An interview with Lauren Currie

Lauren Currie OBE is the CEO of Stride; on a mission to democratise leadership development. She is the Founder of UPFRONT; on a mission to change confidence. Lauren is a Trustee of the Design Council and Pregnant Then Screwed. In 2017, Lauren was awarded an OBE for her services to design and diversity.

We catch up with Lauren ahead of her Masterclass at Leading Design Festival. If you’d like to join us we have a few Masterclass only spaces remaining.

What did 2020 teach you about design leadership?

Lauren: Leadership is hard. 2020 has been difficult for leaders. Especially for leaders in environments that rely on command and control type leadership methods. I think COVID-19 was a leadership test of sorts and I’m sure you’ll agree with me when I say the results came back negative. Many organisations have discovered they have a leadership deficit. An overnight switch to working from home during a pandemic, an American election, the most significant moment in Black history — all of this requires vulnerability, high emotional intelligence and courage. These traits aren’t commonplace in design leadership yet.

2020 also showed us beautiful examples of kind leadership. What do countries with the best coronavirus responses have in common? They are women — Germany, Taiwan, New Zealand, Iceland, Finland, Norway and Denmark. These leaders are giving us an attractive alternative way of wielding power. What are they teaching us? Truth, love and honesty.

Truth. Sanna Marin became the world’s youngest head of state when she was elected last December in Finland. It took a millennial leader to spearhead using social media influencers as key agents in battling the coronavirus crisis. She recognised that not everyone reads the press, and invited influencers of any age to spread fact-based information on managing the pandemic.

Love. Norway’s Prime Minister, Erna Solberg, had the innovative idea of using television to talk directly to her country’s children.

Honesty. At just 30, Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez is the youngest woman to be a member of the House Of Representatives, and also the youngest Congresswoman in the history of the United States Of America. Last year, she used social media to talk directly to her constituents. Always giving her honest opinion, and always meeting them where they’re at.

You recently started a new company to help first-time design leaders. What have been the most popular lessons and why do you think they resonated the most?

Lauren: Stride is the antidote to current, traditionally expensive, time-consuming workshop-style leadership development training programmes that don’t scale and don’t fit today’s busy schedules or remote workforces.

Folks love Stride is mobile-first, easy to use and beautiful! It keeps leadership top of mind most days, instead of the regular once a year panic before annual review time. They also appreciate the bite-size content because it fits into their daily lives. Our mission is to make leadership development accessible to all, because right now, that’s locked in the hands of old boys’ clubs who can afford fancy consultants. So, we’re building a self-guided, self-serve product that allows you to access and consume leadership content personalised to you, that we want to see become the world’s most asked-for benefit at work.

How can leaders pave the way for people from all types of backgrounds to realise their leadership potential?

Lauren: For this to happen leaders must understand privilege and acknowledge we are operating in a system that was built upon white supremacy. The % of BIPOC in traditional senior leadership roles;

• CEOs of top banks = 0
• Supreme court judges = 0
• Leaders of political parties = 0
• Chief constables = 0
• CEOs of top NHS trusts = 0
• CEOs of top media agencies = 0

(Source Alexander Leon)

I think it’s important we use caution when describing barriers. Being Black is not a barrier. White supremacy is. Being female is not a barrier. The patriarchy is. Leaders must name these systems of power and recognise that those systems are the barriers. (source)

For many design leaders, the best thing they can do is learn to take up less space, prioritise being an ally and amplify others.

What advice would you give if you were to write a letter to yourself 15 years ago?

• Invest
• Buy a house
• Keep your equity
• Drink more water
• Moisturise
• You are doing it! You always were doing it and you always will do it so go have a nap.

What are the common challenges you see faced by new leaders?

Lauren: I think the most common challenge is figuring out *how* you are going to lead. What is the best leadership style for my team and our mission that aligns with my strengths? As you get closer to your team and your mission, you have to adapt your leadership style as you go and this is tough! New leaders often feel torn between different kinds of leadership styles so instinctively you remember that terrible boss you had and decide to do the opposite of what they did. It’s bananas that a skill that has a huge impact on people’s lives and the economy is often left to ‘do the opposite of the guy who was shit at it’.

The best leaders don’t know just one style of leadership — they’re skilled at several, and thrive in the moving between different styles as their context changes.

What do you see design leaders and organisations still doing wrong?

Lauren: 78% of the UK’s design industry is male. 12% of design managers are business owners are BAME. I don’t see enough design leaders and organisations stepping up to this reality and doing the work required to change it.

How has your leadership style evolved over the years?

Lauren: I’ve been an entrepreneur for the majority of my career so it’s safe to say I spend a lot of my time leading myself. I’m definitely far more aware of my strengths and now understand negative feedback I had over the years was more a reflection of people being intimidated by someone like me (a young woman with confidence, ambition and vulnerability) being in a position of power.

I’m far more aware of intersectionality now and how culture is developed in teams and organisations. That means that behaviours I’d have put down to personality in the past I now know are a product of the society we live in. My leadership philosophy is a mushy venn diagram of doing not talking and building ladders around me.

Can you tell us a little more about your red sofa initiative?

Lauren: UPFRONT is an organisation dedicated to changing confidence, public speaking for women. We do this through online courses and our global community. Fans call it the ‘couch to 5k’ of confidence. It was in response to often being the only woman on the conference stage and, most of the time, being on a speaker bill where we were all white. Naively, I couldn’t understand why this was happening. I know loads of really talented women and amazing people of colour and I couldn’t figure out why they weren’t up there with me.

I began to invite a diverse range of guests to join me on stage at the events where I was presenting, while working behind the scenes to coach and guide those who had previously shied away from public speaking. It’s built upon the truth that you can’t be what you can’t see.

The reason many women think they’re happy in the background is because, since they were babies, everyone they’ve seen on a stage didn’t look or sound like them. And the more layers of intersectionality you put on that, the harder it is. A gay African American woman is even less likely to see her own reflection looking back at her when she looks at a stage, when she watches TV, when she goes to a movie, when she goes for a job interview. All of those things make it hard for people to realise that they belong in those places, because all the signals they’re getting are saying they don’t belong. If you don’t fit the mould of power or success — which we are taught is a white, middle-aged, privately educated man — then you don’t look like a CEO, an entrepreneur or a politician. It can be uncomfortable or hard to challenge that.

Design, in all its disciplines, is the link between a thought and an action. It’s the bridge between an idea in the mind and an idea as a reality in the world. I think UPFRONT is a good example of how, in one small area, by looking at the make-up of our conference stages, we can consider what that change might look like out in the world. That’s what design is about for me — the idea of passing the mic, the notion of sharing your power, of lifting as you climb, of building ladders around you in a very intentional way.

You can join our next Bond starting on 7th June — 19th July.

Lastly, what’s the best thing you read/watched/listened to in 2020?

• Best thing I watched was my 2 year old son growing into a 3 year old.
• Best thing I listened to was inaugural poet Amanda Gorman’s poem at Joe Biden’s inauguration and Brene’s Brown’s interview with Abby Wambach.
• Best thing I read was writing by Eddie, a graduate of the first UPFRONT bond.

We’re delighted to have Lauren hosting a Masterclass on Democratising Leadership Development at #LDFest in March. Last few tickets are available now.

@_laurencurrie_
laurencurrie.co
laurencurrie.youtube.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurencurrie/

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