The Art and Architecture of Leadership
When Larry Armstrong talks about leadership, he doesn’t reach for a spreadsheet or an org chart. Instead, he reaches for a metaphor of light, sound, and motion, or better said, something layered, dynamic, and alive. “I’ve always perceived the world this way,” he told me. “Even as a kid, I saw things in layers: emotion, color, music. It’s just how I process the world.” That multidimensional way of seeing shaped both his career as an architect and his philosophy as a leader.
Armstrong is the former CEO and now Chairman of Ware Malcomb, a global architecture and design firm. His new book, Layered Leadership: Drive Double-Digit Growth and Dominate Your Competition with Creative Strategies and Execution, has struck a chord across industries, not just in architecture. It’s about building organizations that are agile, creative, and growth-oriented, without losing their human or artistic core. “When I applied it to leadership,” he said, “I realized I’d been practicing it all along. Leadership isn’t a single plane. It’s an integration of people, process, and purpose. It’s like designing a building or a piece of music. It’s all about how the layers fit together.”
From Architect to Leader
Armstrong’s early career followed a familiar pattern: a talented designer rises through the ranks and discovers that technical excellence doesn’t automatically translate to leadership effectiveness. “When I first became a leader, I tried to do everything myself,” he said. “I was stressed, I had anxiety issues. Eventually I realized: I can’t do it all. And if I want the company to reach its potential, I have to create opportunities for others, not just myself.” That moment of realization became a cornerstone of his philosophy that true leadership is about multiplying performance through others. “I was given an incredible opportunity by our founders,” he said. “So I felt a responsibility to create opportunities for others. That combination — gratitude for what I was given and awareness of my limits — changed everything.”
The Rocket Model of Growth
In Layered Leadership, Armstrong divides leadership into three primary layers: foundation, vision and planning, and strategic growth. He visualizes it like a rocket. “If you don’t have a foundation — who you are, what you stand for — it’s hard to get people engaged,” he explained. “Then you need a plan, because how do you know if you’ve arrived without one? And finally, you have to execute. Each layer fuels the next.” The metaphor is deliberate. A company without a clear foundation can’t lift off; one without a plan veers off course; one that doesn’t execute crashes back to earth. “It’s not just stacked layers,” he added. “They’re synthesized and integrated. That’s what makes it powerful.”
The Whole-Brain Leader
Armstrong devotes a full section of the book to Leonardo da Vinci, describing him as the ultimate model for what he calls “whole-brain leadership.” Leonardo’s superpower, he said, was curiosity. “He was the greatest genius the world’s ever known because he was curious about everything. He didn’t just paint. He studied anatomy, engineering, flight. He dissected animals to see how muscles worked so he could paint movement accurately.” That relentless curiosity, Armstrong believes, is exactly what leaders need. “When you get promoted, you’re often rewarded for being great at your craft,” he said. “But suddenly you’re managing people, finances, strategy — all things you weren’t trained for. You have to be curious. You have to keep learning.” He practices what he preaches, reading widely outside his field, from business classics to behavioral economics. “Whole-brain leadership means you’re never done learning. Every day you can get better.”
Getting Comfortable with Discomfort
Success, Armstrong warned, can be dangerous. “Once people reach a certain level, they think, ‘I made it,’ and they stop stretching themselves.” The comfort zone, he said, is the enemy of growth. “It’s complacency. Even people who are still ambitious can get stuck avoiding the hard conversations with themselves.” He distinguishes between delegation and abdication. “You can’t just say, ‘I’ve got a CFO, [and] he’ll tell me if we’re in trouble.’ You have to have fluency in every aspect of your business. Hire people who are smarter than you, yes, but still understand enough to ask good questions.”
Building Growth Through Visual Metaphors
One of Armstrong’s most creative exercises for leaders involves Tinker Toys. “I have people build a structure out of Tinker Toys to represent their leadership skills,” he explained. “If one of the rods is short, maybe that’s a skill they’re avoiding, say, client relationships or mentoring. Then I tell them to keep that model on their desk as a reminder.” It’s a simple but powerful act of self-reflection. The exercise transforms an abstract concept like personal growth into something tangible. “It’s really a conversation with yourself,” he said. “Every time you look at it, you’re reminded to keep growing.”
The Power of the Number Two
Among all the concepts in Layered Leadership, Armstrong calls the development of a strong “number two” one of the most critical. “If you’re building a company, you need someone you can rely on to handle things, someone who can take over if you’re not there.” Too often, he said, leaders resist this idea because it threatens their sense of importance. “They hear ‘train your replacement’ and they panic. But that’s not the point. The point is continuity. If you got hit by a bus, what happens to your team?”
