Top Qualities of Design Thinking Leaders
Design Thinking is on the rise in the business world. Design Thinking leaders focus on creating the best product for their clients and working with the experiences and insight of fellow coworkers. Some of the key characteristics of Design Thinking leaders present themselves in individuals who are open and subject themselves to vulnerability with clients and coworkers. These qualities help leaders to connect and build relationships with others. They also create an open flow of communication that allows for others to better share their knowledge to align with and understand the company's mission.
Top qualities of Design Thinking leaders:
- Empathetic – The ability to empathize with your client, team, and stakeholders helps leaders connect with their teams. Leaders who have these qualities are better capable of putting themselves in another’s position, which in turn helps them to come up with more creative solutions to problems. Empathetic leaders are great listeners
- Collaborative – Leaders cannot solve every problem on their own; they need the support of others to be effective. Creating a collaborative relationship within the team and with your clients and stakeholders can help to build long-term relationships based on trust
- Ability to Learn from Failure – Seeing the worth in failure is important because it provides an opportunity to grow and learn from mistakes. Design Thinkers know that not every idea is a good one, but they permit risk taking. They are eager to experiment with innovative and creative solution
- Experimental – Solving problems using Design Thinking requires a leader to take risks and encourage their team to experiment with new ideas, testing out early prototypes and trying multiple parallel paths to success
Don’t think that only the highest executives have these top leadership qualities. It is important to note those who lead with this mindset can be at any level within a company, from interns to skilled practitioners. Empowering Design Thinking at every level (i.e., promoting a design mindset) helps an organization to grow and improve in more ways than most organizations.
About Arc Aspicio
Arc Aspicio is a management, strategy, and technology consulting firm that takes a mission-oriented approach to complex client challenges. Focused on innovation, Arc Aspicio provides services in strategy, design, human capital, operations, analytics and visualization, technology, and information sharing. The company is known for a strong, collaborative culture that values gratitude, provides leadership opportunities, and explores the future. Our teams use a human-centered approach to working with clients and are flexible and responsive within dynamic Government client environments that often have new priorities and evolving missions. We thrive on these situations and promote continuous improvement and new ideas. And, #welovedogs! Follow us on Twitter @arcaspicio or learn more at www.arcaspicio.com.
