Ep 267: Lisa Smith of JKR - "The Contagious Leader"

How well do you know yourself?

Lisa Smith is the Global Executive Creative Director at JKR.

Fast Company have called her a visionary designer, citing in particular her work for Burger King, the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, Chobani and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. They described her work as unique because “it has consistently changed the visual landscape, disrupted popular aesthetics, and started trends of its own.”

When you meet Lisa, her energy is infectious. As you’ll hear in our conversation, she wants to make a difference.

She also knows herself well enough to have learned that her energy sometimes needs an adapter.

We are driven by instincts, starting with the genetic code that we must survive. 

Against that context, self awareness comes second and is usually filtered and diluted by other impulses. 

The ability to stand back and accurately reflect on the impact we are having in real time, is a lifelong quest for most of us.

But when you meet someone who has learned to understand themselves multi-dimensionally, who sees themselves in mirrors that reflect all angles, the good and the works in progress, our trust in that person rises like the proverbial tide - predictably and visibly. 

That remains true even if, especially if, they show up as less than their best selves but can acknowledge or forewarn us that they can see, and feel and acknowledge that - sometimes preemptively.

Lisa is not alone in her ambition sometimes turning her into a bulldozer.

She is rare in her ability to see it happening before it happens and to warn those around her that her form of leadership encompasses all the elements of “lead, follow or get out of the way.”