Cooperate, Collaborate, and Co-Inspire

Who is your favorite artist?

Unless you were an arts major, you probably named someone well-known like Picasso or Van Gogh. But there is a world of wonderful yet lessor known artists out there waiting for you to discover.

What does that have to do with leadership?

As an artist, I've learned that leadership is most effective when it is shared. When responsibility is part of the job description for each person on the team, the team does better. Leaders benefit from being creative. What could be more creative than the arts?

That doesn't mean that all leaders must be artists -- but it does mean that all leaders can benefit from learning from the creative approaches artists must take -- to create, to collaborate, to survive.

Here are my suggestions to explore this more:

visit a museum or gallery
go to a concert
see an unusual, independent film
walk thru the art section of a local fair or flea market
draw a picture you've never drawn before
pick out a tune on the next musical keyboard you see

Creativity is everywhere, waiting for you to make the most of it. Then, like an artist, your leadership can encompass some new qualities. A new spark and many new ideas become instantly available to creatively centered leaders.

Lead like an artist today.

The arts teach us that it is not necessary to compete with one another. We can cooperate, collaborate, and co-inspire.

Imagine the success you can create with that!

-- Douglas Brent Smith

Front Range Leadership | Training Supervisors for Success

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