Fostering Growth & Creating Opportunity
The biggest return on investment I've experienced in my career is growing the future leaders on my teams. Most designers want to be challenged and to grow in their careers. It is just as important for their leaders to identify or even create opportunities as it is for them to seek out and seize them. In my 6 years of design leadership I have had the privilege of supporting and challenging the leaders on my teams.
- In 2021 I had the opportunity to promote two highly capable leads on my team at Ascension to be our first UX Managers. I trust in their ability to lead while maintaining a growth mindset. During our recent organizational change, I created opportunities to elevate them from the team-level roles they were in to strategic portfolio-level roles that will challenge them and foster their growth as leaders.
- When I joined Praxent there was a very talented and empathetic design lead on the team with a lot of potential as a people leader. I discovered that he had also applied for the role I was in but was told that he didn't have the qualities of leadership to do the job well. I believe that anyone has the capability to be a good leader given the right coaching and support. I challenged and supported him on his journey and he stepped in to lead that team less than 2 years later.
- In every leadership role I've been in, I've challenged the people on my teams to take on missions that provided the growth and skill building they were seeking. At Blackboard, I fostered multiple team leaders from mid-senior level designers. One in particular was only a few years into her career but demonstrated a high level of strategic thinking, professional maturity, and leadership capability. With support and mentorship from myself and the leadership team, she quickly excelled as a team lead.
Reducing Friction & Frustration
At Ascension I identified a serious issue with how the team was staffed against the products in our portfolio. Designers were stretched thin and burnt out. I worked with the leaders on my team to create a squad model that would scale effectively with our portfolio while addressing the way people were staffed and supported on their projects.
Radical Candor, Trust & Vulnerability
It's easy to say you want a culture where people can be radically candid with each other. But most people need a foundation of trust before they feel comfortable being candid with each other and their leaders. One way I consistently work to build trust with my team and the people around me is through vulnerability. I have a relentless drive for personal growth. Being open about the ways in which I stumble, how I aspire to be better, being authentically open to feedback and making changes when I get it are just some of the ways that I embrace vulnerability to inspire trust and a growth mindset in others. With that comes a culture of radical candor.
- In early 2022 we went through some challenging organizational changes. There were moments where I may have been too open with my frustrations in a way that likely added stress for the people on my team. I addressed this directly in our team all-hands to be open about what I was experiencing, how I may have impacted them, and how I could support them better. Not by obfuscating the truth but by working to affect change and to improve our ability to deal with challenges together. I had a similar frank conversation with my VP to build trust, hold myself accountable, and to seek guidance.
- I always address conflict head-on with an individual. But I always do so from a place of trust, respect, and empathy. In my first month at a new role, I had to give an executive leader critical feedback about their behavior towards a few individuals in their organization. I was humbled that these people trusted me so early on. I had only just arrived and was still getting to know everyone. However, it was important and needed to be addressed so I scheduled time and put a lot of thought into how I wanted to approach the conversation. I started by telling them that the conversation was going to be difficult, that while I was there as an advocate for others I was also there in support of them, and that I would help everyone involved to find a path forward. The leader was very open to the feedback and thanked me afterward for how I handled it.
Investing in People
Early in my leadership journey, I was assigned a team member who had been having issues with others. I was told I could fire this person, as many trusted individuals had been complaining about their performance. But I wanted to understand the source of the challenges and how we could overcome them together. I dug in with all parties and synthesized my findings to identify the key elements driving the behavioral issues. Over the next 60 days I worked with the individual to structure weekly plans that first addressed foundational changes and then built on each of them over time. This individual not only overcame the situation but they thrived and became one of my most capable team members.
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