Andy Polaine
Leadership means facing the difficult conversations
Why Avoiding Hard Conversations Always Costs More
Most design leadership problems are not design problems.
They’re people problems.
I coach design leaders and managers through career inflection points, crises of confidence, loss of mojo, difficult organisations, workplace politics, and the bigger questions of what you actually want from work and life. I draw upon thirty years in design, a PhD, Jungian analytical thinking, and a lot of hard-won mistakes.
Andy is quite simply one of the smartest people I know, and an extremely experienced design leader and teacher. He is also ego free and thus a joy to work with.
Having access to Andy’s expertise was a game-changer. His advice was actionable, and the resources he provided were always relevant to the specific challenges I faced. The coaching experience was transformative.
Working with Andy has been an incredibly rewarding experience—I cannot recommend it enough.
Andy's design leadership coaching was invaluable at a time when I was seeking the right counsel and advice in navigating transitions in my career.
It has been such an honour to work with Andy and learn from his incredible experience, wisdom and thought-provoking questions. The coaching experience transformed how I work.
Andy is inspirational — always there with solid advice. A brilliant mind with a sharp wit and great sense of humour and the best mentor one could have.
Andy's coaching has been one of the best investments I have made in my career.
It's been a truly rewarding experience. What stood out most was Andy's ability to blend practical frameworks with a human touch, as his tools gave me clarity I hadn't been able to achieve on my own.
I've worked with several coaches in the past, but Andy stands in a league of his own. His unique blend of design expertise and intuitive guidance transforms not just careers, but entire perspectives on creative leadership.
Andy is an outstanding design leadership coach. He helped me navigate specific challenges in the context of my current role and take a broader perspective on my career path and aspirations.
Andy created a structured yet a non-judgement space and gave me lots of useful tools to think through my career paths.
Latest Writing
Critique The Work Not The Person
Design critique is one of the fundamental aspects of managing quality and increasing quality within a design department. And it comes up quite a lot in coaching because there are a couple of different things that go on that I keep hearing.
What happens in a coaching session?
What happens in a coaching session, what am I looking for, and why do I talk about relationships so much?The answer is because 90% of the work in any kind of Lead to Leadership role is people work. Design leaders don't usually have design problems. They're people problems.