CREATIVITY

Sep

2023

Creativity in Leadership

As a business leader, you know that the success of your organization depends on the creativity and innovation of your team. Whether you’re launching a new product or aiming to increase market share, creative thinking is essential to success. How do you foster a culture of creativity within your organization?

The most successful leaders understand that creativity isn’t a one-size-fits-all exercise. It requires a unique blend of skills, processes, and strategies to bring out the best in your team. Here are three tips and a few tools to help you lead creatively:

Encourage Collaboration

One of the best ways to foster creative thinking is to encourage collaboration. Encourage your team to brainstorm together and work together to come up with creative solutions to challenges. Enable cross-functional collaboration and provide a platform for team members to share ideas and feedback.

Embrace Technology

Technology can be a great tool for unlocking creativity. Use technology to enhance the idea-generation process and facilitate communication and collaboration. Incorporate tools like video conferencing, virtual whiteboards, and online idea management platforms to foster a creative environment.

Reward Creativity

Resist the natural human tendency to try and control and have it your way. Reward creativity and innovation in your organization. Recognize team members who come up with creative solutions and celebrate successes. Give team members the opportunity to take risks and reward them for their efforts.

Creativity Tools

Here are some tools that can help you be even more effective with creativity sessions.

Whiteboard – whether virtual like mentioned above or in person, write out ideas on the board and then sort through them after the brainstorm time ends

Mind Maps – this is a great tool to capture your thoughts visually. Dr. Caroline Leaf discusses this concept in depth and the science behind it in her book Think, Learn, Succeed.

Green Hat Sessions – these are sessions where you set the expectation that there is no bad idea. Creating an atmosphere free of judgment can lead to the potential for your next breakthrough idea.

Leading creatively requires a thoughtful approach. By encouraging collaboration, embracing technology, rewarding creativity, and using some of the tools above, you can create an innovative environment for your team. Which of these strategies will you use to enhance creativity with your team? Need help with thinking into your business? Contact me for a powerful coaching session. Lead Well.

Jul

2022

The Fourth Means Freedom

When I was a kid, I would go to Atlanta Braves baseball games with my dad. At the beginning of the game, like all sporting events, they would sing The Star-Spangled Banner. For the longest time I thought when they said “the home of the brave” they were saying the home of the “Braves.” How easily we can misunderstand something.

There is much to be said about the bravery of those who fought for the freedom of this nation. A nation where we have the freedoms such as speech, religion, to petition the government, assemble, and press. A nation where someone can move from another country, start a business, and become extremely successful. A nation where multiple ways of thinking can coexist and in healthy environments create great solutions to complicated problems.

Much can be said about freedom. Allow me to add a few thoughts and how it applies to our leadership.

Allows Creativity

My wife is not too fond of heights. A couple weeks ago we visited the Grand Canyon and she was adamant about the boys staying a few feet back from the edge. If we were somewhere with rails up she was much less anxious and the boys had more freedom to move about.

As leaders when we set clear expectations on the outcome and limits of the project the people we lead experience more creative freedom. This clarity allows the leader freedom to think creatively into ways to grow and expand. It also allows those being led room to creatively execute on what has been asked.

Autonomy

Daniel Pink in the book Drive suggests a key motivators for all people is autonomy. This is the ability to create a space for people to do their best work. Think about when you were a teenager. If your parents always hovered over you, once you got on your own you went wild and possibly in unhealthy ways.

When the people we lead have freedom to use their strengths and skills they will thrive. This does not mean we abandon those we lead. We still need to be accessible and clear expectations, but not micro-manage every step. Pink found research highlighting those businesses that offered autonomy grew four times as much as control-oriented firms.¹ Autonomy provides freedom from excessive control.

Tension

July 4^th 1776 the founders of the United States of America declared independence and freedom from Great Britain. In the more than two hundred years since that day it has not been smooth sailing. There have been many ideological tensions and wars.

As a leader there will be a temptation to control especially under stress. This is where the tension of maintaining a culture of freedom exists. Leaders must balance appropriate controls and accountability with the freedom for people to excel in their unique ways.

I wish leadership was set it and forget it, but leadership involves people. Part of our nature is to have tension. Tension is not always bad. When this is embraced in a healthy environment the team can create great solutions that make a profound impact. There will be battles, but they do not have to destroy the culture. Embrace the tension as an opportunity to grow and lean into listening and asking questions as a leader.

I am grateful to live in a country where we have the freedoms we do. As a leader you can create a culture of healthy freedom or unhealthy control. How are you doing in each of these areas? Need help evaluating the culture you have created as a leader? Contact me to discover any way I can serve you or your team. Lead well.

Pink, Daniel. Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us. Riverhead Books: 2009.

Dec

2019

Laziness as a Leadership Strength?

It killed me to write that title as this goes against everything I naturally think, but stay with me for a minute.

