“She has a therapist’s touch as well. “Every time I walk in her door, she reads my mind in three seconds. I think she knew I was pregnant before I did,” says Ashley Sargent Price, who does art direction for J.Crew’s catalogs and website. “She knows how to make you feel appreciated, even if you need to be redirected.” The skill is an essential one for getting the best out of designers, who, Lyons holds, don’t operate by the same rules as other people in business. “Managing creative people—not so easy,” she says. “A lot of emotion, a lot of stroking. Some people need tough love. Some people need a lot of love.” Above all is the challenge of managing in a subjective realm. “There’s no right or wrong answer,” says Lyons. “When someone creates something and puts it in front of you, that thing came from inside of them, and if you make them feel bad, it’s going to be hard to fix, because you’ve actually crushed them.”