How to effectively lead leaders in game development
At Develop Brighton last month, Criterion general manager Charity Joy gave a talk on the art of leading people who are themselves managing other leaders, sharing the tools she's picked up along the way in her career in game development.
Joy emphasised the importance of curiosity, trust, and clear communication when it comes to supporting managers, and provided strategies for delivering effective feedback and aligning people across an organisation – especially when guiding people in areas of expertise you may not otherwise have.
Having a curious nature and the ability to be open and ask questions is important when you're leading leaders. But Joy noted that a "sense of knowing" can get in the way of this curiosity.
"We bring expertise and experience to our roles, so there's a lot of things we know," she explained. "The problem with 'knowing' is that it's closed off from learning. And when you 'know', it's dangerous when it comes to leading people who have different expertise than yourself, and it closes you off to opportunities to understand."
Joy encouraged finding peace with not knowing, and feeling comfortable with not being the expert in the room.
"It's okay that you don't know – in fact, it can be really fun not to know because then you actually get to be curious," she highlighted. "There is a joy in finding out, and the main tool of curiosity is the tool of asking."
"There is a joy in finding out, and the main tool of curiosity is the tool of asking"
The ability to ask questions as leaders is crucial, specifically being able to ask things in certain ways to get the best out of your team.
"[In asking a question], you should find out what is below the surface and be open to what you might find," Joy said. "If you're truly curious when asking a question, you might be surprised, and surprise is good. You might also not like the answer, and that's okay too. If you don't, you can ask more questions.
"Getting curious about the people around you is getting curious about
Read more on gamesindustry.biz
