The best way to get a promotion, hire your replacement.

Every leader and organization thinks about what will happen when great talent leaves the company.  Some chose to do something about it by developing a strong culture to retain people and some have open door policies to encourage people to talk about career goals in order to create specific jobs.  These both come back to a basic concern of losing talent and the time, money and energy it takes to replace good talent.  Ok, so what does this have to do with a promotion?  I am using this as a foundation to understanding the mindset of the organization and talent relationship.  How this directly relates to you in a super simple statement...your boss is terrified of losing you and having to replace your skill sets on their team.  Now really great leaders know this is a foregone conclusion that the chicks will eventually leave the nest and they need to prepare, but let's face it most bosses are not great leaders.  They have come to rely on your performance in some way to make their life and job easier and secretly would love to keep you there forever.  Here is the tricky part.  Identify the things that you need to improve upon to get a promotion at the same time you are helping someone fill in for the things you would no longer be responsible for completing.  The idea is to bridge the transition gap for your replacement so performance for the team/ organization does not suffer in your move.  Someone always has to file reports, make coffee, and clean the toilets.  

I did leave one minor but very important part out of this process.  Really the cornerstone to the philosophy and theory behind a promotion...you need to be good at your job.  If you haven't mastered your current position I would highly recommend against doing this as you soon might find that management likes your replacement more than you and the promotion is substituted for a pink slip.  

Last important part to this process.  This should be an open dialog with both your boss and the person that you are training.  All parties should be on board with the process as this should add value to each individual as well as the organization.  Set goals and milestones for what each person needs to learn and master to get to that next step in their career.  The transparency will be surprisingly refreshing and energizing.  Keep other staff members in the loop of the tasks that each individual is adding to their plate so they can adjust accordingly and you can avoid the snarky “I don't do that anymore, ask so and so to do that”.  

Just remember, in order to climb the ladder someone must hold the bottom.  

Why your next CEO should be a designer.

I need to clarify what I mean by designer as the term can throw a wide net that is going to catch some stragglers that don't really belong on the “must hire list”.  To name just a few my list of desireable designers are architects (arch, interior arch and landscape arch), industrial designers, fashion/ film designers and graphic designers.  I stick to this basic list because it encompasses professions that have degrees specifically designed to produce the professionals.  Meaning college isn't some arbitrary list of classes, but a program specifically curated to produce an end product...trained young professionals.  The list should also lean towards design professions that have options for becoming licensed.  

Ok, now that we got the boring crap out of the way, let’s talk about what makes these people such a great pool of leaders.  It’s really quite simple; process.  Any designer that has reached some level of success in their career has developed a process for identifying and evaluating problems and a clear path for finding a solution for said problem.  What this means is that as a business grows and problems need to be solved in general they will approach these problems pragmatically.  This is not a guarantee of success and I have actually considered writing the counter article to this on why designers could make bad CEOs.  Such is the foundation for a good design analysis is seeing the pros and cons of any solution.  After all there are no absolutes.  

It is really easy to jump to identify these people coming from shops we consider to be a good balance of creativity and business acumen.  Leo Burnett, Digitas, etc.  But often times within these walls teams are comprised of production vs client management personnel where you have to “cross aisles” to complete projects and work is divided into silos.  This is no indictment on any of those great organizations, rather trying to highlight the off shoot opportunities to find the owner operators, small business owners and leaders that have climbed the ranks from entry level positions.  Conceptually these are the people that have a foundation in design, but have found enough success to become leaders within their organizations.  This is the person that can talk gross margins, P/L statements and organizational charts, but still has a good old yellow #2 pencil and triangle within arms reach.  They understand the importance of time management to remain profitable, but also know there are times when a project just needs a little more attention.  Always ask and architect “does form follow function?” as this should give you some great insight to their foundations as a designer and potentially a leader.  

If you ever find yourself interviewing a designer (and you are not a designer) here are a few questions to ask:

What was the worst design mistake you ever made?

