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OPINION
New kid on the block
Reflections from a new principal on unexpected challenges, uncharted opportunities, and what it really takes to earn the title.
I t’s been a long time since this much felt uncharted, but that’s what it’s like to be a new principal. A reality check has come with each step up the ladder. Each rung has come with the realization that there is so much more to this than I truly understood. There is no direction, there is no prescription, there are very real consequences and risks, and I better be rock solid in why I am here in the first place.
Jayna Duke
My role requires a healthy amount of driving. We are in Texas after all, and it is a big state. On one long drive, a young employee asked me if I always knew I wanted to be a principal. Without hesitation I said, “Oh no, absolutely not.” The answer came quickly, followed by the next obvious question I hadn’t really thought about: “So, why are you a principal?” There had never been an interior designer in any position above associate at my firm, at least not during my 15-year tenure. If I had ever considered it before, I hadn’t given it much space to be a real possibility. When it started coming up in serious conversations, I let myself go there and start to want it. Business is ever evolving, and this was accelerated by the pandemic. As a result, the promotion kept
getting pushed off. Without registering it, the title had become this thing to me. I began to unconsciously shift my focus with the goal of obtaining this achievement of being a principal. In hindsight, I can see that wasn’t very helpful. Sometimes I think back to my first annual review at my firm with the CEO, who is still my mentor today. He asked how I was liking the job and I rambled on for who knows how long, elated about the wonderful role interior design has in positively impacting the lives of people in very human spaces like healthcare and education. I lost myself in the answer. He just smiled and very sincerely said, “Don’t ever lose that passion.”
See JAYNA DUKE, page 8
THE ZWEIG LETTER MARCH 11, 2024, ISSUE 1528
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