Bossing It: Finding Your Space with Lee Lowndes
With over 15 years of experience, Lee has an extensive background in building brands and delivering world-class creative storytelling. She has worked at some of the most renowned creative agencies in the world, including Tribal London, AMV BBDO, Clemenger BBDO, The Monkeys, and Colenso BBDO, before founding Daylight in 2021. Lee has contributed to iconic brands such as O2, Virgin, VW, Currys PC World, Martini Vermouth, Asahi, Holden, BMW, and IAG Insurance.
Now leading a team of 28 at Daylight, a creative and technology studio in Auckland, New Zealand, Lee seamlessly integrates her brand storytelling expertise into the realms of digital media, brand partnerships, content creation, and the broader media landscape.
Her leadership style combines empathy with a hands-on approach, ensuring she stays close to the work and builds strong client relationships. Lee sets high standards for the team and promotes a transparent and open work environment at Daylight.
LBB> What was your first experience of leadership?
Lee> I grew up with quite an untraditional family dynamic. My parents separated when I was young, and I was lucky enough to have two very caring step-parents come into my life. I think the combination of having four very different, intelligent, determined parents who between them had very varied life experiences across the public sector, arts, and commerce gave me a really broad perspective on what leadership could be.
Exposure to their very different life approaches really influenced my perception and has shaped a lot of my approach to leadership today.
LBB> How did you figure out what kind of leader you wanted to be – or what kind of leader you didn’t want to be?
Lee> I’ve had the privilege of working at some of the best creative agencies in the world, where I saw some of the brightest creatives, strategic minds, and razor-sharp business leaders shaping solutions.
At the same time, I’ve seen some shockers, too: inflated egos, hands-off leaders, terrible communicators, and people well out of their depth trying to weasel out of accountability.
Through this range of experiences, I quickly learned what I didn’t want to be. I didn’t want to be someone within the team who wasn’t respected, heard, or able to contribute strategically and practically to the business.
LBB> What experience or moment gave you your biggest lesson in leadership?
Lee> Not trusting my instincts. After years of being exposed to all sorts of creative, relationship, and strategic challenges, I’ve learned to totally trust and rely on my instincts when it comes to decision-making.
In the past, I’ve ignored that knot in my stomach saying this isn’t right and just let a project roll on, assumed something I shouldn’t have, or let someone with a louder voice derail the team.
Every time I’ve ignored that instinct, it’s come back to bite me. So now I just lean into it fully, and if it’s not the right decision, I can always hand on heart take ownership of it.
LBB> When it comes to 'leadership' as a skill, how much do you think is a natural part of personality, and how much can be taught and learned?
Lee> I think natural personality is a big part of leadership, you have to be able to communicate and connect with a really broad range of individuals to be able to lead successfully, and that requires you to be empathetic, respectful, and charismatic with people.
But at the same time, you learn and teach yourself a lot of things along the way—how to listen, digest, compromise, and feel confident about taking action. That’s all stuff I feel is part of lived experience, and it grows as you grow older.
LBB> What are the aspects of leadership that you find most personally challenging?
Lee> Finding space and looking after yourself. So often, you can get sucked into the day-to-day, chaotic calendar, meetings, and check-ins with the team. Then the day ends, and you’ve not had a moment to do any of the doing or find time to think. That then spills into the evening, and it becomes a hard cycle to break out of.
I’m far from perfect on this, but I’m trying to create more boundaries and space for thinking time. Simple tricks like having non-meeting days and culling recurring meetings that have become a bit useless every now and then absolutely help. I know that when I do this and give myself more space to work, I can bring more value to the team and am more enjoyable to be around. So that’s become a big priority for me.
LBB> Have you ever felt like you've failed whilst in charge? How did you address the issue and what did you learn from it?
Lee> All the time. When you don’t win a pitch, when the month-end numbers haven’t hit the target, when a team member resigns, you take everything personally. Well, I do anyway.
I think from all those moments when you feel like you’ve failed, as a leader, you ask yourself, “What can I do to make sure this doesn’t happen again?” and you get more prepared the next time. You bring something different to the next pitch, you get ahead of new business, or you invest a bit more energy in building that team culture. You can’t fix what went wrong, but you can try to make it right the next time.
LBB> In terms of leadership and openness, what’s your approach there? Do you think it’s important to be as transparent as possible in the service of being authentic? Or is there a value in being careful and considered?
Lee> I think transparency is really important, especially in a small business like the one we’re building at Daylight, where everyone contributes so directly to the success of what we do.
We try to be as transparent as possible with the team, sharing business performance, how the numbers are looking, feedback on pitches or work, and celebrating wins or achievements.
By doing that, you make everyone feel responsible and part of what’s being built, fostering more collaboration and determination. Otherwise, what’s the point in doing what we’re doing if we don’t know what we’re working towards, right?
LBB> As you developed your leadership skills, did you have a mentor? If so, who were/are they and what have you learned?
Lee> Not in terms of ‘official mentors,’ but I have had a heap of fantastic leaders whom I’ve learned so much from along the way.
Working with Maria Devereux, who’s now crushing it as head of innovation and ECD at Accenture Song in North America, taught me so much about empathy. She taught me how to listen to clients' challenges, to listen to the team around me, and to ensure empathy is nurtured as part of the creative process.
While at The Monkeys in Australia, I worked with Mark Green and Paul McMillian, who both gave me a huge amount of autonomy at quite a young age. They taught me about confidence and how to be single-minded in what you want out of a situation.
Client-wise, I had a great run working with Laila Mignoni who is now the creative lead of Bacardi Global. She taught me to absolutely suffer no fools. Calling bullshit and being confident in standing up for yourself when you needed to.
LBB> In continually changing market circumstances, how do you cope with the responsibility of leading a team through difficult waters?
Lee> I try to ensure that our senior leadership team feels motivated and challenged as much as possible. Without strong people around you, you can’t do your job well, so it's super important to me to make sure they're supported and feel like they want to come to work every day.
I try to keep things as honest and transparent as possible. If things are getting hard, let the team know that. If we can all work to change an outcome, that’s going to be a lot more impactful than me trying to do it alone.
LBB> How important is your company culture to the success of your business? And how have you managed to keep it alive with increases in remote and hybrid working patterns?
Lee> It's absolutely paramount to us. Culture is king. Finding the right balance in the business has been a total learning curve, especially as we’ve grown quickly and had to merge to bring new people onto the team.
We want people to be in the office to work together and support younger team members in upskilling and learning, but we also offer a few days a week for people to work from home or be flexible around their commutes, which I know people appreciate.
LBB> What are the most useful resources you’ve found to help you along your leadership journey?
Lee> Read the news! I find it helpful to be conscious of what’s happening around the world, in your clients' markets, culturally influencing your team, and making audiences go crazy.
