Unleashing Creativity: The Key to Effective Personal Leadership

Why we are all creative and why we need to explore it.

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In my effective leadership program, which is a personal leadership development program, I outline the 12 traits of effective leadership, one thing I’m always questioned on is why I don’t ?include bravery as a necessary trait for effective leadership?

My response to the question is this. “To act as an effective leader, one has to be creative and to be creative is to be brave!”

Rather than including bravery as a module in the effective leadership program I spend quite a bit of time workshopping, creativity.

Recently, while facilitating a program someone responded that they can’t be an effective leader as they aren’t creative.

Again, my response is usually a question.

“If I asked you to describe a creative person, what would they look like, or better yet, what would be their traits?

Creativity isn’t a title applicable only to an exhibiting artist an accomplished author, or someone who is able to conjure some form of “magic.” Creativity is a part of all of us.

As Seth Godin said in his book, The Practice, “Creativity is not a feeling it is an action.”

As I’ve always mentioned, leadership isn’t a position it’s a set of skills, traits and actions and by developing them we become more effective as leaders. The same applies to creativity. It is a set of actions that promote growth, exploration, inspiration, connection, transformation and application – creativity.

The Actions needed to be creative.

• Being curious ?- Leads us to new experiences and those experiences can give us the knowledge and the understanding to create something different or new. Whether an artist, entrepreneur, or a team leader etc. it’s being curious that opens us up to new ideas that can lead to new innovations. As leaders we need to be curious about our team, the market, ideas, and solutions, adaptability, and reinvention.

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• Trying new things – Being curious is one thing but we still need to be brave enough to try something new - to put that curiosity into action. If we never try new things nothing changes – same actions = same results. Innovation comes from trying new things.

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• Making connections and solving problems – Steve Job’s saw the need for something more intimate than the laptop and something more capable than the smartphone. That connection and problem solving led to the iPad. Creativity is not always in massive leaps and bounds but just a series of small adjustments – the accumulation of which leads to a change. As a leader the need to find solutions to challenges and potential opportunities is always close by.

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• Collaborations – we all view the world through a unique lens. That lens, as unique as it is, can also be limiting. The saying,” two heads is better than one,” is very relevant when it comes to creating as the more unique lenses, we combine the wider the angle of the view becomes, creating a more varied vision, idea, or solution.

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• Pushing boundaries – during my leadership skills training program – Thriving in Life, I always get the attention of everyone when I say, “I don’t believe we can think out of the box.” I follow that attendee awakening statement with this example. “If I give you absolutely nothing and say to you create something you will struggle to complete the task because there are no parameters. (Have you ever struggled to find a parking spot in an empty parking lot?) But if I say to you, “using a pen, a pencil, a piece of paper and a paper clip, create something for me in 15 minutes,” I’ll get a result.

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The reason being is that for creativity to happen we need parameters - we need the walls of the said box. Once we have the parameters and I say, “push the boundaries,” we can expand on the initial idea, making changes - pushing the walls of the box outwards so that the initial creation changes to something else from what we started with. I believe in making the boundaries of the box bigger until possibly the creation is so different that the boundaries of the ?box have disappeared completely.

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• Creating something out of nothing – this is where the imagination comes into play. Creativity loves a relaxed mind. Have you ever just been doodling or having a stroll and an idea or a solution to a problem comes to mind? That is creativity in action. It allows the space for the mind and the imagination to flourish. We don’t always have to think about being creative, we can just be and the creativity flows.

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The ?stumbling blocks that hinder us exploring being creative.

1.?????? Taking Risks and being prepared to be wrong - For us to explore creativity there is one key element that we need to deal with which is we need to be prepared to make mistakes or to be wrong. This is easier said than done because not only could it be costly in time, effort, and resources, but also because it’s not a concept that has been promoted throughout our lives. Nobody really likes to be wrong, yet there is no creativity or innovation without failure or making mistakes.

There is an alternative way of looking at it as said Thomas Edison, “I have not failed. I just found 10?000 ways that won’t work.”

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2.?????? Creativity thrives on what the brain fears most – taking risks and not knowing. Because of this our default mode is to create routines. The sleepless nights created by the not knowing includes, not knowing if it will work out, not knowing if I’m good enough to create it, not knowing if it will be a waste of time, not knowing what people will think of me if I get it wrong…or right, the risk of losing anything…everything. However, to overcome that challenge we push the boundaries of the box – our comfort zones – outwards in bite sized chunks, enabling us to feel safe, while taking notice of our progress and looking back to see how far we’ve ventured from our starting point. It’s the small wins that build confidence.

