High Performance Leadership

  If you paint, paint a lot. If you write, write constantly. If you sing, sing everywhere. Creativity thrives in the doing. -- doug smith

I'm not a good dancer. I used to think that I was, but then I figured out that it was my partner who was such a good dancer that she could also make me feel like a good dancer. It was wonderful. And, when I realized later, when she'd moved on to a new partner, that I was NOT such a good dancer, at first I wanted to stop dancing. It was so disappointing. It was all just an illusion. And then, I realized. It didn't matter. There are degrees of dancing. Somewhere there are people who dance even better than my former partner. Somewhere there are people who can hardly dance at all. No matter where we start, in dancing or in leading, we can always level up. Start where we are and get better. And, realize that the dance is not about us at all anyway. The dance is, and always has been, about your partners. Your creative muse likes to dance. It will open up new roads to you. It will light you up and allow blood to flow to the places that make you tingle. Listen to that muse a...

When was the last time one of your assumptions was wrong? It's so easy to jump to conclusions. We fill-in-the-blanks so many times in so many ways because it's just part of being human. But, when we assume that things are not going in our favor, when maybe there is no reason to, we do ourselves no service. This is a picture of a recent training room for one of my workshops. It was day two of the two-day workshop and since the hotel staff had in the past forgotten to unlock the door to my room. I arrived, and sure enough the door was locked. Rather than get upset (something I might have experienced in the past) I calmly contacted the hotel staff and politely, yet assertively, asked to have my door unlocked. "I can do that, sir," said a polite maintenance gentleman, "but you could also just walk in thru that second, open door..." "Oh. Gee. Thanks!" That was just a little embarrassing. Just about fifteen feet from the locked door was an o...

Creative leaders never run out of new ideas. -- Doug Smith

The creative problem solver in you always has more solutions than you need. -- Doug Smith

How would you define creativity? Some people see it as a flash of inspiration. It's the appearance of a wonderful and mysterious muse. Suddenly great and beautiful things happen. For others, it's not like that at all. Why wait for the muse? Sometimes the muse is fickle and hard to find. We need creativity all of the time. We can't wait for brilliant flashes of insight. We need to conjure up that magic ourselves. Creativity is not just inspiration -- it's also dedication and hard work. Put in the work. Watch the magic happen. -- Doug Smith

This is for you. You know who you are. You've got great ideas. You've got stories to tell. Adventures, misadventures, songs off tune and songs in key. The kind of material that fills you with so much lightness of being that you sometimes float away as well as the kind of material that weighs you down no strong wind could ever move you. Write that book. Chapter by chapter, idea by idea. Where it goes comes later. What you do with it comes later. Who cares about it comes later. You are filled with treasures unclaimed. Don't keep them in your chest. Don't trap them in your head. Put them in motion. Set them free. Write them out of you with the fervor and glee of a jazz musician gone mad. Go a little crazy, just get it all out. Write that book even if no one ever reads it. Especially if no one reads it. It's for you. -- Doug Smith

How firm are your boundaries? Are you willing to try new things, even if they are so new that they seem frightening? When I worked at GE there was a lot of talk about creating more boundarylessness. Yes, they made up the word. The broke a semantic boundary in service to their notion. It's not that there are no boundaries. We need those. It's just that our boundaries tend to get fixed into configurations that constrain us unnecessarily. We need to break those boundaries, or simply pass thru them without breaking them. They become (again, as we referred to them at GE) as permeable boundaries. Nature knows all about this. Got a fence? Nature will find a way around it or over it or thru it. Build a wall? Nature will find a way to slowly knock it down. Cities and states? Nature doesn't care. If a storm is headed your way, those artificial boundaries that you think are so sacrosanct will not protect you. Be like nature. Test your boundaries. Cross those borderlines som...

What have you created today? High performance leaders are constantly creating. It could be a new product, a new service, a new relationship, a new work of art. We create to improve. We create to solve. Leaders create. Creativity leverages itself. When we start to create, we think of more to create. When I write my morning pages (see Julia Cameron ) it sparks new ideas. Even when what I'm writing is utter drivel or emotional purging, the impulse to write remains and is much more easily converted to action. Creativity inspires itself. Draw a picture, paint a painting, act in a play, write, sing (even if it's just in the shower) and your creative juices start flowing. You can't help it, or stop it, you become more inspired by firing up your creativity. It's simple, you've just got to do it. Creativity wants your attention. If you're at all like me, you've had stretches of time (like that time working in a glass factory) when creativity feels lik...

