About My Leadership Style
I have led people on sideprojects, in striketeams and now as a Lead Level Designer.
In my leadership style I hold the following values to be true:
In my leadership style I hold the following values to be true:
- Morale: There are two currencies: Salary makes people show up to work. Morale makes people work hard and selflessly
- Responsibility: Being a lead is a responsibility, not power, share responsibility to create ownership
- Psychological Safety: The team must feel seen and heard so they have reasons to trust you
1. Morale
"People don't quit bad jobs, they quit bad managers"
Taken at face value: Bad managers are a leading cause for losing friends, institutional knowledge and resources in hiring & training.
The longer a good employee is kept happy and with us, the fewer resources we lose.
To be a good leader I work to understand my team members:
Based on their strengths, stated goals & desires I delegate tasks accordingly: To keep them challenged, learning, less stressed and as a result happy.
Failures are acknowledged, learning opportunities extracted and successes cheered on to make hard work seen.
Further, I set goals for each member on improving their craft, and ideally just beyond their comfort zone. When time permits I provide resources, a little alotment of time and opportunities to practice those skills. Continuous mentoring and learning can be more rewarding to an employee than a raise (and replicated more than once per year at lower cost, with higher yield).
The longer a good employee is kept happy and with us, the fewer resources we lose.
To be a good leader I work to understand my team members:
Based on their strengths, stated goals & desires I delegate tasks accordingly: To keep them challenged, learning, less stressed and as a result happy.
Failures are acknowledged, learning opportunities extracted and successes cheered on to make hard work seen.
Further, I set goals for each member on improving their craft, and ideally just beyond their comfort zone. When time permits I provide resources, a little alotment of time and opportunities to practice those skills. Continuous mentoring and learning can be more rewarding to an employee than a raise (and replicated more than once per year at lower cost, with higher yield).
2. Responsibility
By putting myself on the level of my team I aim to make myself approachable.
I encourage my team members to challenge my decisions, as it offers us an opportunity to:
When faced with new ideas or methodologies I try to understand the benefits and drawbacks. If uncertain I may request a prototype at the first (safe) opportunity to prove the concept.
I set deadlines based on the aptitude and by giving clear targets and visual references I work to set them up to succeed. At the start of an assignments I offer my advice but reliable designers are told to consider them optional at most. My trust is repaid when they deliver something different and often better.
Lastly, notable developers are designated "Feature Owners", and I entrust them with a feature relevant to their specialty.
While I keep a close eye and sometimes investigate their process, a feature owner is encouraged to make decisions without immediate oversight.
Intermediate Level Designers assigned "Feature Owner" are also investigated to become Senior Level Designers.
I encourage my team members to challenge my decisions, as it offers us an opportunity to:
- Modify plans to be more cost effective, or increase yield
- Prevent mistakes
- Better explain goals/limitations/etc
- Create buy-in for everyone involved
When faced with new ideas or methodologies I try to understand the benefits and drawbacks. If uncertain I may request a prototype at the first (safe) opportunity to prove the concept.
I set deadlines based on the aptitude and by giving clear targets and visual references I work to set them up to succeed. At the start of an assignments I offer my advice but reliable designers are told to consider them optional at most. My trust is repaid when they deliver something different and often better.
Lastly, notable developers are designated "Feature Owners", and I entrust them with a feature relevant to their specialty.
While I keep a close eye and sometimes investigate their process, a feature owner is encouraged to make decisions without immediate oversight.
Intermediate Level Designers assigned "Feature Owner" are also investigated to become Senior Level Designers.
3. Psychological Safety
I learned one of my most valuable tools from Niklas Malmborg at Arrowhead. Every two weeks the Level Design Team has a work environment meeting of 45 minutes. During this meeting, all members can raise any problem and make requests to improve the workplace.
During these meetings drama can be resolved quickly, rumours can be put to bed and genuine improvements can be made. Stress goes down, happiness goes up and everyone is more open to supporting each other. As a result, there is far more trust in the team and even outside of the meeting sensitive information is volunteered to me, with the implicit trust that the information stays with me. Lastly, it also keeps the lead humble.
I also encourage a blameless culture: Problems are investigated followed by dialogue with those involved to find out what went wrong and how to improve.
Should someone have failed to meet my expectations I will make it clear in private and help them set goals to improve. Particular valuable insights are reshaped into learning opportunities.
Typically only in the event of malicious intent, negligence, or repeat ineptitude do I want to escalate to HR.
- All grievances are acknowledged, especially if the lead is considered responsible
- Any problems and issues that can be actioned are noted down. Steps forward are discussed and enacted as soon as possible
- If there are known tensions that aren't being discussed the lead should bring the topic forward, unless it is better resolved in private
During these meetings drama can be resolved quickly, rumours can be put to bed and genuine improvements can be made. Stress goes down, happiness goes up and everyone is more open to supporting each other. As a result, there is far more trust in the team and even outside of the meeting sensitive information is volunteered to me, with the implicit trust that the information stays with me. Lastly, it also keeps the lead humble.
I also encourage a blameless culture: Problems are investigated followed by dialogue with those involved to find out what went wrong and how to improve.
Should someone have failed to meet my expectations I will make it clear in private and help them set goals to improve. Particular valuable insights are reshaped into learning opportunities.
Typically only in the event of malicious intent, negligence, or repeat ineptitude do I want to escalate to HR.