Senior Practitioners: Manage with care
Senior Practitioners are essential members of the team. Stop micro-managing them.
Senior resources require higher investment in salary and result in even higher costs when it comes to churn. Hiring the right individual is just as important as their retention, and keeping senior talent can be challenging. However, many senior designers are being held to unreasonable expectations, often set by job descriptions and HR systems that don’t consider the actual role and responsibilities. To be fair, many Senior Designers need help managing junior managers' expectations.
There are challenges on both sides of the equation. Senior Practitioners are valued because they have literally 'been there, done that' in their careers. There is also a spectrum--they may have just earned their 'Senior' title or be about to become dedicated Individual Contributors, transitioning to a 'Principal' position.
Regardless of their time spent pushing pixels or talking to users, a Senior Practitioner often faces challenges with inexperienced managers. In this series on Managing Senior Practitioners, I will look at the following topics:
Experience and Expertise: Focusing on the situational awareness, craft, and deep knowledge our senior team members have.
Autonomy and Trust: Fostering a workplace culture built on trust and providing agency to experienced hires is vital.
Professional Development: Continuous growth is for more than just early career hires. Investing in senior talent isn't optional; it's a requirement.
Mentorship and Knowledge Sharing: Driving even value exchanges amongst colleagues is critical to maintain and challenging to scale.
Critiques and Feedback Loops: Knowing how to ask for input is as important as when and whom you are talking to.
This series will yield pragmatic applications and advisement for Senior Designers and Researchers and their Managers.
