Trust In Who You Hire
“It doesn’t make sense to hire smart people and then tell them what to do; we hire smart people so they can tell us what to do.”
~ Steve Jobs
Steven Jobs was an American business magnate, industrial designer, investor, and media proprietor. And of course, the chairman, CEO, and co-founder of Apple Inc.
What
What does Steve Jobs mean? In the work environment, everyone has their own role in helping to complete the bigger picture and there is a unique skillset for each of those roles. This means hiring experts to do expert level work and trusting that they know how to best complete the job. It wouldn’t be wise to pay someone you hired for a job only to end up being the one doing the work. Let the person you hired do what you need them to do so you can focus on what you need to do.
How
How can we learn from this? Employers that tend to tell employees what to do are usually guilty of micromanagement and I believe this comes from a lack of trust in that employee. But this employee has presumably been hired after meeting all of the requirements in order to fill the role that is needed and presumably this role requires a certain expertise. It is not productive to burden ones self by wasting time on telling an expert what to do. It makes the most sense to hire people to do the things we cannot.
Why
Why is this important to design? There is a process to design which involves research, planning, strategies, concepts, development, testing and so on. Experienced designers live, breathe, and sleep this process and they know exactly how to get the job done right. To fully benefit from design, It is important to trust this process and to allow the designer to provide their expertise. This yields maximum productivity for everyone working together to complete the bigger picture.
FINAL THOUGHT
Most people allow their dentist, doctor, or optometrist to do their job without telling them what to do because most people understand that it is a very skilled profession which takes years to become qualified. When it comes to design, however, it can be tempting to want to take the reigns on everything because it’s creative and looks fun. Although many of us want to express our creative side it’s important to understand that there is a process for creativity that is effective. Indeed, the design ideation process can initially be a collaborative effort but the designer has years of experience using many types of processes, tools, and software in order to best serve the project at hand. This is the value you receive when you hire someone for the job so be sure to benefit from it.
