Manager development programme for Branding Studios: helping senior designers and project leads guide others
Branding studios promote the best designer to lead a team without teaching them to lead. A short programme on feedback, delegation and running a project gives them tools to use at once.
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Share your requirementsWhy manager development programme matters in branding studios
In a studio, the step into leading is a quiet one. A senior designer is asked to run a project with two juniors and a freelancer. She is good at design and not at breaking down tasks, giving feedback or telling a founder that the timeline is wrong. The juniors guess what she wants, and the work suffers.
A programme for such leaders should be small and tied to live projects. Three or four short sessions, spread over a quarter, each covering one skill such as planning a project, giving feedback on creative work, managing a client's expectations or handing work over. Between sessions the leader uses the skill on a real project and brings back what happened.
How to set it up
1. Pick the group
Choose three to six people who lead or are about to lead. Keep the group small enough to talk freely.
2. Set four session topics
Planning a project, giving feedback on craft, handling a difficult client moment and developing a junior. Adjust to your own problems.
3. Use live projects
Each person brings a real project or situation. Sessions are spent working on them, not listening to slides.
4. Practise and try
Between sessions, each leader tries one thing with their team, such as a weekly check-in or a clear brief. They report what happened at the next session.
5. Review with the founder
At the end, the founder meets each leader to talk about what changed and what comes next. Link to succession planning where it fits.
Check these first
Before changing anything, find out what is true today. These take an afternoon and use your own records.
- Ask your project leads what part of leading they find hardest.
- Check whether juniors know what their lead expects of them.
- List projects that overran and the reasons.
- Find who has ever given feedback to a junior in writing.
GullyHR can do this with you. Read how we approach manager development programme in general, or share your requirements and we will tell you where to start.
Questions owners ask
Four sessions across about three months is enough for a small group. The learning happens between sessions on real projects, so keep gaps of two to three weeks.
The founder should open it and join the review at the end, but not sit in every session. Leaders speak more freely when the founder is not in the room.
Run it as a pair with the founder or a mentor. The format still works: a topic, a live problem, one thing to try and a talk afterwards.