Leading by Design: Lessons in Courage and Creativity

Things have been awfully quiet around here. It’s probably because I made a career transition a few years back—moving from an IC designer to becoming a people-manager! And like every big change, this one felt like I was in the washing machine on the ‘spin’ cycle for a while. There was so much to learn, implement, and act on. There was (and still is) constant change and the challenge of finding the right areas for evolution and improvement, and a lot of it wasn’t even about design! But here I am, two years later (minuscule in space-time), assimilating it all together and coming home to design—from a different lens this time!

And so, spinning an article on DesignSpin, again.

I’ve been lucky to have had wonderful managers throughout my career.

My journey into management started with an all-round awesome person (and my manager) who believed in me— Andrew Heine . I based this article on the quick shorthand notes I had taken down (this was pre-Teams co-pilot era) during my 1:1s with him in 2021, usually during his walks in San Jose. I was in Bangalore, virtually hooked to my laptop screen. And that was a great way to get some management advice for a new manager like me—through stories about his life, punctuated with a camera-pan to a squirrel on the tree, a basketball game in his neighborhood, or a ‘hi’ to a passing mail man.

Andrew has had a fascinating journey spanning different careers, industries, and ways of life. He started off as a United States Marine, where he experienced all the grit and discipline that being in the military brings. Somewhere along the way, he worked as a store planner at GAP, sold paintings for a living, managed a team of designers at a small print store, made presentations for several Fortune 500 clients at Duarte, and became a design manager at LinkedIn!

In addition, he is a musician and a long-time member of a band, and is a parent to 5 different animals (including a chicken and a pig) and more recently, a baby girl!

So, let’s get into some management advice. This should be applicable to you even if you’re an individual contributor wanting to be more impactful in your role, a team lead, or working in a field other than design. And it’s not your run-of-the-mill management advice, I promise. So here it goes:

Andrew learned important leadership traits very early in his career in the military. Right out of military college, he was deployed as an infantry team leader in the United States Marines. It was a tough journey of about three location postings spanning over eight years, including Iraq. Andrew described the military as a huge organization with traditional values. Some of these he learned from and applied throughout his career. Others, he learned, are best avoided.

?? Take the bullet for your team

The military taught him to be courageous and push himself and his team a little harder each time. It also taught him to take full responsibility for his team’s outcomes, even when they made mistakes. Backing the team when they made mistakes meant at times, taking the bullet for them. This gave the team confidence to take risks and made them feel safe. Successes were shared wins. This led to moments of growth!

?? Leading out of fear never really works

The military placed heavy emphasis on being a hero—someone perfect in their actions, someone others looked up to. It also led by fear, which Andrew found was simply detrimental to happiness and well-being. You can squeeze 80% of someone’s effort out of them by building fear and being prescriptive. But if you want them to go beyond 100%, they must put in that effort freely. That extra effort is a gift.

?? Change the printer paper

As a Manager at a local print shop, Andrew found himself leading a group of 6 designers. He got some valuable experiences in helping his team offload non-essential tasks.

The designers were working hard to fulfill customer orders. But they were also running between the warehouse, design HQ, and screen-printing shop. On top of that, someone had to answer the phone, help customers, and change the printer paper. This led to constant context-switching, keeping them from their core work—design!

Andrew decided to take matters into his own hands. He took on the peripheral tasks. He made sure the printer had fresh paper, answered the phone when needed, and handled other menial jobs. This led to more efficiency and more business. People on his team were happier because they were doing what they did best—design!

?? Designers should be designing stuff

Even in his team at LinkedIn, Andrew made it a point to examine the ‘processes’ that designers inherently hated—like filling out timesheets, project tracking, updates, etc—and found creative ways and tools to automate them or make them super simple! He placed emphasis on tools, not rules.

?? Let people be owners

If you want someone to act like an owner, make them feel like an owner. If you have an idea, plant the seed by talking about it with people in the organization. Let your employees take the idea and make it their own. When they synthesize it and believe they came up with it, that’s when they truly own it. And of course, give them the credit they deserve for doing so. As a manager, your job is to acknowledge that.

Another aspect of giving people autonomy is letting them do things differently than you would have done it. If someone has a strong point of view and backs it up with facts, empower them to pursue it. When they succeed, recognize it immediately. When they fail, take the bullet for them.

?? Play at work

The designers worked 12-15 hour work days at the print shop - they all took breaks playing frisbee together. This made people feel like they belonged, and because they were happy, they stuck around!

In a nutshell, hire great people, and make sure they’re successful and make sure they’re happy.

Andrew made management seem simple by mapping it to core people-values. However, practicing this daily is still a challenge, even years later. But some of his advice has been incredibly helpful when I’ve faced tough situations at work and in life.

Now, I’m passing it on, and I hope it helps you too.

Best, Shubhangi