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What Do Great Creative Leaders Know?

Being a Creative Executive can get pretty intense. You’re rallying others, and reaching for your best, every day in the quest to make something great. You need a support structure, and we think it’s these five pieces of knowledge.

  1. You know what your people care about. To inspire progress, you have to appeal to what makes each team member tick. Who’s motivated by collaboration? By independence? Who loves to organize, and who wants to improvise?
  1. You know what gives you (and your team) your creative edge. Know your strengths — the things that make you you — and find ways to use them. Understand your team this well, too, and set them up to shine.
  1. You know your gaps. The flip side of knowing and leveraging your strengths is realizing your gaps and how others can fill them. We all have gaps – there’s no such thing as a complete leader. The important thing is how we work with them.
  1. You know the power of process. “Culture” really just comes down to how you do the work. (Tweet+Share) You build creative culture one step of your work process at a time – setting and sharing goals, checking in, making people feel heard, celebrating milestones.
  1. You know that that inspiration beats fear every time. (Tweet+Share) Bullying, yelling and other crappy behavior might get you a short-term result, but they’re never going to create the passionate engagement you need for the long haul.

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