For the past 20 years, Margaret has built User Experience teams in tech, including CNET, Yahoo, TiVo, and Google. Between 2007 and 2016, she grew the Google Maps UX team from three people, to a global org of multi-disciplinarian practitioners, garnering awards from Fast Company Innovation by Design and Good Design in Japan. Margaret is passionate about mentoring and developing UX practitioners, to uncover their unique leadership style. In 2016, she founded the UX Community + Culture team at Google, the first of its kind to invest in the health and success of the User Experience discipline across the company.

Do natural born leaders really exist? If so, where does that leave the rest of us? Is our notion of leadership out of sync with the reality of humankind? The current view of what constitutes a leader hasn’t progressed with the rallying cry for diversity and inclusion. What message does this send to future leaders from all walks of life, who may not fit the accepted norms of leadership traits?

In this talk, Margaret will reflect on her own path as a reluctant leader, and how she reconciled her authentic self with performance expectations. She will challenge us to recognise different qualities that are essential to building a healthy team, and how we can shape a meaningfully diverse workforce by embracing an inclusive definition of leadership qualities, and the rich humanity that brings with it.