Creative Leadership Required
If you have not yet listened to episode 28, and 29, before today's episode, I encourage you to do so! episode 28 was all things authentic leadership and why that's so important to embrace as a part of your leadership style. Then we go on to episode 29, which is all about why brave leadership is required – how you, as a leader, must show up bravely and courageously for how you interact and engage with others.
So episode 28, is the internal process of leadership development, episode 29, more of the external process of leadership development, which leads us to what we're talking about today, creative leadership.
Creativity isn’t something to be scared of—it’s something that leaders should run to.
I’m sharing why in the full episode, so join me!
In this episode…
Why we need to reframe our ideas around creativity so that we can stop distancing ourselves from it
The four P’s of creative studies and what we can learn from them and how to apply them to our leadership framework
Why every creative process needs creative press and what this looks like
The qualities of a creative leader and how you can cultivate your own creative leadership
Learning how to accurately identify what your problem is so you can find an innovative solution
The benefits of creativity in the workplace and why humility is necessary for good leadership
Ready for more? Read this:
Listen in:
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** This is a raw, unedited transcript
Chaili Trentham 00:00
If you have not yet listened to Episode 28, and 29, before today's episode, I encourage you to do so episode 28 was all things authentic leadership and why that's so important to embrace. As a part of your leadership style, I break down the four components of authentic leadership theory. And talk a little bit about what that looks like in the way that you lead as part of your internal process, and part of the start of any sort of leadership development. Then we go on to Episode 29, which is all about brave leadership required how you as a leader must show up bravely and courageously for how you interact and engage with others. So Episode 28, is the internal process of leadership development, Episode 29, more of the external process of leadership development, which leads us to what we're talking about today, creative leadership, and this is all about the process for you as a leader. So let's dig in. When we're faced with complexity and ambiguity, creative leaders recognize the need to run towards innovation, especially when guiding their teams to pioneer through challenging and changing economic situations and conditions. And that's right where we're at constantly. Now, quick story, did you know that I went into college as an art major, you maybe didn't know this, but I applied to college and really wanted to do something different. And art for my entire life had been something that really put me into a state of flow, I'd taken art classes through high school. And it was something that I wanted to engage with, and be a part of, long story short, didn't stick with the art degree. But the ideas behind Creative Studies are something I carried with me well into grad school and beyond. Because I so often see, people in general distance themselves from the word creativity. And as a once aspiring artist, to now somebody who really fosters creativity whenever I can, that makes me so sad. But I guarantee I walk into rooms, and I could say, Who's the most creative person in the room. And likely any group, can I identify the creative person in their group, they know it's the person who maybe shows up artistically, and what they wear or how they dress. They know, it's maybe the person who always does the marketing materials for their team or their department, they know that it might be the person who just has really good handwriting. And so you nominate them to write something down on the board when you're all brainstorming. And so often, that's, that's it. That's what we think of when we think of creativity. But in talking about creative leadership, today, I want to do a quick little background of what Creative Studies and compasses and how we need to reframe our process of creative leadership through the lens of Creative Studies, because we have something to learn there. So in Creative Studies, there, there are four P's that are studied, and that's person process, press and product. Okay? Now, when we typically think of creative people, like I said, it's the person who shows up creatively, it's the person who's in creative roles. They're working in the marketing department, they're, they're an artist, or a poet or a writer by trade. And so that makes them creative, right, we associate them with being a creative person. So that's kind of on the front end of a linear process of Creative Studies. On the fourth, P, the, the tail side of this process is product. And so we can identify creative products, because it's the outcome of the person, right? The creative person creates the creative product. And it's really simple for us to connect those two dots. But the other two peas that land in the middle, in this Creative Studies frame framework, are this creative process. And creative press. Process is what you're engaging with, right? It's the the creative process that we all think of an artists going through where they're throwing paint onto a canvas, and everything's messy, and there's classical music playing in the background. But the reality is, we all go through some sort of process to address a problem or a scenario, right. So we've all been in process before we know what that feels like. On the flip side, from the other side of this model is press. Now press is any external pressure that pushes in on the process to impact the outcome or the product. So press can be environmental impacts. It can be just simple deadlines that are in front of you. I don't know about you, but I'm an 11th hour person like I will spend And weeks working on a project, but we'll totally scrap the project and do my best work in the final minutes before it's due or before a deadline hits. And it's because that press, we know that that pressure impacts some of our most creative and some of our best work. And so when we look at Creative Studies, this is a linear process, you take the creative person, they head into the process, they experience some press, and then they have the final outcome of the product. But I want to challenge you, as a creative person, because we all have creativity in us, you need to own that right now, or I can't keep going on with this podcast. But I want to challenge us to reframe our thinking of where we should be living in that that cycle in this framework. So I truly believe that we can live between process and press. And if we're