Design Leadership
“First and foremost, a design leader needs to be empathetic, driven by curiosity to observe people beyond just dialogue. This will support design leaders to better understand the needs of customers to initiate relevant innovations, drive great design leadership amongst their creative talent, and enable cross-functional collaboration with colleagues." – Eric Quint
Excerpt From: Aarron Walter and Eli Woolery. “Design Leadership Handbook”. Apple Books.
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new managers typically focus on the rights and privileges that come with being the boss. They assume the position will give them more authority and, with that, more freedom and autonomy to do what they think is best for the organization. No longer, in the words of one, will they be “burdened by the unreasonable demands of others.” New managers nursing this assumption face a rude awakening.
Until they give up the myth of authority for the reality of negotiating interdependencies, new managers will not be able to lead effectively. As we have seen, this goes beyond managing the team of direct reports and requires managing the context within which the team operates.
In fact, the more talented the subordinate, the less likely she is to simply follow orders.
I repeatedly hear new managers describe situations in which they made an exception for one subordinate but ended up regretting the action’s unexpected negative consequences for the team.
But new managers also need to realize they are responsible for recommending and initiating changes that will enhance their groups’ performance. Often—and it comes as a surprise to most—this means challenging organizational processes or structures that exist above and beyond their area of formal authority.
It was leader’s responsibility to create the conditions for his success.
In fact, most new managers see themselves as targets of organizational change initiatives, implementing with their groups the changes ordered from above. They don’t see themselves as change agents. Hierarchical thinking and their fixation on the authority that comes with being the boss lead them to define their responsibilities too narrowly. Consequently, they tend to blame flawed systems, and the superiors directly responsible for those systems, for their teams’ setbacks—and they tend to wait for other people to fix the problems.
But this represents a fundamental misunderstanding of their role within the organization. New managers need to generate changes, both within and outside their areas of responsibility, to ensure that their teams can succeed. They need to work to change the context in which their teams operate, ignoring their lack of formal authority.