Today on Design Life we answer a listener’s question about decision making as a creative lead and how to find the balance between being decisive, seeking help and leading your team with confidence.
Ask other people’s opinions but remember that you will reach a point of diminishing returns if you’re looking for advice from too many people. Once you start questioning yourself and bringing in outside opinions it might become more difficult to settle on the best next step.
Handling compromise is something you will get better at over time. If you are unsure if whether a suggested compromise is the right one, think about the goal of the project, how does the compromise impact on the goal? Consider scalability and whether this compromise hinders the project’s future development. There is a skill to learn in knowing which compromises to push on and which to let go.
Your team look up to you, and need your guidance, however as a creative leader you don’t need to pretend to know everything all of the time. Don’t be afraid to say you need time to think. Use resources like mood boards, lists and notes to help you to explain and remember your vision. Reference building and preparation will help you to make the decisions you want to make.
05.38 – Making decisions as a creative lead
06.25 – Examples of tough decisions
12.01 – Handling compromise
17.00 – Understand your own process
20.40 – Our expectations of leaders
