Greetings!
Welcome to “Cultivating your Leadership Brand” series.
The purpose of this series is to provide tips, tools and resources to help you develop an effective leadership brand that drives high quality performance and allows you to bring your best self to work everyday while inspiring others to do the same!
Do you sometimes become anxious or inflexible when there is a shift in priorities or have to deal with change? Do you respond negatively to new situations or become hesitant to take on new challenges? Well, you are not alone!
Successful leaders acknowledge that we live in a world of constant change and see it as an opportunity to learn, grow and
innovate
. They find
creative
ways to not only deal with competing priorities and changing conditions but they actively pursue new ideas and approaches to solve problems, make decisions and take action. They have the personal agility needed to embrace challenges even in face of ambiguity or when they may not have all information needed.
Personal agility is becoming an increasingly more important self-management skill as leaders need to take a proactive approach to change, be willing to rethink past assumptions, and create an environment where change and innovation valued.
This requires leaders to be open, flexible and
creative
. Believe it or not,
everyone is innately creative. Sometimes things just get in the way of our creativity – like other work responsibilities, others’ expectations of us, deadlines, meetings, clutter, and exhaustion.
Eight tips to ignite your creativity and open your mind for innovation:
Be inspired, experiment and try new things.
Imagine alternative ways of doing things or ways of thinking. Stretch your mind by thinking in polarities. For example, if you are analytical, try trusting your intuition. If you are an introvert, try thinking like an extrovert. Explore and research different techniques, tools, methods, processes of other successful leaders or organizations. Keep an open mind and test them out.
Brainstorm with others.
The opposite of creativity is strict cognitive thinking. Call on all your thinking capacity for generating lots of ideas, options and possibilities when approaching a challenge. Use your feelings, hunches, and intuition and the support of others. Don’t edit your ideas or ideas of others because it seems impossible. Be open to diverse perspectives and expertise. Let go of control and ego.
Cultivate an attitude of curiosity.
If something strikes a spark of interest, learn more about it, explore it, and pursue it
. If something is not working or doesn't look right, drill-in, and ask, "Why?". Engage conversation around the problem to peak others' curiosity. Wonder out loud about “What if. . . ?“, “How might we . . .?” and “What are some other ways we could . . . ?“
Curiosity can be addictive.
Overcome obstacles and hindrances.
Allowing yourself to become too easily distracted, lack of self-discipline, and the fear of inadequacy often get in the way of the flow of creativity. Other hindrances include perfectionism, rigid habits, and social conditioning that represses creativity. Explore which obstacles are blocking your creativity and think about ways to pare down your to-do list, say no to unproductive requests and distractions, and overcome your fears of judgement. Let go of expectations about what “should” happen, or about the process and/or results.
Tame your inner critic.
We all have at least one, and often many. We need first to listen for this inner critic. This is the voice inside that tells us we’re not good enough, creative enough, smart enough, ambitious or successful enough. To tame your inner critic, try this:
- Unmask your inner critic's purpose - "You’re wanting me to be perfect so I might finally feel okay about myself"
- Talk back your inner critic - "It’s not about perfection, it’s about making progress, so now back off!"
- Render that inner critic useless. Find other ways to satisfy the purpose of the critic by telling yourself, "I feel perfectly okay about myself when I set my own standards for performance".
Take a break and breathe.
Take time off when you are exhausted by too many demands. Move away from your computer. Go for a walk or do a work out to wake up your oxygen-starved brain. Albert Einstein stated that some of his best ideas happened when he was not actively thinking about a problem. Consciously put the current problem or challenge aside for a while, and engage a completely different frame of mind. You will be clearer and more focused when you return.
Design your environment to promote creativity.
The space in which you live and work has a powerful impact on how you think and feel.
A boring, cluttered, or hectic environment can suck the life out of you. Consider de-cluttering and surrounding your space with things to help you feel comfortable, positive, enthusiastic, and motivated.
Know your biorhythms.
Note the times of day when you are most clear and structure your day to maximize your use of creative energy. Are you a morning person? Schedule your creative endeavors, brainstorming sessions or team meetings then and you will see your productivity soar.
What actions will you take to generate the creative energy needed to solve problems and innovate?
Do you work calmly under stress and pressure? Next week we will learn to recognize stressors and explore techniques for
Stress Management.
Ready to take your leadership brand to the next level?
Invest in yourself, your people and your organization by registering for our eye-opening and dynamic 2-day workshop designed to cultivate your leadership brand and keep you and your employees performing at their best.
