Montessori x Socrates: My Framework for Team Growth

I’ve never been a command-and-control type of leader.

I have been managed by them in the past and I understand it can work in some situations. For example, at a time when you have an intense goal that cannot be missed and you need extreme focus (I still shudder thinking about Prime Day support). However, I’ve never seen a creative team thrive under no-questions-asked environments as their regular day-to-day. They deliver, sure, but they wilt over time. Micromanagement kills ideas and motivation. Creatives bloom under trust.

The further I get into my leadership journey, the two styles I've used the most are the Montessori method and the Socratic method. Both are rooted in education, but when translated into the workplace, they become something much deeper: a framework for building resilient, thoughtful, self-propelled teams who bring fantastic new ideas to the table without fail.

This is the framework that helped me coach a Coast Guard Officer into a thriving DesignOps Manager at Amazon. It’s the same framework that helped me scale the Prime Gaming team from 0 to 1, promoting high performers and building out a team of 8 into a high-performing creative force that supported millions of Prime customers across both game developer and consumer audiences.

Let's dive in.

Montessori at the Core: Designing a Team Environment for Growth

Montessori leadership starts with one belief: people are intrinsically motivated to grow... if we let them.

When I onboard new team members, especially those coming from non-traditional backgrounds, I lean into this. I don’t flood them with processes or instructions. Instead, I create a “prepared environment” of clear expectations, milestones, access to tools & people, and enough space to make meaningful decisions early.

This is how I approached training my DesignOps hire through the Hire Our Heroes program. She had military discipline and came from the definitive command-and-control environment as a Morale Officer in the Coast Guard.

She did not have a product background.

What she did have (in spades) was good people sense, resilience, and an instinct for building team momentum. So instead of asking her to “fit into” my predetermined system, I built one around her strengths. I provided mentorship and context, then gave her space to operate. She's currently on her 5th year as a Design Program Manager in the Devices group at Amazon. Absolutely thriving.

That Montessori-style trust is where transformation happens. Freedom within structure. It honors two things we deeply crave but rarely get at the same time: autonomy and clarity.

Structure gives us direction.

It says, “This is where we’re headed. This is what matters. This is what ‘done’ looks like.” It reduces ambiguity and decision fatigue. It creates psychological safety by giving us rails to run on. We know the mission, the values, the constraints - and that gives our work purpose.

Freedom gives us agency.

It says, “You decide how to get there. You know your craft. I trust you to explore, experiment, and bring yourself to the work.” It sparks creativity. It invites ownership. It makes the work feel personal, not prescribed.

Put them together and you get "freedom within structure" - and that’s where teams thrive.

It feels good because we’re not just executing someone else’s vision, and we’re not wandering without a map. We’re trusted contributors, not task-executors. We’re invited to shape the work, but not alone in a void. It’s the difference between being told what to build and being trusted to build something meaningful.

And when that balance is right? People light up. Work flows. Teams hum. New ideas flourish.

Socratic at the Edges: Asking Better Questions

But freedom isn’t enough on its own. That’s where Socratic leadership enters.

When the team hits a wall on vision, priorities, or product direction, I don’t rush in with answers. I start with a question. And another. And another.

The Socratic method is uncomfortable at first. It challenges assumptions, exposes fuzziness in our thinking, and surfaces unspoken fears. But done right, it sharpens strategy and builds trust.

I’ve watched junior designers rise quickly when asked to defend their choices not to win an argument, but to understand the "why" beneath their decisions. I’ve watched cross-functional partners shift from passive alignment to true co-ownership when invited into a real dialogue, not just a drive-by approval.

The key is to make questioning safe. You’re not interrogating. You’re offering a mirror.

Now, we have Creative Tension™️

The magic of this framework is in the tension. Montessori creates the soil: safe, rich, full of sunlight. Socrates adds the pruning: asking just enough to shape growth without stifling it.

Too much Montessori, and teams can float directionless. Too much Socratic, and they can freeze up under scrutiny. The blend is where leadership becomes art.

Tension is not comfortable. It's energizing. It creates the kind of stretch that pulls people into the work, rather than pushing them through it. It gives just enough shape to focus attention, while leaving space to explore, improvise, and bring new ideas to the table. I am a designer at heart and I know this feeling intimately. That moment when a constraint starts to click into place, but you still have room to play. When you’re not just executing, you’re solving. When your brain is alert, your hands are moving, and the work is thinking through you.

That’s the flow state. And it often emerges not from total freedom, but from creative tension: the friction between a clear goal and the open path to get there.

When I build teams, I recreate that dynamic at the system level. Structure holds the container, freedom fuels the fire, and tension keeps it alive.

Adaptive Leadership

Building a team in a chaotic environment isn’t about repeating what worked somewhere else. It’s about tuning in: reading the room, recognizing what this moment, this team, and this product actually need.

Sometimes that looks like promoting someone before they feel “ready,” because you can see the leadership in them before they do. Sometimes it means creating just enough ritual to give shape to the chaos without killing the momentum. And sometimes, it means asking your top performers to create space for others to rise.

This framework helps me stay centered through all of it. It’s not a rigid checklist, it's a mindset. A way of leading that flexes as the team grows, and in turn, grows because it flexes. If you’re leading a creative team (especially one that’s growing fast or finding its footing) I invite you to try this lens.

Lead like Montessori at the core: Create a space for people to grow. Lead like Socrates at the edges: Ask better questions. And always lead with the belief that people, given the right conditions, will rise.

They usually do.

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