Penelope Rance

November is always my favourite of the LTUX events. It is the leadership panel. I always find it the most inspiring event, whether you are looking to become a leader or not. As someone on today’s panel said "anyone can be a leader, you don’t have to be a manager".

Foolproof were hosting us again and Amy Shore, one of their senior consultants, moderated. The panel consisted of Niki Forecast from what3words, Liz LeBlanc from Livework Studio and Paula Mariani from Adevinta.

The conversation covered all sorts of subjects from do you define yourself as a leader and what’s your leadership style, right through to how do you problem solve.

These are the things that really resonated with me or made me think:

• A leader and a manager can be different. Anyone has the potential to be a leader.
• Being a leader might mean guiding and coaching rather than being a manager.
• How you lead changes depending on the situation and you need to be flexible.
• Everyone has their own style, what works for one person might not work for you.
• Listen. If someone is telling you they have a problem listen to them.
• Pause. Give them the space to tell you what the problem is.
• You don’t have to be the best designer to be the leader.
• Don’t try to solve all the problems by yourself.
• Get to know yourself.
• As a junior do your research, be confident and speak to people outside your department. Understand the business mindset.
• Just because you attend lots of meetings does not mean you are productive. Think about the outcome.
• Learn to invest in everyone else’s work.
• Read Lara Hogan's Resilient Management
• Don’t forget to have fun.

Thank you to Niki, Liz and Paula for being so honest and sharing everything with us. Once again it was an inspiring discussion and a great way to end a year of brilliant events.