“Management is a job, whereas leadership is a quality you have to earn,” as we learned way back in Episode 21 from our guest Julie Zhuo. Today, we’re diving deeper into the topic of leadership with Donna Lichaw, author of the new book The Leader's Journey: Transforming Your Leadership To Achieve the Extraordinary Donna is also the author of The User's Journey: Storymapping Products That People Love.
We chat with Donna about why leadership often gets conflated with management, how to find your own narrative, and why your product isn’t the hero. One more thing before we get to the show: our newsletter this month is going to feature a new column by Margaret Lee, who founded the UX Community & Culture program for Google's global User Experience organization, and who is now an executive and leadership coach.
If you’re looking for solid leadership advice from someone who’s been in the trenches, subscribe at designbetterpodcast.com so you get the newsletter when it comes out later this month. Thanks for subscribing, and for listening.
BioDonna Lichaw is an executive coach, keynote speaker, and author of the bestselling books, The User’s Journey and much-awaited follow-up, The Leader’s Journey. She helps high-growth startup CEOs, tech executives, and senior leadership teams scale their leadership so that they can amplify their business growth and make a positive impact in the world.
Before coaching, she was a product leader and consultant working with some of the most successful companies on the planet. What she found was that teams would bring her in to help solve product problems…and that their biggest challenges were actually people problems that could be easily solved with a little bit of design thinking, psychology, and ingenuity.
This episode is brought to you by:
Fable: Build inclusive products: https://makeitfable.com/designbetter/
Methodical Coffee: Roasted, blended, brewed, served and perfected by verified coffee nerds: https://methodicalcoffee.com/
(use code "designbetter" for 10% off of your order).
Freehand by InVision: The intelligent whiteboard that's half the price of Miro and Mural: https://freehandapp.com/
Help us make the show even better by taking a short survey: www.dbtr.co/survey
If you're interested in sponsoring the show, please contact us at: sponsors@thecuriositydepartment.com
If you'd like to submit a guest idea, please contact us at: contact@thecuriositydepartment.com
SCARF: Status, Certainty, Autonomy, Relatedness, Fairness
The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt
Bonus: AI and the Creative Process
Ben Clymer: Hodinkee founder on watch design and creating a compelling content brand
Natsai Audrey Chieza: Designing with biology
Pablo Stanley: A creative force of nature on the importance persistence and hustle
Tasha Golden: Avoiding burnout while pursuing creativity with passion
Jonathan Adler: Famed potter and designer on bringing creativity into all aspects of life
Making Design Better—better—with weekly episodes, an enhanced newsletter, and more
Brian Tyler, composer for Yellowstone, Crazy Rich Asians, Mario Brothers, and more, on his creative process
Bonus: Eric Snowden, Head of Adobe Design, on AI + Design
Kate Aronowitz: Shaping the story of design in business
Ellen Lupton: Thinking With Type
Jonathan Hoefler: Typography legend on type history, philosophy, and entrepreneurship
Bonus: Hamish Smyth of Standards
Bonus: Hiroki Asai, Global Head of Marketing at Airbnb
Vanessa Gennarelli: Surviving Change at Work
Scott Rice: Creative lessons learned teaching film with Matthew McConaughey
Autumn Durald Arkapaw: Cinematographer for Wakanda Forever and Loki on the overlap between design and photography
Rewind: Midcentury modern design principles and Heath Ceramics
Barry Katz: The history and philosophy of design in Silicon Valley and beyond
Bonus Episode: Dorrian Porter, CEO of Vestaboard
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
Dear Alice | Interior Design
99% Invisible
The John Clay Wolfe Show
Pride and Prejudice
Anne of Green Gables
Dudes ”R” Us
Talk Shop with Ariel Okin: A Fenimore Lane Production