Win the Week: How to Leverage Your Creative Skills
The Creative Factor
The minds & methods shaping craft, career, & culture. Wednesday Newsletters. Edited by Matt McCue. Branded by Coalesce.
We recently came across a Facebook post by a user named Garfield with the caption, “Only an idiot would enjoy a Monday.” To which one Lianne van Ledden wrote, “I love my job.. so I can't wait to start the week.” Us, too.
At the start of every week, we share one tactic to help you win the week, taken straight from the advice of our interview subjects. Today, we hear from Mia Blume , founder of Designing with AI , on how to leverage your creative skills and become a great leader. On your way to the full piece linked below are three of her 10 principles:
1. Design, or be designed
The most crucial lesson I've learned about leadership is that the environment, tools, and norms will inevitably shape your leadership style. However, those influencers may not align with our definition of "good" leadership. That's why intentional leadership is crucial. It involves understanding how we want to present ourselves as leaders and cultivating the mindsets and behaviors that enable us to embody that approach. And all the shifts our industry is experiencing, like AI, is exactly why intentional leadership is crucial. It involves understanding how we want to cultivate the mindsets and behaviors that enable us to embody that approach and to help lead our teams into the future.
2. Effective leaders are also business leaders
Effective leaders are not just leaders within their own area of expertise. It's common for us to become engrossed in leading our craft, especially since that's where many of us began. However, as we assume more responsibility, leadership becomes about much more than managing individuals and projects. It becomes about shaping the business itself — defining what it is and how it operates.
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3. Feedback is not a gift, it’s our responsibility.
There is a lot of “thought leadership” on the concept of feedback being seen as a "gift." While I appreciate the generosity of sharing feedback to foster growth, I believe this notion diminishes the accountability of leaders. It is our responsibility to provide effective feedback to our teams and peers. When we label it as a "gift," it becomes all too simple to minimize our own obligation in doing so.