Would You Be Lost Without Your Team?

lost without your team

10/14/2021

Sally Grisedale

My executive career was spent leading others, and when I lost my team, I lost myself. Creating product design teams in three countries over four years has been one of my greatest professional achievements.

When my position as chief design officer was eliminated, I was devastated. It felt like my life was slipping through my fingertips. The ladder I’d climbed and the glass ceilings I’d shattered were all gone within the span of a single conversation.

Although a new job opportunity came, which I accepted, I knew going in it wasn’t the best fit, and I left within a year.

Deep within, I knew another executive role was not the answer.

Slowly letting go of all that I knew myself to be, I reluctantly began the process of redesigning my life and redefining what leadership meant for me.

As the armor I created after losing my teams began to soften, I invited my “leader within” to step forward and speak again.

What I discovered changed my life…

You don’t need a team reporting to you to be a leader. This simple revelation helped to restore my self-identity. This revelation inspires me to coach extraordinary leaders in transition and redefines what leadership truly means.

Whether you are stepping into a new leadership role, or transitioning out of the corporate world, doing the work of leading from within is the catalyst for creating a more fulfilling life.

If you are going through a career change, my three-month 1:1 private coaching may be the perfect program for you.

Are you ready to live your life by design, activate a new set of leadership skills, and manifest the vision you truly want to bring into your reality?

If you are, please set up a quick below, and see if coaching is a fit.

Photo by Christian Fregnan

the Leading by Design Newsletter

What Is the Leading by Design Newsletter? Great question.

Leading by Design is a blog for creative leaders working in tech. It’s not a “Why You Should Use AI in Design Thinking” or “How to Hire and Retain Product Design Teams with Impact” type of blog. There are enough of those.

I write about the challenges you can’t safely discuss as creative leaders working in tech. The stories come directly from my experience leading teams at Apple, Meta, Yahoo!, and some start-ups and from the executive design leaders I coach today.

I have written about the stressful magpie boss, hateful cross-functional peers, creative burnout, the shame of job loss and survivor guilt, and the fear of becoming irrelevant in the marketplace.

I publish once a week and offer strategies to reframe your challenge so you can return to being the creative leader your team loves you to be.

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