Own What You Don’t Know

Hey creative leaders—seasoned leaders, newly minted leaders, aspiring leaders—gentle reminder that you don't have to have all the answers, you just need to be willing and able to ask the right questions.

In our various design fields, there's an unspoken assumption that once you're in a leadership position, then you should be able to expertly, effortlessly, singlehandedly do every single task that got you to this point. 🫠

And if you're also a business owner/founder, it's that x 10000; not only are you expected to be able to do all the creative things yourself, you're expected to be automatically proficient in all the business verticals—finance, operations, HR, marketing, business development. You know, all the stuff they don't teach you in school, and frankly probably not on the job either. 😵‍💫

I gathered a cohort of women design firm owners the other evening, on the heels of a slew of other events/gatherings/webinars circling around similar questions—𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘥𝘰 𝘸𝘦 𝘣𝘶𝘪𝘭𝘥 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘣𝘶𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘴? 𝘏𝘰𝘸 𝘥𝘰 𝘸𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘨𝘳𝘰𝘸/𝘯𝘶𝘳𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘵𝘦𝘢𝘮𝘴 𝘪𝘯𝘴𝘪𝘥𝘦 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘧𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘸𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘴 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘶𝘵𝘴𝘪𝘥𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘣𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘶𝘵𝘦? 𝘞𝘛𝘍 𝘪𝘴 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘥𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘈𝘐? 𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘵𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘥? 𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵'𝘴 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬𝘦𝘥/𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬𝘦𝘥 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘺𝘰𝘶?

It's so clear to me that we need more of all of this—not just conversation and community, but a better mechanism for focused dialogue, education, and information-sharing. Because we're all just doing our best to figure it out.

In the meantime:

Be humble—acknowledge what you do and don't know.
Be curious—learn from everywhere, even when things *aren't* crazy or broken.
Be receptive—take what works, leave the rest.