Tell me about a pitch meeting that went poorly?

Who is your favorite designer?  Ok, this one is a trick.  I can’t answer this question as I’m not a student of history, but it fun to watch a designer squirm.  

Kids these days, right?  This has nothing to do with millennials and work habits, but how technology has changed the entire design industry in the last 10-15 years.  

What you should come to expect from a designer as a leader is someone that is inquisitive and thoughtful.  Someone that will approach problems pragmatically and will deliver a critical thinking process to any problem.  Process is foundational to all design programs no matter the field and would be a welcome trait to any leader.  

Collaboration is the death of the ego and I don’t like it.

Self-appreciation is probably the longest standing design trend in human history.  No doubt the first two cavemen to design a wheel would still be arguing about who actually drew the first conceptual sketch.  Cast aside the influence the actual invention bestowed on the human race. The factual accuracy of who named it ‘the wheel’ might be the bigger story. 

What we fail to recognize is that nobody really acts alone in the creation of anything even though we love to lay the claim or blame solely at the feet of just one person.  This fact goes well beyond the creation of gadgets.  I am sure Steve Jobs didn’t actually create the ipod, any more than Lee Harvey Oswald worked alone, Rosa Parks started the civil rights movement, or Michael Jordan won six titles playing 5 vs. 1.  Most likely someone else was involved, we just conveniently remember the tallest, or loudest, person in the room. 

As a designer the lone wolf approach is enlightening.  It gives me hope that one idea conceived in a vacuum can be revolutionary and pushes me to think beyond my own means.  It is also terrifying that a failure to execute thoughtful design would result in the death of my productive creativity.  The edge is a wonderful place to live.  Collaboration will be the fool that will push me off the ledge into ‘think inside the box’ oblivion and the tape deck would reign supreme. 

My Ego refuses to allow me to believe I couldn’t solve a problem on my own without a ‘partner’ but I am a realist enough to acknowledge I don’t know everything.  It is a classic internal Spy vs Spy type debate of which I am destined to be the winner and loser.  What we love to hate most about our self-appointed titles of ‘designers’ is the air of superiority that comes with the distinction.   The cringe is reflextionary when someone tries to ask me about the flowers in their backyard.  I immediately tell them about the time I was the lead designer on a substantial project for the city of Chicago.  The statement is bound to leave an impression but the facts are rarely impressive.  To the aforementioned project I had the pleasure of working with a renowned architect, Jeanne Gang.  Pause for dramatic effect or self-reflection on your professional failures in life for not reaching such a high water mark.  Her talent was palpable and ego as distant as the boys and girls at a middle school dance.  Fully engaged in the collaborative process my ideas were embraced as equal and I was subjected to an intense session in executing humility and grace.  It was repulsive.  While I bragged to co-workers about our genuine exchange of ideas, as if we were equals, I longed for her to confidently place me under her thumb and bestow a cornucopia of knowledge that could not satisfy a Viking horde.

Today the project is hers and the lasting impression will be that Jeanne Gang designed a 91 acre park for Chicago known as Northerly Island.  You will find me in the 10th row of the ribbon cutting ceremony as an uninvited, unknown, and hardly welcomed guest.  My sole contribution to the project will be the emasculating financial donation I made to the project through a former employer, parking tickets and property taxes.  Maybe it was her grace as a collaborator that has lead her and other designers to such lofty perches.  Certainly Steve Jobs only ever shared the stage with the ipod/pad/ phone but even he hated the dual spot light and ultimately why he made the devices so small and eventually black as if to blend with his standard black turtle neck.  That is so “designer” of you.  I can only hope that one day I deliver a crushing blow to my collaborators and watch as they fall into a wasteland of middle management.  Let’s just hope that my assentation more closely follows Rosa Park’s and not Lee Harvey Oswald’s.  Someone find me a black turtleneck and Sharpie.