willing to cycle in between those two areas, to be engaged in our process of our leadership, and then be impacted by the press, press around us the things pressing in the factors around us to refine our process, and respond to those presses or pressures again, then we ultimately come out on the other side with the greatest product or the greatest outcome that we can offer, because we've refined and we've reiterated the process. So that's a really big part of how I frame out creative leadership is borrowing from there. So let me tell you what, what I think about creative leaders, all right, before you buy, and you might want to hear a little bit more about this, right. So we started off with the A and B side of this. creative leaders are authentic and brave. That's why it comes in at CES kind of the third part of leadership development. That's part of what allows those attributes to shine through. So for creative leaders, their authenticity lens to their creative process. And they're able to find their flow because they are so deeply rooted in who they are and what they believe. Now, their execution because I said creative leaders are in the process of engaging in the process, their execution requires bold steps, with the ability to confidently show up. Because they're showing up in evolving and ever changing environments knowing that they can adapt their skill set, because they know what that is they know the strengths, they know their weaknesses, and they can adapt to find new opportunities for creative leaders, uncertainty is possibility. And that constant curiosity for a better way becomes an inherent part of their everyday leadership. Now, I also have broken down some other components of creative leaders, they're also risk takers and resilient. Because they've learned to iterate, right, they've been involved in that process press cycle. And they know that it's okay to refine and to maximize and to make changes. And so feedback and failure are a part of their process. They're not afraid of it. Because that's where experimentation is. And so they invite in that part of the journey. They're learning by doing and then maximizing the next opportunity and moving into that next iteration, knowing that it's all serving the greater cause. creative leaders are also collaborative and interactive. So the artist right expresses themselves so that they can engage with others, they want to have feedback, they put their art in front of people, they put their poetry out into rooms, they they engage and interact with others in the world around them. And creative leaders are no different. It's communal, and a collaborative process that requires engagement with our team to come to the better final product or work or to solve the bigger, bigger problem, right? So they're collaborative and interactive in the way that they approach the process. Which leads to the innovation. So they are innovative, it's not about perfection in the solution. It's about being a problem solver and posturing that first. So in design thinking, which I'm sure I've mentioned before here on the podcast. A big part of the innovation process is first identifying the right problem. So often we look big picture and we think we know what the problem is that we're trying to solve. Our organizations put out a problem that we're all trying to solve together. But at further investigation, we can often realize there's more going on below the surface, right? We peel back the layers of the onion and eventually find the root cause or the root problem may be something totally different than what we initially thought. And so innovative creative leaders are willing to live in that space. And like I said, when they're in multiple iterations, they're ultimately working towards the best solution by first identifying the right problem. And all of this, this whole process gives way to creative confidence, exploring this process moving towards more innovative idea building and solutions. And problem solving as a leader means there's a deeper understanding of where you excel and thrive as an individual leader, right? It means the creative leader has taken the time to become familiar with their strengths and weaknesses and knows when to show up confidently in that, and also when to invite in collaboration and the interactive process. They know when to step in and say, Okay, I need feedback. Or okay, I failed, we need to try a different way. It's so ironic, sometimes that confidence in the workplace actually means that you show up with humility. Because sometimes we think of those as competing emotions, right? We think like, oh, I can't admit failure, or I can't admit that I made a mistake. Because that would show up as me being a weak leader, or it would show that I'm incompetent. But in actuality, when we do that, it allows us to show up more confidently in the future. Because when creative leaders are in a Multiple iteration process, and they're constantly refining, each step that they take, even if it's a step a little bit off trail, gets them closer to the final picture, or the final product or the final destination, because they're able to redirect along the way and to recognize mistakes and get back on the right track. And there's benefits of creativity in the workplace. Some of those are motivation and performance and productivity being impacted. We have employee engagement and collaboration increases when the leader is willing to foster creativity in our teams. We know that innovation is a big, big part of it, right? And innovation is what we need in this world, in every industry, every marketplace, but innovation, idea building problem solving, all then becomes a part of the organizational culture when we are fostering creativity. And when we are fostering growth of leaders who are risk takers, resilient, collaborative, and interactive, innovative, and show up with creative confidence. So I hope that you can see that creativity isn't something to be scared of. It's something to run to. It's not something to shy away from like, oh, no, no, no, I am not the creative in the room. But it's something to say, how will I add creativity into my schedule? How will I add creativity into the ways that I show up as a leader? How will I think more creatively about the problems I am solving? Because when we begin to reframe in that way, and embrace our creativity, and the creative process as a whole, we're so much more equipped for how we respond to the creative press that happens. I hope you'll join me for next week's episode where I sum up this series of authentic, brave and creative leadership and talk about how those three components of leadership development can impact the way you show up and lead in this ever evolving, constantly changing world. See you next week. Cheers.