Leadership is a privilege and is earned by creating real and lasting relationships with others.
These are the leadership pillars that I believe in and strive to live by every day.
Team Culture
You can’t force a culture upon a team, it has to be organically created by the team itself. The key to success for me has been the building and nurturing of meaningful relationships with teammates and stakeholders both inside and outside of my organization. It all starts with encouraging consistent and meaningful dialogue.
Transparency
Teams can’t flourish if they feel like their leadership isn’t being 100% open and honest with them. In addition to scheduled 1-on-1 meetings, my team knows that I will make time for them at all costs, and will always give them the fully transparent answer to their questions. And I’m not uncomfortable when I don’t know the answer – it becomes my job to do everything possible to learn what I can and communicate those learnings back to my team.
Trust
I build teams by hiring the best and brightest talents I can find…and then letting them do what they do best, without micromanaging their efforts. That said, I love to participate in all aspects of the design process, and find that when the teammate feels trusted, they will bring their leaders in for ideating, co-facilitation, creative reviews, and more. Trust is earned, and I don’t take it for granted.
Recognition
Recognition is critical to building trust and followship with my teammates. I consistently recognize growth and exemplary behavior in many different ways, but even more importantly I make sure to take those notes of recognition to my peers and supervisors in leadership. Recognition of someone’s potential is also vitally important, as is nurturing that potential.
coaching & Mentoring
One of the critical differentiators of a good leader is knowing how to coach their team, and at what level. Every teammate is different, and therefore every conversation has to be personalized to that teammate’s goals and expectations. I offer career coaching, facilitate team-building exercises, provide design consultations and critiques, and pair teammates with skills and talents that will benefit one another. As a leader, I believe coaching is where I should spend the bulk of my time.
Career Paths
Attracting amazing talent can be difficult, and keeping that talent on the team is critical. A leader needs to provide thoughtful, detailed, and easily understood career pathing for their teammates, and must be able to assess and mitigate gaps in both soft and hard skills. I’ve developed numerous career pathing architectures that correlate to not only the overarching goals of the company, but also to the unique needs of each role. I then use these matrices of skills and assessments to create expectations for every teammate, new or existing. Consistent review of these development plans with each teammate means everyone knows where they stand and what their potential is.