Design Leadership and Transition
Initially when I first started to focus my coaching practice on design leaders in transition. I didn’t fully realize why. It felt intuitive based on my own experience. However, as I continue on my coaching practice I am recognizing how pivotal this transition period really is.
The jump from seeing yourself as a designer to design leader isn’t just about learning new skills but dealing with the emotional rollercoaster and identity tensions that come with it. My own jump to leadership meant I had to let go of how I saw myself professionally while also acknowledging that I was more than just a designer.
Understanding Transitions
Two models that have helped me make sense of this change are William Bridges’ Transition Model and Hal Gregerson’s Transition Leadership Model.
For Bridges the “beginning” stage of transition always starts with the end, the struggle of loss, and leaving behind what once was. For Gregerson, these first stages of transitions are spaces where new questions appear, forcing us to ask ourselves who we are and what we need to do. The most precarious stage however is what Bridges calls the “neutral zone”, and which Gregerson speaks to as the “middle stage”. In both models, they show how this period can be the most fraught in terms of role, emotions, and capabilities. It’s where we can feel the most incompetent, and where we ask ourselves questions of whether we can even do this. This is where the work is, it’s the most uncomfortable, but it’s also a period filled with creativity as we aim to reinvent ourselves. If we rush to try to “arrive” through we might lose the opportunities we need to learn and become better leaders. Past this stage, we find ourselves in what could be considered a new beginning, or in a phase of movement and then eventually mastery. While still filled with uncertainty, we can feel a sense of energy, openness, exploration and acceptance. The questions shift from who am I to who am I becoming, and as we continue on our journey, who have I become.
Finding Direction Through Coaching
Moving through this middle stage or neutral zone is where I see non-directive developmental coaching having the greatest impact. Design leaders in transition are often on their own for support, grabbing onto various communities, learning journeys, or approaches. Adam Fry-Pierce interaction with thousands of design leaders exposed common patterns of needs, but also the different ways leaders seek to navigate this change.
In my belief coaching can be a tool you use to make sense of this transition. It can provide a safe environment to talk through the emotional rollercoaster, while also gaining new personal perspectives, and support prototyping actions and decisions that are grounded in a fuller sense of self-awareness of what you value and need. Most importantly it doesn’t rely on expert advice, but rather draws on your strengths, resources and personal expertise to discover a way forward for you.
This post is a small introduction on this subject that I hope to expand on in detail in future articles. If you are interested in design leadership coaching and how it might help you or others you work with you can contact me at astar@studio-we.com. We are offering a special prototype offering and pricing for those that are new to coaching.
[1] Bridges Transition Model: https://wmbridges.com/about/what-is-transition/
[2] Navigating the Human Side of Transitions in Times of Change: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mf4Ki6_Z538