I was taking advantage of the unseasonably warm December weather and removing the Christmas lights earlier than normal. I really did not want to pull out my adjustable ladder and set it up so I grabbed my quick folding three step ladder.

In all the years of hanging the lights I had never used this ladder because I thought it would take longer. I was wrong! Not only could I move the ladder quickly, but with a little creative thinking I avoided needing my clunky adjustable ladder at all.

Midway through this process of taking down the lights I realized being lazy served me well in this instance. Before I go further let me clarify that nothing replaces hard work, persistence, and quality work, but maybe laziness aligned with high standards has a role in leadership. Additionally, if leaders proactively engage the “lazy” people on their team they may find the following hidden strengths.

Creativity

At times the lazy people around us may not be complete bums, but are more relational and creative. They value spending time with people and building relationships a little more than completing tasks. This could be a strength because assuming they still value high quality work, they will find creative ways to accomplish the work in as little time as possible.

Leaders value quality and want to be successful. Could there be someone on the team who appears lazy, but is very creative? They will create innovative ways to accomplish the work so they can also quickly engage in other available opportunities.

Efficiency

No leader wants to waste time on an initiative and those perceived as lazy want to get the work accomplished as quickly as possible. I didn’t want to spend a lot of time taking down the Christmas lights, so I chose the ladder that was quicker to set up and move, but still get the needed results.

As leaders if we provide clear expectations and a clear vision of what the final product should look like then we equip those who are “lazy” with the parameters to efficiently get results. The leader simply must get out of the way!

Teamwork

We have all experienced a project we must but did not want to do. We all want hard workers, but sometimes they try to do everything and fail to involve others. This is where laziness becomes a strength. If the lazy person focuses on what he or she does well and builds a supporting team to get the work done creatively and efficiently in all the other areas he or she does not excel in, then the results are better. Multiple minds working together create a better result.

As I said before I am not advocating laziness as a habit, but slowing down to what may feel like a lazy pace or tapping into those less driven individuals can potentially be beneficial. Who is a “lazy” person that may be a hidden leader on your team? How can being “lazy” occasionally help you become a better leader? Comment below.

Work hard, stay disciplined, allow a little intentional laziness and lead well.

Apr

2017

What the Lego Movie Taught Me About Leadership

“He can’t be the chosen one, he isn’t even a master builder.” I was driving to Columbus, Ohio with my family and The Lego Movie was playing in the back. I had watched the movie with my boys multiple times (I know I am a little kid at heart), but listening to it brought to my mind the awareness of a battle I feel as a leader constantly.

If you aren’t familiar with this movie, part of the plot is lord Business wants to control the entire Lego world and keep tight control on everything. Everyone must follow the instructions and creativity is frowned upon. The “piece of resistance” is on the back of the “chosen one” who can save all the people from “the kragle” which will make everyone be stuck permanently as they are and stifle all creativity.

As I listened it hit me that I struggle with this tension both personally and professionally with the battle between control and creativity. These don’t seem opposed you may say, generally no, but the concepts in the plot of this movie made me think differently. After “googling” these words the following definitions came up:

Control – the power to influence or direct people’s behavior or the course of events

Creativity – the use of the imagination or original ideas

As a leader both are needed, but how do I balance the two? I see one illustration of this tension in parenting. My son wanted to have a leaf raking business last fall. I saw all that needed to be done and I had to resist the urge to try to micromanage him and tell him exactly how to do everything. Yes, the work may have been completed more efficiently, but would my controlling have enabled him to learn some of the processes necessary for running his own business? If I am controlling everything and trying to make it perfect will it help him grow?

This same son is naturally very creative and I had to allow him to think of his own methods for getting business and how he would implement the leaf raking process. I was available to help him with some of the work (such as using the leaf blower since it was a fun toy for dad to play with) and help him process his ideas, but I had to tame my urge for perfection.

The same was true in this movie. Lord Business wanted the Lego world to be perfect and people had to follow the rules. On the other hand there were many people who used their “master builder” skills to create amazing new Lego creations such as a motorcycle out of spare parts or a giant construction machine to save the city.

Do you remember the playground in elementary school? There was a fence to keep you from getting hurt or kidnapped, but you had freedom to do whatever you wanted on the playground as long as you stayed within the parameters. Control for appropriate safety which created an environment for amazing youthful creativity.

As a leaders are we imparting too many controls? Are we taking the need for appropriate controls for accountability and structure so far that it limits those around us from having the freedom to think creatively? Creativity comes out of space to think freely. Do we allow freedom in our schedule to let our minds creatively wander, what about our family’s schedule, what about those we lead at work? Create boundaries, but within the boundaries allow creativity to flourish. Do you allow yourself and others to play on the playground of life at home and work? Share below practices you use to allow creativity to flourish in the areas you lead.