Navigating career:
Being a design leader
Being a design leader
How does it feel to be a design leader? What personal qualities should one have? How do leaders find their style of pushing their teams forward? These and other questions were kindly covered by four robust designers in leadership roles. Read on to see what they have to say.
How does it feel to be a design leader? What personal qualities should one have? How do leaders find their style of pushing their teams forward? These and other questions were kindly covered by four robust designers in leadership roles. Read on to see what they have to say.
Only two of us are in leadership positions at the Heavyweight Type. However, our team was as large as six members at one point. With some members, our collaboration lasted more than two years.
As leaders, we strive to be on the same level as those who work with us. We increasingly feel itâs unnecessary to set an authoritarian attitude toward the team, but emphasize honesty and the ability to acknowledge a mistake and give due credit instead. We also always try to make sure that whoever collaborates with us has enough space for creative freedom. We donât want to use people as tools that help us with what we want.
On the other hand, leadership is sometimes challenging, especially when we donât share approaches to specific things or procedures. However, issues can all be resolved through a willingness to listen, communicate properly, and anticipate situations. Weâre happy if our team feels the same way and doesnât want to fight, but rather get along. After all, compromise doesnât always have to be a concession.
Only two of us are in leadership positions at the Heavyweight Type. However, our team was as large as six members at one point. With some members, our collaboration lasted more than two years.
As leaders, we strive to be on the same level as those who work with us. We increasingly feel itâs unnecessary to set an authoritarian attitude toward the team, but emphasize honesty and the ability to acknowledge a mistake and give due credit instead. We also always try to make sure that whoever collaborates with us has enough space for creative freedom. We donât want to use people as tools that help us with what we want.
On the other hand, leadership is sometimes challenging, especially when we donât share approaches to specific things or procedures. However, issues can all be resolved through a willingness to listen, communicate properly, and anticipate situations. Weâre happy if our team feels the same way and doesnât want to fight, but rather get along. After all, compromise doesnât always have to be a concession.
Jan HorÄik and Filip MatejiÄek:
Co-owners of Heavyweight Digital Type Foundry. They plead against the authoritarian leadership style and praise openness, honesty, and equality in their team.
Jan HorÄik and Filip MatejiÄek:
Co-owners of Heavyweight Digital Type Foundry. They plead against the authoritarian leadership style and praise openness, honesty, and equality in their team.
Iâm unsure whether Iâve crafted a job around my personality or grown into this role because of my job. Iâve always known what I like and donât like from an early age. My mum always said I knew my mind. This understanding invariably helps when making decisions as a Creative Director and a business Founder. Theyâre two entirely different workstreams that require different ways of thinking. So it certainly helps to make decisions, perhaps if one is able to see more in black and white.
Often, I donât know the answers, and I think a key component of leadership is accepting this. I lean heavily on my team, ask their opinions, and keep pace with projects by using more of a meritocratic approach where the best solution always wins, no matter if it comes from the intern or from me. Leadership is knowing when to seek answers from your team, and when you need to deliver answers to them if you see them struggling. This knowledge involves reading the room, digging deep, and coming up with solutions that will push people forward and give them a new lease on creative life in a difficult patch.
I come across challenges every day: some tiny, some big, some that seem tiny but then manifest as big, and vice versa, but Iâve started to see the challenges as part of running a business, a part of the game I chose to play. So, Iâm trying not to see challenges as obstacles anymore, even though this is incredibly difficult.
Iâm unsure whether Iâve crafted a job around my personality or grown into this role because of my job. Iâve always known what I like and donât like from an early age. My mum always said I knew my mind. This understanding invariably helps when making decisions as a Creative Director and a business Founder. Theyâre two entirely different workstreams that require different ways of thinking. So it certainly helps to make decisions, perhaps if one is able to see more in black and white.
Often, I donât know the answers, and I think a key component of leadership is accepting this. I lean heavily on my team, ask their opinions, and keep pace with projects by using more of a meritocratic approach where the best solution always wins, no matter if it comes from the intern or from me. Leadership is knowing when to seek answers from your team, and when you need to deliver answers to them if you see them struggling. This knowledge involves reading the room, digging deep, and coming up with solutions that will push people forward and give them a new lease on creative life in a difficult patch.
I come across challenges every day: some tiny, some big, some that seem tiny but then manifest as big, and vice versa, but Iâve started to see the challenges as part of running a business, a part of the game I chose to play. So, Iâm trying not to see challenges as obstacles anymore, even though this is incredibly difficult.
Cat How:
Founder and Creative Director of How&How branding and design agency. She admits she doesnât know all the answers and treats challenges as a part of her business game.
Cat How:
Founder and Creative Director of How&How branding and design agency. She admits she doesnât know all the answers and treats challenges as a part of her business game.
When I think about managing people, I think first about performance evaluations, time off, administrative tasks, and the day-to-day challenges an individual might face. But for a leader, managing is also very much about supporting and helping individuals grow from point A to point B. Leadership is defining quality output, whether it âs for an individual, a product, or a single task. The definition should be aligned with the other management so thereâs consistency.
Design leaders should help their group understand how they want to solve a problem, craft the solution with them, and guide them through the process. I try not to design for my team when Iâm leading, but I try to ask many questions. A huge difference between a manager and a leader is that the leader constantly asks questions and coaches a little more. I see a lot of managers showing how theyâd do the work and how an individual might do it next time. I want my managers to develop a leadership style where theyâre asking, not telling.
Also, there is another level of leadership that deals with organizational structure, headcount, and budget. Thatâs a different side of the coin, although itâs also very important to a leaderâs and an organizationâs success. So, if the leader who can guide and ask questions canât also have business conversations and understand how well the business is doing and where it needs support, they might not be successful.
Kaycee Collins:
Design Leader, Product Strategy and Design Consultant. She believes leadership is about asking the right questions and sees the understanding of business processes as a part of it.
Weâve gotten really efficient at building products, but there are other parts of the business where I still feel like an imposter. As a founder, I have to deal with fundraising and marketing, and Iâm not necessarily great at those things. So, for me, running a company means constantly trying to figure out how to improve on the things youâre not so good at while continuing to make sure every other part of the business operates correctly.
Going from designer to founder means Iâm now wearing a lot more hats than I was before. For me, creating a startup from zero to one has been a precious learning experience that will be valuable even if I end up working at a big company again.
Andy Chung:
Founder and Designer at read.cv, a âshow, don't tellâ professional network. He strives to grow more and more confident in his founder role and believes his startup experience is highly beneficial for life.