To you, who have been entrusted with leading an internal company project for the first time.

I'm Watanabe, and I'm often involved in creating office and workplace-related spaces within Nomura Co., Ltd.'s spatial design work.

As you gain more experience at a company, you'll have more opportunities to be entrusted with project leadership roles. It's understandable to feel lost and unsure of how to proceed if you're working on a project like a new business venture, system reform, or creating a new office space—projects where you lack leadership experience or where there's no precedent within the company.

I often witness such situations in my office design projects. What I realize from those experiences is that there is something very important besides experience and skills.

 

A leader is not the person who holds the ball.

The main role of a project leader, as commonly said, is to motivate those around them. To use a soccer analogy, it's about accurately passing the ball to team members, like making a killer pass.
If you keep holding onto the ball yourself for too long, it will cause problems for your teammates.

To achieve this, a broad perspective is essential.

When I'm meeting with clients, I make a point of asking, "Why is that necessary?" especially when the discussion gets heated over minor details.
This often allows us to return to the purpose and background, and take a step back to think things through.

This perspective on roles is important when moving a project forward. But there's something even more important to me.

 

What is important for a project leader

Looking back at the clients we've worked with so far, there were commonalities among the teams whose projects progressed smoothly.
The key was having a passionate leader.

Experience and skills are certainly important. But even more than that, people with passion are more likely to attract the support of both internal team members and external partners like us.

So, what exactly is the true nature of that "enthusiasm"?

It's not about having momentum or being loud. It's about having an opinion, a clear idea of what you want to do.

When a leader has a clear opinion, the team's direction becomes clear. This makes it easier for both internal members and external partners to work together with a shared understanding.

However, those with such strong enthusiasm sometimes tend to think, "I have to do everything myself." That's something to be careful about.

 

The team operates based on "purpose" rather than "instructions."

So why are opinions and a broad perspective necessary?

If you keep giving detailed instructions, team members are more likely to feel like they're being forced to do things, and the person giving the instructions will have more to manage, which will tire both sides out.

Therefore, what's important is not sharing "what we're going to do," but rather "what lies ahead."

When the objective is shared, members become able to think and act independently. Without the need for detailed management, the entire team naturally moves in the same direction.

Creating an office space isn't something you can accomplish alone. It's essential to work as a team, sharing common goals.

What a project leader needs is not to do everything themselves.

Having your own opinion on "what you want to do" and sharing it with those around you, along with taking a step back and having a broader perspective—I believe that building upon these things is what leads to the ability to move a team forward.

I myself have seen these kinds of situations many times while working on office design projects. If any of you are in your first position as project leader and are wondering "what should I do now?", I would be happy if this story could be of some help.