Creativity and Leadership: Together Like Tacos and Queso.
Coffee and donut holes. Diana Ross and the Supremes.
They are life-long roommates, at least. Maybe soulmates.
This is why it's important for everyone to not only understand creativity and how it works - but also to practice it.
Creativity requires iteration.
Creative copying is a part of this process.
Creative genius is more like a muscle than a muse.
Which means magic will only happen when the discipline is established.
Why is this important?
Leadership, whether from the front or from behind, grows in its complexity. Problems are more nuanced. People are not one-dimensional. Having and exercising a strong creative muscle will become increasingly important in coming days.
Melting ice caps, cyclical poverty, disease and food shortages, refugees and immigration, racism and misogyny, and a thousand other issues.
None of it is simple. Creativity is the essential skill for simplifying complexity without becoming a reductionist. Innovation means coloring outside the lines. Exploration. Disciplined thinking. Transforming the narrative.Deep Work.
This is what is most needed in leadership today.
Here's the great thing.
Anyone willing to build their creative muscle, learn the patience of iteration, and put their butt in the chair and do the work can lead. And lead well.
And you don't need an office or a position to lead from.
Creative leadership is often most effective from the back of the room.
