my favorite leadership philosophies i’ve picked up from other leaders.

I want the team to make decisions, not just me. Some leaders lead by making decisions for their team and instructing their team on how to follow suit, like a General leading his troops. But I believe a team operates better when all members have input into decisions, and we can agree on a best path forward together, unified.

Teams built out of similar backgrounds – education, skill sets, upbringing, culture, etc – are at a disadvantage. When building quality experiences, we need diversity of thought to help us see outside of our own experiences, to understand our own biases and shortcomings. This helps us build more robust, inclusive and caring experiences for our diverse customers.

In my experience, leading a team means spending time with them. Time to speak with them one-on-one consistently, time to build camaraderie among the team, time to think through strategy and decisions together. Many leaders don’t make enough time for their most important investment – their people. I vow to not be one of those leaders.

The words you say to the people in your life matter. But the tricky thing about words is that they can all be interpreted by other’s differently. That’s why it’s important to carefully consider what you say before you say it, and to weigh the impact your words might have on those you’re sending them to.

One of my best mentors typically put me in positions that were above my pay grade, asking me to sit in on meetings he couldn’t make (or maybe opted out of in my favor). But he always made sure I was prepared – coaching me on what to be thinking of, tips on how the meeting might go and what the other leads wanted to hear. He gave me the coaching, and elevated me into a position to succeed.

Feedback is the lifeblood of improvement. That’s definitely true when we think about designing experiences for customers, but we feel differently about receiving feedback on ourselves. As a team leader, I try to help the team embrace feedback by holding regular design critiques, by inviting their thoughts (positive or negative) into every discussion, and holding myself accountable to them.