To lead people, walk behind them. – Lao Tzu
This ah-ha "moment" took place over 4 years. But what made it pivotal was the contrast to my 5 years of leadership that led up to this "moment".
In the beginning...
I was thrust into leadership positions after a year as a junior designer. I now understand why - I am naturally assertive, a systems thinker, a quick-study, moxie, and perseverant. This was great for my early experiences in NYC start-ups where so many people were jumping into the industry with no idea of how to do their jobs.
I joined as the first creative to a new Interactive department complementing their direct mail, promotions, and packing design teams. The VP brought me to lead the digital creative and help rebuild the team. He also recognized the value of UCD and UX - for me it was exciting to work with a VP who actually knew UCD and UX and wanted me to practice it in full!
But I didn't know how to work with the experienced Direct Marketing and Promotions Art Directors and Editors who had ideas about how to approach digital work which was simply a translation of their visual work and taglines to sites - more visual design than an interactive brand experience. I pushed my ideas through and my work performed over industry averages and project success metrics.
And everyone hated me and was resentful. I know this because HR pulled me aside and told me that people didn't like me, and were only tolerating me because my work was so good. I didn't know how to be a leader - I didn't know I needed to be a leader. I also didn't know how to be a female leader which yes played a role in my challenges.
I was recruited by Lockheed Martin Information Technologies to support SSA's effort to modernize the disability process. I accepted a role as a lower-level analyst to be trained in research and testing as well as applications and systems design. I spent the first year in a support position while I was trained in the disability process and policy, how to be a consultant, as well as the formal research and design methodologies.
I was treated as I had treated people - I was micro-managed to a stifling point and dismissed to an unnerving point. I told myself to do what you are told, and when you get to be lead then you can do the work you want to do and assign your support team to do the less desirable work. But over the next year, I saw others were also miserable, and there were certain people we all hated working with because of how condescending and self-promoting they were. I realized it sucks to work in these conditions. I didn't want to be THAT lead. I wanted to be respected and I wanted us all to enjoy our work while we succeed. It created a negative foundation for engaging with stakeholders and a funnel for information.
I decided that when I get to be a project lead, I want to focus on a positive, productive environment and appropriately harness the skills of the team I would lead. I knew what each person liked to do, what they thought they were good at versus what they were actually good at, and what they were working on to expand their skills. I used that in my focus ensuring a successful project with strong team morale putting my ego aside with a vision of being in service to my client, my project, and my team. Our work was good, and I still did the undesirable work at times, but also did the latent work of catching balls and coaching my coworkers to make them feel a sense of individual success.
I realized how much I enjoyed coaching and empowering others to be successful and I didn't mind doing the less 'glamorous' work.
During this experience, I also learned the power of collaboration.
We would kick off a new initiative with stakeholders - anywhere from 6 to 20+. Our success was to get them all to agree on one design, and they all had their own agenda with a few of them having a point on their agenda to disagree with someone else in the room - just on principle and politics. We also needed to ensure the solution was usable to ensure our client was successful. We would schedule everyone for 2-4 hour working sessions. I quickly learned that everyone in the room had valuable information necessary to create a successful, viable, and usable solution. At first, I wondered how are we going to get anything done.
We relied on workshops to create opportunities for collaboration early and often throughout the process. This also empowered everyone to talk consistently about the effort with their teams and leadership. We broke down the hierarchy creating opportunities for everyone to express their ideas without conflict, and facilitated collaboration that got everyone to hear and acknowledge each other. We exposed latent requirements and business rules early to reduce hasty design changes later in the process and/or delays in releases. We fostered a sense of ownership with everyone's contribution acknowledged and addressed, we produced more effective solutions with the multi-discipline collaboration, and everyone worked more efficiently throughout the process. We acknowledged and gave credit to our stakeholders, sometimes planting seeds for them to think of the solutions to challenges to alleviate any feelings of intimidation and foster a sense of control.
Working successfully in one project also set us up to work more successfully in the next project as we were also able to passively educate the organization about the methodology and create demand for our support. Soon we saw people working with sticky notes in their cubes and offices - replicating our workshop activities within their teams - sometimes incorporating our personas.
Again, I enjoyed my teammates' satisfaction and the effectiveness and efficiency of our work. I felt successful.
finding my style
I moved forward with a mindful and service-oriented approach to leadership. I continued to work with federal agencies in DC and witnessed great leadership. People who could lead a room full of people - facilitating remotely. People who could bring the hearts and minds of people together with an inspiring project kick-off meeting without the cheese. People who were experts, brilliant, inspiring, and approachable.
Now - I wanted to be that.
I began to explore leadership and what it means as well as different styles. I discovered the foundations of my working, leading, and managing styles - Transformation Leadership and Growth Mindset.
what it means to lead
Being a lead means being accountable for the success of the effort, the morale of the team, successful clients, and the success of each team member. The success of the solution is always shared by the stakeholders, which includes the project team members.
I learned a lot about myself during my 4 years supporting SSA and leadership. I learned that I feel more successful when I empower my team members to be successful and enjoy their work, and I am helping them grow. I also learned that I learn a lot when I focus on understanding other people's approaches, responses, and thinking.
I also learned that I was a successful mentor. Today mentoring is one of the facets of my career that I enjoy most.
I also learned that perfect designs do not get implemented, and the most successful, innovative designs are created through multi-discipline collaboration. Today I rely heavily on collaboration with clients, team members, and customers/users to ensure an innovative, viable solution.