“ The enemy of creativity is stress, but it turns out the that the kryptonite of stress is creativity,” Coralie Sleep

3.????? Safety

If we feel unsafe – physically and psychologically our creative juices dry up.

We need to feel safe within our environment, free from threat and danger for our mind to relax enough to allow creative ideas to flow.

We also need to feel psychologically safe – free from judgment and criticism, and in an environment that promotes the idea that our suggestions are valid and welcomed.

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To be a leader is to be creative as problems and challenges need continuous solving. Connections between people, things and ideas are continuously sought, and creating visions for personal growth, our start-ups, or the team, are an absolute must. Creativity needs personal leadership and to be an effective leader we need to create. Both of which require bravery.

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The “magic” of creativity is witnessed by the audience and not necessarily by the creator.

The reason some feel that they aren’t creative is because they compare themselves to an artist, or the likes whose magic is hanging on a gallery wall or, to someone who has presented an amazing marketing campaign, presented phenomenal talk, or solved a massive budgeting crisis. ?Comparing ourselves to others can create a lot of uncertainty within us and can create unfounded assumptions.

Creativity is not linked to a specific profession or title; ?it is the actions we take linked to what we do.

When we view the finished work without understanding what it took to get there, we are not seeing the whole picture.

Monet didn’t? just pick up a brush and paint, “The Artist’s Garden.”

Steve Jobs didn’t just create Apple out of nowhere.

Inspiring speakers don’t just take to the stage and churn out a motivational talk.

For anything to grow, develop and flourish, we need to be curious about what is going on around us, we need to try new things, or take a new direction,? challenges arise that need to be overcome, we need to ask for help – collaborate,? and we need to overcome fears.

So, how do we develop creativity?

Being Curious – open that email or read that article that you think might be of no interest to you.

Speak to someone new (This also helps with overcoming fears)

Learning from others that have walked our path before - You can never put too much value on experience and where better to look than to mentors who can be fantastic sounding boards and guides.

Having a problem that needs solving?? Speaking to someone else about. “Collabs’” opens us up to those with different viewpoints, thought processes and problem-solving methods which can lead to a whole new level of options.

Try something new – it can start with ordering something you? never would from a menu.

Take up those hobbies you’ve been thinking about for years. Don’t be concerned about the outcome – just do it because you’re interested in it.

Play – there is so much new research on the positive effects to both our wellbeing and creative inspiration when we do fun stuff or do something just for fun. Go out and have some fun. Turn that brainstorming session into a game. HAVE FUN!

Safety – Create an environment for you and your team that promotes idea generation.

Taking action – We can imagine,? think, talk, discuss etc, yet nothing will be done unless we take the first step. The first step, possibly out of our comfort zones, can be the most difficult because it can be seen as a step into the unknown, and the unknown is not a place our minds like to go, but once the journey has begun taking the follow-on steps does become easier.

Understanding that it is just a step- by-step process.

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The Rhythm of Creativity.

In my creativity development program and my Createfulness program which incorporates and connects, PLAY, CREATIVITY and LEADERSHIP I go over in detail ways to promote the action of creativity including the rhythm of creativity, or the rhythm that promotes creative inspiration. This rhythm needs us to take the necessary action required to start the process of unlocking creative inspiration as well as the passivity needed for the answers to show themselves.

Here is an ?example of how to do it.

Creativity resides in our conscious and our subconscious mind. We think consciously of what we feel we need to do, (Action) but the answers are usually hidden deep in our subconscious mind, and our subconscious mind is most easily accessed when we’re in a relaxed state of mind (passivity)

1.?????? Do the research needed related to your creative inspiration – Incubate - action

2.?????? Disconnect from it, do something else entirely and let it incubate – percolate – passive

3.?????? Go for a walk, run, relax, meditate – and allow the inspiration to make itself known – illuminate – relaxed action.

4.?????? Test the idea out to see if it works – verification.

5.?????? Repeat the process if need be.

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How does creativity fit into personal ?leadership?

To be creative needs bravery as does leadership. The responsibility of a leaders is to promote creativity within themselves while also creating an environment so that creativity within the team can flourish.

We live in a day and age that doesn’t promote the idea of making mistakes or being wrong, but if we aren’t prepared to make mistakes then the chances of expanding on something or creating something new is limited. We need to allow for this both as individuals and within teams.

Creativity is also utilising what tools we have at our disposal and how to use them most effectively and efficiently. As we move deeper into a technological driven era, we have to be creative in the way we develop, transform, and utilise our skills, and the tools available to get to the next level.

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