Leader as Designer
**Posted by Julie Pierce**
I recently watched a great TED talk by journalist John Hockenberry called “We are all designers”. As a leader of a team of creatives (including actual designers), I was intrigued by his proposition. Me? A designer?
The premise John so beautifully outlines is that each of us design something every day: a process, a function, a blog post. And he went further to say that good design is determined by intent.
When you interact with a product, a work of art, or an ad, you can immediately tell those created with intent. They are the products with intuitive interfaces that leave you feeling accomplished and not frustrated. They are the ads that leave you feeling connected with the corporation’s core values and not their bottom line. They are the speeches that inspire you to dream along with the speaker and not dream of hearing from a different speaker.
Design with intent is powerful and motivating. And I would argue that every day we lead, we have the opportunity to offer good design or poor design to the teams we lead.
Do you lead with intent? Do you prepare for your daily and weekly interactions? Do you have the end in mind as you prepare the strategy for your projects? Do you see the potential in your team members and foster their growth as you offer them new opportunities?
As leaders, we are daily designing the experience for our clients and the culture for our teams. Are you designing, and leading, with intent?
Hello Julie Pierce, I like your awesome article. Through reading out this segment I've come to know design with intent is powerful and motivating. Thanks
Just found you in a quest to find resources for Christian women in leadership – which melted my heart. Are you still an active resource?
Hey baby, what a beautiful piece of writing here! Actually you have written up true things about John and his beautiful design. But now i think that already you have improved a lot as a designer and hopefully i will see your beautiful design as well. Thanks