There is a strong perception that one has to move into management if they want to succeed as a leader and expand their influence to have more impact. For many individual contributors, this is a tough choice to make. As someone who’s been successful both as people leader and as a leader in an individual contributor (IC) role, Keith shows that in many ways they’re much closer than many would expect.

In addition to his own experience, Keith’s been chatting with design leaders from all around, and noticing some common trends, problems and opportunities.

IC leaders are uniquely positioned to have terrific positive impact across nearly every aspect of a business. Keith talks through some common problems keeping them from realizing that impact. He covers some lessons learned over his 20 plus year career as a designer and shares a unique perspective as someone who’s currently in a leadership position as an IC, has served in a dual role more than once, and has made the switch between IC leader and people manager a few times. With each lesson, he offers up a bit of actionable advice for both ICs and managers.

Some common problems design orgs face:

Unclear expectations and lack of aspirational growth opportunities. This is coupled with Mangers, especially first time managers, aren’t well supported and often are unsure how to begin.
Partnerships and shared responsibility are key.

There is often a gap between strategy (the business) and execution.
Building influence with a goal of empowering others is the way forward, but know when to just do the work.

People skills aren’t taught early enough.
Design is all about people, from day one and you’ll need to develop your people skills to move up and keep adding value as you go.

Career ladders aren’t flexible enough to account for designers as they grow.
Craft is much more than we think it is. There are many ways to craft - play to individual strengths and challenge for growth.

For everyone - let’s redefine craft and what it means to be a maker. There are many ways to craft, and people skills are as much a craft as anything you do with design tools.

This talk was filmed at Leading Design Festival 2021. Find out more about the event details here - https://leadingdesign.com/conferences/festival-2021

Leading Design is a programme consisting of conferences, retreats and coaching. Find out more about Leading Design on our website - https://leadingdesign.com/