Episode 70: Personal Philosophy on Design Leadership with Brendan McWeeney

Coffee & Change

Today’s story comes from Brendan McWeeney. Brendan is a User Experience Design Manager at LinkedIn. In November of 2018 Brendan wrote an article on Linkedin titled: “You May Not Be My Leader: My Personal Philosophy on Design Leadership.” This year, as we emerge from the Pandemic our work has evolved in ways we never could have imagined, this article not only caught my eye, but spoke to my heart. I believe we are at an unprecedented crossroads in leadership - from design to development to delegation. The whole definition needs to be rewritten based on new ways of working to address the new challenges that can’t be solved with the tools we learned, in all those books we read, and courses we sat through. So where do we begin? Well, I am hoping for you, it may begin in the power of reading the words of Brendan McWeeney who courageously shared how he decided to construct his own Personal Philosophy of Leadership after completing a Masters in Information Design and Strategy. Brendan puts the power back in the hands of each leader to revisit the assumed methods and measures of leadership, and instead craft one that drives all forms of value innovation, casts a vision to inspire others to act, and creates new forums of empathic inclusion to lead alongside others in change.