Hello Reader,

Series contents​
Part 1 - The Mindset (last week)​
Part 2 - Tactics for Enablement​
​Part 3 - The Emotional Challenge​
Part 4 - Leadership Tools

Letting Go of Control

The hardest part of enablement is letting go of the need to control every outcome. I say this openly and honestly, as its something I have seen close up by many Design Leaders over the years.

When other teams begin taking on design activities — running user interviews, sketching flows, testing prototypes — the results are rarely as polished as if you had done them yourself. The questions may be clumsy. The wireframes might lack finesse.

The service blueprint could look more like a doodle than a map.

And that’s the point.

If you swoop in to fix everything, you pull yourself straight back into doer mode and that is the mode that we can not afford to be in all of the time.

But if you hold back, support gently, and let people stumble their way forward, they gain confidence and capability.

Over time, their work improves. And more importantly, the organisation learns that design is not the exclusive property of a small team — it’s a shared responsibility. Over time you become less like a magic monkey doing tricks in the circus to being a conductor of the orchestra.

Redefining Success

This means redefining what success looks like. For a practitioner, success is measured in outputs: a finished prototype, a research report, a beautifully structured workshop.

For a leader-enabler, success is measured in outcomes:

• A colleague running their first user interview
• A product team adopting design principles without prompting
• An executive referencing customer journeys in a strategy meeting.

These moments may feel smaller or less tangible than delivering the work yourself, but they’re the signals that your leadership is embedding design deeper into the culture.

Managing the Identity Shift

There’s also a personal identity challenge. I speak from personal experience, that years ago, when I was a Manager of a design team, I felt an awful sense of loss when I was "no longer on the tools".

Many leaders privately wonder: If I’m not hands-on anymore, am I still a real designer?

The fear of becoming “just a manager” is real.

But leadership doesn’t mean abandoning your design sensibility. It means applying it at a different level: designing systems, designing environments, designing the conditions for others to succeed.

Think of it as moving from playing an instrument to conducting an orchestra.

You may no longer be the one striking the notes, but you are shaping the performance as a whole. And in many ways, the impact is greater.

The Temptation of Heroics

There’s also the ongoing temptation to revert to heroics.

When deadlines loom and quality dips, it’s easy to roll up your sleeves and rescue a project.

In the short term, this feels good — you’re back in the craft, proving your value.

But in the long term, it reinforces dependency.

The team learns that design will always step in to fix things, so they never develop the muscles themselves.

The discipline of leadership is resisting that urge, even when it would be faster or easier to do it yourself.

Every time you redirect instead of deliver, you’re making an investment in long-term maturity.

The Human Side of Saying No

And then there’s the emotional weight of saying no. It can feel like letting colleagues down or refusing help.

But reframing is key.

A well-placed no isn’t about closing doors; it’s about opening new ones.

When you say, “I can’t design that for you, but I’ll guide you through how to approach it,” you’re not abandoning the team — you’re empowering them.

It’s important to acknowledge that this won’t always feel comfortable.

There will be moments of doubt, frustration, and even guilt.

But those are signs that you care.

They’re also signs that you’re in the messy middle of real leadership growth.

Why the Emotional Challenge Matters

If leaders don’t work through this emotional layer, the whole enablement shift collapses.

You’ll default back to doing, because it feels safe, familiar, and instantly rewarding. This is why I encourage you to align with your own manager, to ensure that you have a transparent understanding about these situations and your intent to grow the function of Design (Human Centered Design, Service Design etc) within the organisation.

And when they do, you start to see the real magic: design no longer bottlenecked in one team, but diffused across the organisation like muscle memory.

In short: The emotional challenge of enablement is about trust — trusting others to learn, trusting yourself to lead differently, and trusting that progress is more powerful than perfection.

Get this part right, and you don’t just change how projects run. You change how an organisation thinks.

Next week I will share more about Leadership Tools, in the final of this four part series.

Maybe you might be able to can help me?

If you like what I do, there are a few things you can to help me. I am 100% independent. This means, I work for myself and have availability for one more training project in 2025. I work internationally and if you feel like there might be an opportunity for us to collaborate by training your design team, please do get in touch by replying to this email.

Lastly, if that isn't possible, please leave a review for my podcast here.

Have a great week!
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Gerry Scullion​ Founder & Designer Connect with me on LinkedIn | Join our Directory | Write a podcast review for This is HCD Podcast​

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