Two years ago, I was burned out. Leading a design team at Twitter through constant change had left me reactive, stressed, and questioning whether leadership was right for me. Then I got a coach.
The Stigma Problem
In tech, we celebrate self-sufficiency. Asking for help — especially help with "soft" skills like leadership — can feel like admitting weakness. I know I resisted it for years.
But here's the thing: every elite athlete has a coach. Every CEO has advisors. The idea that design leaders should figure everything out alone is not just unrealistic — it's arrogant.
What Coaching Actually Is
Coaching isn't therapy. It's not mentorship. It's a structured practice of:
- Reflection — Creating space to think about how you work, not just what you work on
- Accountability — Having someone who holds you to your stated intentions
- Pattern recognition — A skilled coach sees your blind spots before you do
- Framework building — Developing mental models you can apply to any situation
What Changed for Me
After six months of coaching, three things shifted dramatically:
I stopped solving and started asking
My default was to jump in with answers. My coach helped me see that this was robbing my team of growth opportunities. Learning to ask questions instead of providing solutions was transformative.
I found my leadership style
I'd been trying to lead like other leaders I admired. My coach helped me find my own authentic leadership style — one that leveraged my strengths in empathy and systems thinking.
I learned to manage my energy
Burnout wasn't about workload. It was about spending energy on things that drained me while neglecting the activities that energized me. Coaching helped me redesign my week around energy management.
Why I Became a Coach
The impact coaching had on my career is why I now coach other design leaders. The challenges designers face in leadership — impostor syndrome, the IC-to-manager transition, stakeholder management, building culture — are deeply specific to our discipline.
Generic executive coaching helps. Design-specific coaching transforms.
If you're a design leader feeling stuck, overwhelmed, or uncertain about your next move, I'd encourage you to find a coach who understands the unique challenges of design leadership. It might be the best career investment you ever make.