Cultivating Leadership in Your Design Firm

Let’s talk about leadership. As many of us are growing our teams, we should consider how our role, and perhaps that of some of our team, is shifting into more of a leadership focus and not simply executing details.

Our teams are growing, and we are hiring more resources to do the work. Great. But someone must not only do the work, but manage the work, project manage the company, and lead and grow the team. Is that you? 

In online forums and in discussions with my clients and friends I hear a lot of owners looking to hire and having conversations around that activity. But I never hear them having a management and leadership plan that they talk about and consistently update. I am not saying that no one has it – but no one is talking about it. 

We talk around leadership with things like, I have standard operating procedures. Or we have job descriptions, and we bring in pizza on Fridays. While all of this is cool – it is not full-blown leadership. 

John C. Maxwell is one of my favorite authors on leadership and business management. He defines leadership as influence in his book, Developing the Leader Within You. James C. Georges says this, “What is leadership? Remove for a moment the moral issues behind it, and there is only one definition: Leadership is the ability to obtain followers.” 

We all have the ability to influence someone – but what makes great leadership great is the ability to influence others for good.  

Currently we see the term “influencer” thrown around in marketing and product placement. People are trying to get others to follow them in their purchasing habits so that they can make money by sending them to the product. So, in that sense, we all know what an influencer is. 

But what about the quieter ways of influencing and leading inside of our organizations. You have heard it said many times that people leave bad managers, not bad companies. And that is because the manager is supposed to be a leader or influencer.  

Imagine if we all considered who we are influencing daily. We are leading based on our character, our abilities or competence, our actions, and our connections – who we know and what we know. 

When my kids were little, I remember reading something along the lines of, “be careful where you walk, little ones are following.” And maybe you have also heard that people watch what you do more than what you say. 

We are all familiar with leaders – good and bad, right? How would we define ourselves as leaders? What do we think we are doing well to influence our team? What are we using to influence them with and what are we influencing them to do? Are our actions and our words in alignment with the values we have created in the company. 

Being a leader is not a title or a job position. It is a way of living, working, and communicating within a relationship. 

The statement “you are the sum of the 5 people you spend the most time with” really is true. If we are spending 5 days a week with a group of people, we will influence, as well as be influenced by others.  

As we consider how to lead our teams well, we must first develop our leadership skills. I cannot suggest enough the book, Developing the Leader Within You by John C. Maxwell. It is jam packed with information and activities to help you develop into a leader. Your teammates need to believe in you, their leader. The next goal is for them to believe in the goals we are trying to accomplish. They must know that we will do our best to lead them well. 

I have been in organizations that were led by intimidation and even if I wanted the same outcome as my leaders, I was not convinced they were the ones to get us there. Negativity, yelling, shame and embarrassment were not the character traits that any of my colleagues nor myself were motivated by.  

Conversely, I have been on teams where the leader was someone committed to the same outcome as the team. They rolled up their sleeves and were “in it” with us. They were involved, they investigated opportunities, they strategized and asked for input, then they made a path forward and brought us all along. We tweaked the course as we went, but we all knew we were in it together. This is the type of team that people want to be a part of. This is the type of team that can weather a storm together. This is the type of team that supports each other. 

This last example is the one hopefully most of us are wanting to build in our company.  

I can tell you this. It won’t happen by accident, and it won’t happen without intention. First, we need to define the type of leader we want to be. Here are some questions for reflection. 

How do you want to lead? 

What good examples of leadership have you seen or witnessed? 

What did the leaders you observed do that you currently don’t? 

Where can you focus your efforts to become more of the leader your team needs? 

What does your team need at this time? 

How much time are you willing to spend investing in your leadership skills? 

Who can you bring along with you to carry the leadership load so that it is not all on you? 

What next step can you take? 

Another great book on leadership is “The Go-Giver Leader” by Bob Burg and John David Mann. Leadership principles are shared in a story method. In chapter 3, leadership is framed this way, “The single biggest challenge to any organization is the constant cloud of fear and doubt that swirls around the heads of the people involved. As a leader, your job is to hold fast to the big picture, to keep seeing in your mind’s eye, with crystal clarity, where it is you’re going, that place that right at this moment exists only in your mind’s eye. And to keep seeing that, even when nobody else does.” 

This is what it means to create a strategy or cast a vision. Creating the vision is great, but holding to it and seeing it come to fruition is key. Moving forward with intention towards the larger goal and influencing your team to come with you – even when they cannot see what you – but their trust is in YOUR ability to see. Leverage that earned trust into leading well and with intention.

Being a great leader always goes back to influence.

Having a strategic plan allows for a vision to be cast and seen by your leaders as you scale your interior design firm. Then working towards that vision and supporting your team in the work creates an environment where people want to work. 

Don’t let the busyness of the day to day keep you from actively taking part in leadership activities. Build up the leader in you and in others on your staff. 

John C. Maxwell has another book, “How Successful People Lead” that is a small but mighty resource.  

Take some time to reflect on the questions from earlier. Plan to be intentional about leadership in your firm. Be the leader your team needs. 

Every day here at Scarlet Thread Consulting we support our clients in becoming better leaders of their firms. Like many of you, they are managing teams that are growing. Some teams are new, and some are well established. And, they have businesses built over time that are large enough that multiple layers of leadership need to be created.  As the owner, they can’t do it all. Having these conversations are necessary to the formation of solid business and we thrive in that. If you are interested in having support for your growing company, apply for a discovery call atwww.scarletthreadconsulting.com .  I also offer customized resources for interior design firms and would love to work with you as you grow your business.  You can also download case studies from our website under the client results tab. Choose to lead your team intentionally which like profit, doesn’t happen by accident.