories of failure to fully support someone when they needed me most, and the latter prompted me to become a little introspective.

Looking back

I was fortunate enough to have some incredible leaders around me for my first three years in business – and I hope they know who they are – with whom I forged meaningful relationships and who instilled a diverse range of views and experience that would be a catalyst for my own journey. At this stage I didn’t realise why they were good leaders (if I even considered it at all). They were just good friends who knew more about the world than me and supported me during the ups and the downs of starting out in my career.

Then I decided to go freelance for the next three years, and lost it all.

Don’t get me wrong, freelancing in its own way gave me opportunities and experience that would never have been available to me as a permanent employee in a larger, more structured company. But what I gained in ego and compensation, I lost in purpose and meaningful (business) relationships.

For my employers; my contribution as a contract designer was about margin optimisation. Being super focussed on delivering high value output without the need for support. For them it was finding a tactical solution to a short term need to meet the ever-changing demands on a business. This wasn’t to say they were dismissive or neglectful. Of the dozen odd businesses I worked with over those three years they all had an inclusive culture for contractors as they understood the mutual benefits on both sides of the coin. But inclusion is not adoption, a day-rate is not investment, and being ‘in-house’ is not belonging.

This meant I became very independent as a designer and set myself a high bar that I continuously pushed myself to hit. For me it was about gaining experience at a range of agencies, startups and businesses, as well as enjoying a comfortable and flexible lifestyle.

Although I loved being included into teams at other organisations, seeing how they work and the dynamics between departments , it was never about growing as a team or belonging to a culture bigger than my own set of values. I accepted that, and got on with it.

You can only make decisions based on the information you have available to you at the time, and in this case, digital was booming, I was young, driven and my craft was becoming increasingly valued by organisations big and small, so going it alone was the right decision.

Fast forward

Three years later and I now have a responsibility to represent, guide and support other people in a way that often transcends their careers, impacting on their personal lives also. And my realisation of the magnitude of this responsibility has been slowly dawning on me over the last year.

I believe the attitude and focus I learnt from my freelancing days gave me a good basis for the level and expectations we as designers should be striving for. The context I had been missing was how to lead people to reaching those expectations, and provide them with the stability and framework from which to grow.

I learned to recognise that my career is not all about me. Instead ask myself the question; how much value can I add to a business or product? By focussing on my individual contribution, looking after my own interests and personal success the answer will always be limited to the power of one. By focussing on the people around me and endeavouring to break down the barriers that prevent their continued success, the answer is infinite.

I don’t believe you can turn leadership on like a tap. It’s not a case of being good or bad, either/or. It’s understanding the principles of true leadership and devoting a lifetime to developing how best to balance the decisions you make and more importantly, the actions you take to get the best out of those around you.