Is Your Leadership Hurting Your Asset?

I’ve noticed three traits which seem to be inherent in strong leaders in our industry. The first one is that these leaders are intellectually engaged in the project process, yet they resist the temptation to micro-manage.  They're not there to second guess; they're not there to one-up somebody.  Really, what they do is trust the professional to do the professional's job.  Implicit in this are always a couple of things.  The first is that they understand who they’re hiring before the project begins, and they make that decision based on the firm’s expertise.  But once they’ve pulled a team together, they don’t drop back and just let things happen.  They continue to stay engaged; they are confident enough to let rigorous discussion and problem-solving occur.  Probably more importantly than that, they are confident enough to step in when needed to say the difficult thing, to challenge a decision, or to make a call.  This imparts a level of trust to the team, and it tells them on an almost subliminal level, "You're good, I trust you, and I’m expecting a lot from you.  I’m also paying attention."

The second trait I’ve observed is that these owners and leaders continually seek new information, new approaches and improvements, and they intuitively have the courage to push the envelope. They challenge convention.  They want to break new ground.  When I bring my project team to a kick-off, and the owner walks in and says, "Yep. This is what I want. My expectation is that we're going to do things that haven't been done before, haven't been seen before," I’ve witnessed how that very statement empowers everybody in the room.  That infectious attitude, inspiration and trust starts a cascading effect of, "Wow. I really want to do my best for this person, for this project."  I’ve seen it.  But it is not the norm.  Sadly, I could probably count on one hand the people on the client and ownership side who have really inspired me and my staff.  I'll tell you what though.  When it happens, it energizes the entire team, not just interiors. It creates an atmosphere of really wanting to perform.

The third trait is, these owners, these leaders, these project visionaries see the value of their asset as being more about meeting and exceeding expectations in the market than about simply looking at the raw costs of the altering the asset. Yes, there's always a project budget; there's always a schedule constraint; there are always quality and operational and brand standards.  But the subtle difference is that these leaders also see a bigger vision.  They see the intangible value in the long run too.  We have actually had a client reject an in-budget design that was “too nice.”  Yes, an in-budget design.  At that point, I have to ask myself why a designer was hired in the first place.

I have two real-life examples of leadership styles we’ve experienced, and how these materialized. The first was Mr. Didn't Last.  On the project that we worked on with Mr. Didn't Last, he was very faithful. He showed up for all the meetings, though more so as a statue than anything else because he was completely mentally absent.  There was no project urgency; there were no decisions made.  When decisions were made, he either countermanded them or he said, "Well, we should probably talk to somebody else," who invariably was not present.  The end result was a project that very quickly started to spiral out of control.  Unfortunately, this renovation had one or two unfortunate and unexpected situations that required quick decision-making and leadership, which subsequently disrupted the budget and schedule.  Disorganization ensued.  The consultants didn't know what was going on.  There was no strong project management in place.  To make it to the finish line, Mr. Didn’t Last ended up eliminating renovating several areas in entirety along with the entire artwork package in the designed areas.  The end result was a project that was unnecessarily compromised and performed poorly, and sadly it was totally preventable.

The second example, the flip side, is Mr. Got-It-Going-On.  Mr. Got-It-Going-On walks in the room the first day of project kick-off. He begins very, very clearly.  He outlines the BIG 3.  That's not his term; that's my term, but that's exactly what he does.  He creates the hierarchy of priorities:  quality, time, and budget.  And then he begins to empower and show people that he trusts them.  He is very patient.  He lets the team work out problems all on their own, and then he sits quietly watching and listening.  He says, "Okay, let's challenge that." Yet, he challenges in a positive way. The intent is, "Let's make sure we're bullet-proof before we go outside of this room." That's an amazing thing. Honestly, Mr. Got-It-Going-On is one of the best critical thinkers I've ever met.  He brings incredible performance out of his teams, and out of everybody right down to the guy that's installing the drywall.

When you have these three leadership traits in combination, the leadership shines.  More than that, this leadership protects the project from the inside.  By galvanizing a team of experts who are excited to be working together, this ownership is able to realize and benefit from the talent, skills and knowledge base that collectively becomes their primary lookout for problems on the horizon, seeing around corners because of their expertise, seeing new ways to document things so that they're truly complete, new ways to document things so as to stay in budget as opposed to having to Value Engineer, and ultimately, new ways to fabricate so that the design is buildable and is of the targeted quality.  The guest will then experience the project as what it is - a uniquely curated special experience.