6 Transformative Qualities of Creative Leadership

Recently, I had the chance to engage and interview recent graduates of a well-known design bootcamp on the things they will need as they embark on their new adventure in design. While many of the new professional designers gave practical, if not scripted, answers, there were some who opened up to speak about their next steps deeply, mainly from the point of view of balancing their idealism of “design” to the realities of the actual work experience. Many people spoke about finding the qualities they would need for a long and successful career in the design field.

anyoneThose conversations stuck with me and I began a process of speaking with other colleagues about it. I sought to uncover qualities that could apply to any one from the out-of-school UX designer to the 10-year pro looking to make an impact. I wanted to elaborate on these to raise them to a higher level. These are not tactics. Tactics for a successful career in design or any field depends on specific circumstances that would be too broad from the article. These are more like templates for guiding principles—those that aspiring talent and growing professionals can weave into their own personal transformations and how they can make the greatest impacts for companies and clients as their careers grow.

The following are some of the more interesting qualities that can guide creative careers.

Adventurousness

Adventurousness is the quality of embracing life and seeking experiences that feed learning, sharing, and meaningful connections.

Live an adventure where one can share with clients, colleagues, and other digital enthusiasts new insights of how the business of design drives the design of business. Our field is fast becoming one of the key drivers of business, if not the key driver. Adventurous creative leadership helps the normal process driven and understandably conservative business objectives (driven by value delivery and ROI) expand past artificial constraints and deliver the very differentiating factors that are needed in the marketplace.

Imagination

Imagination is the art of raising the practical to reach the possible.

The whole process begins with ideas. Not just an idea, but the story about ideas that have meaning. As storytellers, we weave ideas together with our imagination rooted in the here-and-now and how to show others how ideas form the foundation of objective of insightful decisions that everyone can see why those decisions were made and why they are in the best interest of objectives we collectively try to achieve. Imaginative creative leadership not only brings together insights in an understandable and actionable form but enables those qualities in the teams and clients they interact with.

Passion

Passion is the X factor that makes us human and what we share with friends and colleagues.

clients,It’s what makes language more than data. Passion connects us to the empathy of the world . When I talk with either designers, clients, or industry leaders, I bring them back to ways we can spark passion. For some, the ignition might explode outwardly. For others, they might focus more inwardly. Unmistakenly, passion is the connective circuitry that is the foundation of cohesive cultures. It is the very nature of a creative organization. It is a factor that is part of the human condition. The passionate creative leader is infectious and magnetic; the ways they touch can be obvious or behind-the-scenes. The impact creates organizations that become the stuff of legend.

Leadership

Leadership in the design field is making creativity a core business asset.

organizations, creativity is another term to problem solving. Those terms are connected. As the terms "design,"  "creative,"  "content,” and other similar terms that once were simply the focus of deliverables become core components of business strategy, the craft of design becomes the driver of business. The leadership of the creative leader must understand the problem that needs to be solved and its implications for success and failure. They must strive to use their skills to help their teams, organizations, and clients find ways to understand and options to act on.

Another facet about leadership: I tell many organizations that I’m not the creative director of a department but of a company. An entire company. My role is to find that factor within the people I am around and guide them to find that shared influential idea that becomes a shared leadership. This is not the ego of self-importance and display that’s often confused with leadership, but the leadership that elevates and transforms teams into adventurousness, imagination, and passion. Many people I spoke with also echo this sentiment. Looking at how this impact can be felt both to those one manages to colleagues and to executives, the leadership of the creative leader is less about management and more about transformation.

Flexibility

Flexibility is being centered and open to possibilities.

Ideas, solutions, strategy, tactics, execution, and measurement all fail when we are not flexible. I often ask my team, “Are we confident in our plans yet flexible in our expected outcomes?” Many corporate business ventures and consulting engagements are approached from preconceived notions. While on the surface, this makes sense to get the project green-lighted, often, those efforts fail to provide value due to the inflexibilities of those very initial assumptions. A better approach with projects begins, as well, where the flexible creative leader shines through the qualities, with planning scenarios that prepare for possibilities, adapt to unknowns, and respond to altering conditions.

Conscientiousness

Conscientiousness is simply another way to describe awareness but without the self-conscious baggage.

Awareness is a better term I would use. But not a passive awareness but an engaged awarenessdrives where we respond, act and participate and impact while not losing focus, remaining adventurous, emoting passion, leading others, remaining flexible and responding to how others react and how you react to others. Conscientious behavior with project teams help build bridges for ideas and helps businesses realize value in uncovered insights. The conscientious creative leader is aware of, impacts positively, influences passionately those invisible threads that weave organizations together. It’s the awareness of the humanity that drive roles, teams, politics, and the growth of companies. It’s the awareness of the dynamics between your work and clients’ needs. It’s the cerebral empathy of how decisions chain-react and how well one anticipates them.

Originally published on Medium at @LangstonRichardson in June 16, 2015