In Ware Malcomb’s culture, every leader is expected to develop a successor. “Our current CEO was my number two for years,” Armstrong said. “That’s how succession should work. When leaders don’t have a number two, their growth stalls. Their office or department hits a ceiling. Developing others is how you scale yourself.”
Learning from the Masters
Armstrong credits much of his thinking to years of studying business leaders outside his industry. “We decided early on not to just copy other architecture firms,” he said. “We wanted to study business in general — what works, what doesn’t.” Among the books that shaped his approach: Winning by Jack Welch, Freakonomics by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner, and Blue Ocean Strategy by W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne. “Jack Welch taught me about accountability and being number one or two in every market. Freakonomics taught me to think differently, to question assumptions. And Blue Ocean Strategy was a revelation about creating markets instead of competing in existing ones.” Armstrong reads with intent, transforming knowledge into action. “You can’t become GE,” he said. “But you can take concepts and fit them to your company. The creative part is weaving those ideas into your own strategy.”
Health as the Hidden Foundation
One of the most personal chapters in Layered Leadership focuses on physical, emotional, and financial wellness. Armstrong admits he neglected these for years. “I used to say I didn’t have time to work out. I’d grab fast food between meetings. Eventually it caught up with me. I burned out.” That experience changed his priorities. “If you don’t have a personal foundation, you won’t have longevity. You’re sacrificing yourself for your goals, and that doesn’t make sense.” He now treats personal and financial health as non-negotiable layers of leadership. “If you’re stressed about money or health, it distracts you. Take care of yourself first so you can take care of your company.”
A Fleet, Not a Freighter
To describe organizational agility, Armstrong uses another vivid metaphor: a fleet of ships. “We wanted to grow into a large company, but when I looked at big corporations, they reminded me of ocean liners: slow, bureaucratic, hard to turn,” he said. “So we built our company like a fleet of smaller ships — offices that could move independently but in formation.” The key, he explained, is integration and communication. “We stay aligned through constant dialogue [like] monthly meetings, shared strategy sessions, leadership conferences. Every office knows the direction we’re heading. When we hit rough waters, we can pivot together.” That approach, he said, allows the firm to combine scale with flexibility. “We’re global, but we can still move like a startup.”
Innovation Without Hierarchy
Armstrong rejects the idea that innovation belongs to an R&D department or an executive suite. “We don’t do top-down or bottom-up,” he said. “It’s both.” During the Great Recession, Ware Malcomb launched an initiative called WM 3.0, inviting ideas from everyone in the company. “We asked three questions: What do we need to fix? How do we get back to basics? And what are we going to innovate?” The response was overwhelming, with more than a thousand ideas. “We implemented a ton of them,” Armstrong said. “Some immediately, others over time. The result was transformative.” That process has evolved into an ongoing program called WM Evolve, which continues to harness ideas from all levels of the organization. “It’s not touchy-feely stuff,” he emphasized. “It drives real results. Everyone has great ideas to contribute, and when they see those ideas implemented, they feel ownership.”
The Artist’s Advantage
Armstrong’s creative instinct gives his leadership its sharpest edge. “Being an artist makes me a better CEO,” he said. “When I’m painting, there are no boundaries. I can explore ideas freely.” In architecture and business, by contrast, constraints abound — budgets, regulations, client demands. “Art frees my mind,” he explained. “It reminds me that creativity doesn’t have limits. That mindset helps me approach problems differently as a leader.” His artwork, featured throughout the book, serves as both metaphor and method. “Leadership, like art, is synthesis. You’re weaving together structure and emotion, logic and intuition.”
Building a Lasting Legacy
Asked what legacy he hopes to leave, Armstrong’s answer is both ambitious and humble. “We took a great regional firm and built it into an international design institution,” he said. “My hope is that the next generation takes it even further.” But he also measures success more personally: “If someone reads the book and finds even one idea that helps them grow their business or their people, that’s enough.”
Lessons in Layered Leadership
Throughout our conversation, Armstrong returned to one core principle: leadership is a living system, not a linear one. It’s not a climb up a hierarchy but a composition, an ongoing act of creative synthesis. He sees leadership as the interplay of curiosity, courage, and care: curiosity to keep learning, courage to face discomfort, and care for the people and structures that make growth possible. When those layers connect, growth gives way to transformation. For leaders looking to build something enduring, Armstrong’s message is simple but profound: build your foundation, define your vision, execute with creativity, and never stop layering your growth.
Brandon Laws is a workplace culture and leadership enthusiast, host of the Transform Your Workplace podcast, and VP of Marketing and Product at Xenium HR.