Meet Élida Cruz, Vice President, Head of Design, Capital One Software. She has over 25 years of experience leading teams in agencies and large corporations to drive innovation, create new ideas, and deliver exceptional work. She’s delightfully passionate, mission-driven, and has an interesting perspective on what it takes to be not just a good leader, but an inspirational one.

Meet Sue Cooper, co-founder of the business strategy firm Cooper, a pioneer in the UX industry—and, a place I had the pleasure of working for many years. Sue was both the heart of the culture and the brains behind the business. She could make the tough, unpopular choices that being a business owner requires and stand behind them—while also making the agency feel like a loving family. My kids have ridden (with glee) on her husband Alan’s fire engine at their farm, and I am still friends with them both today. And so, it is with immense pleasure that I share with you a few tidbits of what Sue Cooper has learned about leadership.

👋🏼 Meet Jason Cyr, Senior Director, Head of Design - Cloud and Network Security at Cisco. I’ve worked with him through the years to help him elevate the skills of designers and adoption of design thinking across Cisco. He’s a down-to-earth, glass-half-full kind of person who cares a lot about creating healthy, vibrant design team culture. And, he’s a great conversationalist, to boot. You’ll see in this interview how attuned he is to what teams need to thrive creatively. Take note!

Meet Brian Contreras, Associate Vice President of Integration Coordination at Hyatt Hotels. He’s a delightful leader who takes great care to solve problems as a unit—a skill he has had to hone through his journey from individual contributor to leader of cross-hotel teams. I think you’ll find nuggets of insight in this interview about his evolution.

Meet Toria Frederick, CEO & Chief Strategist of Hatch Venture Group and Co-Founder and COO of The Step Stool Chef. With over 15 years experience in brand building, business transformation and new ventures with Fortune 50 companies, Toria has championed transformational change for some of consumers most loved brands. In 2016, she started The Step Stool Chef as a mother/son blog with her then 8 year old son, the impressive Julian Frederick, to empower kids to be leaders in the kitchen. In this interview, she shares what she’s learned about leadership from having a kid business partner and why adult leaders would benefit from thinking like kids.

An interview with Jared Della Valle, co-founder of Alloy, a real-estate development committed to making Brooklyn (New York) beautiful, sustainable and equitable. I had the privilege of coaching some of his team and was struck by their mission-driven culture. While most companies are battling retention, they’ve managed to retain talent much, much longer than the norm. In this interview, Jared shares how his perspective on leadership has shifted over time and how to cultivate creativity in teams.

An interview with Sarah Nelson, Chief Design Officer and Distinguished Designer, Kyndryl Vital. Sarah and I go way back to my days at the design agency, Adaptive Path. She’s brilliant and accessible, deeply curious and a great listener. She can inspire a room. But what I love about her most is that she is always unflappably herself. This modeling of authenticity makes space for those around her to do the same…which in turn generates an environment of unfettered creativity and healthy collaboration. You’ll see why I’m such a fan when you read this interview about her perspective on leadership.

#03: An interview with Audrey Wessman, a Product Strategy, Next Generation Navigation leader at Cigna. I consulted with her while designing the post-training experience for graduates of a design thinking program offered by Stoked. I liked her immediately for her warmth and people-centered leadership style. She asked good questions that got my team to examine our proposed solutions in a new light. She was up for experiments. And she trusted us to take the work forward. What’s not to love about a leader like that? I’m excited to share her thinking on leadership with you here.

#02: An interview with Alisa Arner, Vice President of Channel Sales and Marketing, The Americas, at Microsoft. Often, people operating at her level in organizations build thick, impenetrable skins to get where they are. And yet, Alisa is consistently approachable, real, and caring—delightful evidence that you don’t have to lose your humanity to join executive ranks. If you follow her on LinkedIn, you’ll see what I’m talking about. Here’s a snapshot of how she thinks about leadership.

#01: An interview with Nick Myers, VP of Design at Patreon, and a colleague from my days at the design agency, Cooper. If Nick leads, quality will follow. He has a discerning eye and mind for good design, cultivates design excellence in his teams, and great designers have followed him from company to company (a signal he’s a leader they respect and enjoy). He also has a great sense of humor. This interview is a snapshot into his leadership evolution and what has helped him to have such impact.