Creative Leadership Observatory: Creativity Coaching

Hello readers, this is blog post 5 on the Creative Leadership Observatory! For this week, we did something a little different, and created a “worksheet” on creative leadership. Many of us have at some point seen these types of “worksheets” that are usually 2-3 pages, outlining some “tips and tricks” on a particular subject. Such as “5 ways to healthier eating”, “6 must see places in New England”, or “10 red flags to avoid when interviewing”. This week, we created our own worksheet on the topic of creative leadership in whatever form that resonated with us. From the weekly readings, we synthesized our own “packaged” ideas on the subject. For me, while I was reading the weekly resource materials, my mind kept coming back to the lack of creative leadership I’ve seen in my career, despite the fact that I work in a creative field (fashion design). Seems a bit ironic! So I decided to focus the findings from the readings on how to “Unlock Creativity in Creative Business Environments”. See below.

I wanted to bring attention to this in order to bring readers to understand that although fostering “creative thinking” in a culture sounds all fine and good, that it is much harder to build and maintain than it sounds. If we struggle to maintain “creative thinking” even in creative fields (such as fashion design), how can we be sure we are truly fostering creative thinking in environments that are traditionally not viewed as “creative”, such as healthcare? What hope is there to creatively solve tough social and environmental issues, if we cannot maintain creative thinking even among those who claim to already be “creative”?

Another observation I had while doing this exercise, was that many of these concepts of “creative” leadership, are right now almost ubiquitous and synonymous in the myriad of reading on “good” leadership today. Even while I was earning my MBA, all topics around “good” leadership, was similar, if not the same concepts as “creative” leadership. I take this to mean, that what we define as “good” leadership in today’s business environment, requires a whole heck of a lot of “creative” leadership. I think its important to acknowledge this, so it doesn’t deter people or industries who do not view themselves as creative, or vis versa, those who think they are already creative, to think they are being creative enough in navigating the complex world today.

My worksheet therefore pulls together 10 main takeaways that I see in successful creative teams, or things that keep creative teams from excelling. I hope you find it helpful!

Coaching Worksheet_MDunn.pdf

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