Julia Whitney on building influence without being the loudest in the room

Getting promoted to a senior design role isn't about working harder. It's about thinking differently about who you are as a leader.

Most design leaders get promoted because they're brilliant at the work. But moving into a head of design or C-suite role means something shifts, suddenly you're responsible for outcomes you can't directly control, people you didn't hire, and stakeholders who don't yet trust you.

We sat down with Julia Whitney to find out how to navigate that.

Julia has spent over 20 years leading design teams across the UK and US, including heading up a 150-person UX and design department at the BBC as General Manager and Executive Creative Director. She now coaches design leaders at organisations including Condé Nast, AWS, the Financial Times, and IDEO. If anyone understands what it takes to lead at the top, it's her.

In this conversation, you'll learn:

→ Why the biggest barrier to promotion is often a belief you don't know you have
→ How to build sponsorship at the C-suite level and why one sponsor is never enough
→ The "levels of zoom" model for shifting from doing great work to leading great work
→ What the SCARF model reveals about why people resist change (and how to work with it, not against it)
→ and more

Did you know that Julia Whitney is part of our Design Leaders faculty, along with other outstanding Founders, CEOs, CDOs and Investors?

If you want to learn from all these top experts how to build and scale companies, find out more about our Executive Programme for Design Leaders. Take your career and leadership to the next level by expanding your network and learning from the C-level faculty.