What are the key milestones on your path to leadership?
I started at a small consulting firm in Atlanta called BrightHouse that was an amazing place to explore this industry because, as an undergrad, I wouldn’t have known that this industry of brand strategy, innovation, and design was something you could pursue. I worked with a lot of CPG clients, helping them with defining purpose and using that to guide innovation way back when that wasn’t really a well known thing yet.
After some time in London where I went to grad school and got to consult with clients in Europe, I came back to the US and started working at Interbrand in New York, working across the gamut on brand strategy, visual design, customer experience, and innovation.
Then a former colleague and creative partner of mine was leading design at Wolff Olins, which is how I was introduced. I really liked the idea of bringing my strategic background to a place that was highly strategic but also incredibly well known for design. I started in a senior strategy role and then the opportunity arose for me to lead the studio, which is what I’ve been doing for the past year and a half or so. Being MD has been great —we’re a small studio out here, but we move quickly, building on the Wolff Olins reputation. We can work differently here in San Francisco, so I’ve just really dug into drawing parallels from past experiences and bringing it all to bear on what we’re doing in the San Francisco market.
What are the key challenges you have faced as a leader?
Someone told me early in my career that the danger of becoming more senior is that you do less and less of what you love--this idea that, as a passionate practitioner, I’d get further and further away from the work as I became more of a manager. So what was appealing to me in this role is that the size of the studio, and the methods that we use, still very much allow me to be a practitioner—maybe not as the lead strategist on the project but certainly strategic in the way we think about new business, or build relationships with clients and within our team.
I'm very keen not to spend my whole day in finance meetings, so to keep that balance with the practice is really important to me. And, in terms of ambition, I started to see that as I took on more of a leadership role over the strategy team and other previous roles, I did like the people management side of it quite a bit. So, overseeing people not only from a work product point of view, but from a professional development, relationship point of view—trying to understand how they relate to their job, find work life balance, take care of their mental health and support their career progression—were all things I was, and am, passionate about.
Describe your leadership style / what are your core values as a leader?
I'm not particularly hierarchical. I respect it—and think it's important that people understand their roles and have clarity—but I think I tend to be more people-oriented and less process- oriented in some ways. I'm very dialogue- and conversation-based, I would say, just trying to relate to people and the scenarios they might find themselves in.
I think for me, it's about getting someone to understand what some of the factors are contributing to a situation or, if we're talking about growth, factors in helping someone get from A to B. For me, leading teams is pretty relational and dialogue-based.
What advice do you have for women who are trying to establish themselves as leaders?
“It’s better to be useful than important” is one of the best pieces of advice I’ve ever received. I love it because it busts this myth that exists—driven by a patriarchal, hierarchical way of thinking—that the tallest, loudest person in the room is the most important. I never wanted to be the person who’s just showing up without a lot to contribute. And I think knowing that no matter your background, or path to where you are today, know that you can and should contribute.
You know, people have asked me, “do you have an MBA? Did you go to school for marketing?” And I used to be self-conscious saying “nope, I have two degrees, both in international relations and history.” But learning to leverage that is the trick. For example, my Masters was in international diplomacy so I can think about grand narratives and how people are influenced by them, and the power of ideas and language. When it comes to strategy, design, and innovation there is no one way to do it, so pull from the experiences you have, even if they have seemingly nothing to do with the role or project or challenge you’re tackling. Gather a diverse set of experiences and learn how to apply them.
How would you advise organisations who want to foster diversity and gender equity in leadership?
I think it’s important when things go from informal to formal accountability. So saying, ‘this is something we're going to commit to’, be it from a sustainability or an equity and diversity point of view. I’m encouraged to see a lot of that happening in the market, with a lot of big brands asking these questions—but not everyone knows how to answer them effectively. I think more and more work is being done at the employee engagement and culture level which is where I honestly think change will happen, in the practices and behaviors inside organizations.
For example, at Wolff Olins, we have a dialogue about every client we take on to assess whether their ambitions are going to be helpful for the world. We don’t always have to agree with every aspect of their values, but broadly we want to feel that they are looking to improve themselves as an organization, or the experiences that their customers and employees have, and most critically we ask: can we help them do it? So I appreciate that.
How are you currently planning for the future and leading others into it?
At Wolff Olins, our long-term strategy hasn’t changed—to seek out clients who are looking to improve the experiences their brand creates for employees and customers and to help them design their futures. But on a human level, this is obviously an unprecedented time for our teams and our clients. And it highlights the importance even more of focusing on advancing efforts to make the world more accessible and equitable.
For the most part, I’m trying to lead through this remembering that we’re all human—giving my teams (and, frankly, myself) the best support I can but also giving some space to tell me what they need to keep things moving forward. People are incredibly resilient. My team continues to impress me with their optimism—kicking off new projects completely remotely, finding new ways to collaborate together, and keeping our daily culture as intact as possible with remote crit sessions, ideations, baby showers and birthday parties.
