05. On Leadership

Don’t confuse leadership with management

Have you thought about your career? I mean really thought about your career? Have you thought about your goals? Have you thought about where you want to be five, maybe ten years down the road?

Have you thought about leadership? Have you always dreamt of being a leader? Or does the thought of being in a position of leadership fill you with dread? Does it make you want to run for the exits?

Maybe you want to go down the management track. Or maybe you want to be a badass individual contributor at the top of your game, just doing great work, with no need to worry about all that annoying HR BS that goes along with being a supervisor.

Given that low UX maturity is rampant in the software industry today, I would argue you can’t do great work without possessing some of the skills that make great leaders great.

Topics:
• 02:28 – How do we define “leader”
• 03:17 – What is NOT leadership?
• 06:16 – Leadership for UX designers is important because UX maturity is very low
• 06:35 – NN/g UX Maturity Scale
• 07:21 – What does UX maturity have to do with leadership skills? The results!
• 08:43 – There is a huge opportunity for UX Designers to lead
• 09:16 – Not being ready to lead is totally fine. But think about what you want from your career.
• 10:25 – Individual Contributors and Leadership
• 12:16 – Leadership behaviors
• 22:49 – Putting these skills into practice
• 23:51 – No matter what you want to do, speak up

Helpful Links:
• 10 Key Leadership Behaviors for Effective Leaders
• What Makes a Leader?
• In Search of the Definition of Leadership
• The State of UX Maturity: Data from Our Self-Assessment Quiz
• Emotional Intelligence – EQ

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