Design Team Leadership Who’s The Leader Here?
A wonderful article from our Creative Director, Maria D.
Why a Team Leader Exists?
It isn't easy to do a project without a manager if more than 2 people are on the team. Imagine a company with any common development goals, whether an outsourced, long-term product or startup. Someone should share these goals with the team or even build new ones. A leader is a person who can help a team with their personal growth.
What Should a Leader Do?
Organization
Not all people are willing to take responsibility for others: writing weekly-monthly-yearly reviews, reminding, directing, communicating, and sometimes receiving negative feedback, so there is a manager for such things, and it's cool when they are also a leader — when they monitor the performance of the configured systems and improve them.
Strategy
At work, people are often faced with the question: "Where are we going? Why are we doing this?" Goals are a time-consuming thing, it is challenging to notice how something changes by a couple of percent every day, so the leader's task is to remind his team of goals and track the progress of each team member as a single organism. The leader must know the answer: "What do we want to achieve?". A leader is a person who carries a load of tasks with people, not sitting in a chair and just showing them where to go. The very etymology of the word indicates the mission of the leader. A good leader must notice changes in the team and know how to tactfully either ask, keep quiet, or help.
Culture Formation
You can see the reasons for quitting a company above. Half or more is because of the culture in the company. The company's culture can sometimes have harmful components: acceptance of sexism, chauvinism, ageism, the arrogance of management positions, or, for example, hyper-competition.
The leaders’ tasks at all levels are to create a culture as tolerant and friendly as possible so that it is comfortable for new people to join it and reveal their talents to the fullest. Culture can also form on its own, unnoticed, so it is vital to grab the negative situations by the tail and examine them under a microscope so that they do not repeat.
You can find more about the reasons to quit?in this article.
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The Leader Tools
Regular Meetings
Yes, it is impossible to inspire a team without communicating with them.?You have to talk about tasks: personal and group ones. If there is an opportunity — do it in person.
Prepare for meetings.?What do you want to say to your team? What do you want them to remember? You also need to encourage others to ask questions and suggest topics, do not become a lecturer — have a dialogue.
Maintain a Development Matrix for the Team and a Career Development Plan
Some questions you can discuss: 1. What do you want as a designer? 2. What projects do you want to try? 3. Is there something new you would want to learn? 4. Based on the answers, you can take specific actions: look for practical and educational materials, distribute projects and build a department’s general picture.?If everyone is motivated, then the team as a whole will grow.
Exchange reviews.?Choose a period when it would be convenient for your team to exchange thoughts. Here are some questions that will help you become better to synchronize with you as a leader.
Questions for designers' review
Review the supervisor
And most importantly, understand whether you have these inclinations. Being a leader is the responsibility of every more or less experienced specialist. It is a zeal and a desire to go beyond hard skills. Don't force yourself if you really don't want to and think that this is not for you. This is the main rule in everything.
If you feel the strength and energy to develop not only yourself but also the team, then move forward to success. ;)
P.S. If you have your own recipes for successful leadership, leave a message (drop me a message, leave a note) ([email protected]), and I will be happy to talk and discuss your experience.