Management and leadership are not the same things.
Management is about making the team effective at their jobs. Good managers ensure the team has everything they need to get their jobs done. They shield the team from the distractions that might come from others while ensuring that each team member is given a chance to do their best work.
Management is essential for a design team to succeed. But it’s not design leadership.
Managers walk around with a sign on their forehead that says, “I can fire you.” They get action from the people who work for them through their role power.
Design leaders are stewards of a design effort. Leadership can be practiced by those on both the management and the IC path. It involves driving change for the better through inspiring, role-modelling, vision setting, articulating, consulting, teaching and executing.
The only requirement for being a leader is to have followers. Managers need to be promoted, but leaders emerge.
Leaders don’t have role power to get people to act. They have to use persuasion to make it happen. For design leaders, they often do that by riding the waves of important priorities inside the organization.
For senior, principal or staff designers, demonstrating strong leadership is absolutely central to the role. Here are some ways in which it can be done:
To put all of this simply: excellent design, delivered by a designer who is difficult to work with or who works in isolation, won’t lead to upward career trajectory and growth. There’s a reason why Netflix has a “no brilliant jerks” policy.
Some organizations try to appoint design leaders with titles like Creative Director or Chief Design Officer. For these individuals to be true design leaders, they need to gain followers just like they would if they didn’t have the appointment. Their efforts to lead won’t take hold if their ideas and how they express them aren’t compelling enough for others in the organization to want to join in.