What have you do creative today? Did you try a new breakfast? Did you draw something wild and beautiful? Did you write in your journal? Creativity thrives when we practice our creativity. We must stay busy in our creative world to keep our creative edge sharp. Any musician knows this. Any writer knows that when we write everyday we stand a much better chance of creating something remarkable. There is no substitute for practice. Your creative muse expects you to practice every day. Inspiration must be fed. Inspiration must be nurtured. Do you want to do amazingly creative things? Then do something creative every day. What's your next creative step today? -- Doug Smith

Collage by Doug Smith Are you fearlessly creative? I can hear someone's inner critic already, "What would that even look like?" What do you think? I think fearlessly creative looks like someone taking risks with design. It looks like someone changing their logo. It looks like someone shuffling the usual and familiar in favor of something novel and new. Fearless creativity takes off the chains. Fearless creativity dusts off the old patina. Fearless creativity sends the inner judge out for milk and cookies while it plays in the field of possibility. Have you developed fearless creativity? Few things attract more respect than fearless creativity. Don't hold back. Jump right in. Take that chance. It starts right now. -- Doug Smith

What has been your most creative act this week? I know it's been a busy week. They are ALL busy weeks, and this one has been busier than most. Still -- what creative brilliance have you displayed? It could be as simple as substituting cashews in a recipe when you run out of pecans (well, OK, so I burned the pecans!) It could be as breath-taking as writing a new poem (did that, too.) Think about it. Every creative impulse that you turn into an action propels you forward to achieving your goals. It may not be obvious at first, but it is fuel for the journey. Every tool that leads to achieving your goals benefits by developing creativity. So celebrate those creative moments and nurture more. Find new ways to become ever-more creative. The pay off leads to your success. -- Doug Smith

How many goals are you working on? I'm not saying that you should have too many goals. A hundred should be plenty. (OK, you can pick yourself back up now, I don't actually expect anyone to list a hundred goals.) Creativity likes to be busy. Creativity likes idle time, too and if we're idle long enough the creative mind gets busy. Your goals stand a better chance of achievement when your creativity is cranked way up. So keep your creative mind busy and your creative impulses, ideas, notions, and results will multiply. - read more - draw more - paint more - exercise more - walk more - listen more The creative mind is always busy. We just need to pay attention. What is the creative side of your mind telling you right now? -- Doug Smith

Do you favor tight boundaries, wide boundaries, or flexible boundaries? When I worked at GE there was much talk about creating a boundaryless organization. But it turns out that wasn't so much without boundaries as it was to have permeable boundaries -- boundaries we could navigate as needed and expand under the right conditions. The only way that worked was to hold true to the values of the organization (some boundaries may NOT be crossed, such as "integrity"). So, it wasn't yes or no, right or wrong, when it came to defining boundaries - it was both/and. Some boundaries are flexible, and some are not. Knowing the difference is leadership. Knowing the difference is integrity. Boundaries that are impenetrable, but unreasonable, get in our way. They get built for good intentions, but outlive their usefulness. We establish rules for a time, and then that time passes and the rules remain. They are so out of tune with what we need that they can even become embarrassin...

Where do you test your best creative ideas? Not all creative ideas are the same. Some require a sort of close inspection with careful boundaries and controlled conditions, otherwise they will become impossible to work with or change into something we hadn't counted on. But not all creative ideas are like that. Some creative ideas benefit from a quick planting and careful observance to see how they're doing but are left to grow on their own. We tend to them, we remove obstacles and aberrations, but we let them grow naturally. Some creative ideas need a garden and some need a laboratory. If no one can get hurt, if you you've got lots of time, and if you want the unexpected to be welcome, plant your creative ideas in a garden like atmosphere of freedom and spontaneity. If the risks are high, the conditions are dangerous, and the talent is exposed to sudden change keep a laboratory-like grip on your creative conditions. Focus your attention on them but don't let...

I have a wild question for you as a leader today. I ask this because I believe that creativity is one of four major leadership traits (the others being clarity, courage, and compassion). Here goes: How would you dress if you considered yourself the most creative person you know? That might seem completely out of the question, depending on where you work, but ask it anyway. Would you look like Salvadore Dali (or perhaps one of his paintings?) Would it be like someone from "Dancing With The Stars" or maybe even some survival type program from The Learning Channel? You don't actually need to pick out that wardrobe and wear it today, but what would it look like? What if you were one snappy dresser? I find it helpful to think thru some creative choices occasionally. Jarring ourselves out of auto-pilot helps us develop newer and better ideas. Releasing our social constraints, even momentarily - even in our imaginations - helps us discover more about who we really are....

Who are you today? What's different about you today from yesterday? Even though change can make us dizzy, it's the way of growth. Many famous creative people are known for their uncanny ability to evolve: Madonna, Bob Dylan, Meryl Streep, Miles Davis - and we can do it, too. While holding onto what works, we can grow in other directions. We can ride the creative train of change. Creative leaders constantly reinvent themselves. Where's your next change? What's your next phase? What's your first step in a new direction? -- Doug Smith doug smith training: developing creativity Front Range Leadership: Training Supervisors for Success

How important is creativity to your team's success? The best teams that I have ever worked on were also the most creative. True, some of them were in the arts (I do a lot of film, theater, and music projects) but certainly not all. I remember great creative touches in six sigma projects, in business migrations, in product designs, in process changes...any project with a new deliverable (which should be every project) benefits from more creativity. What can leaders do to encourage creativity? Entertain new ideas Try new things Keep everyone on the team learning Build a team that talks about creativity Add warm-up activities to your meetings Create visuals (other than slides) that show the details of what you're working on AND also the emotions behind it Ask your team members for creative insights Pretend you are an artist (because you probably are anyway!) Play music Share insights from creative guest speakers There are no limits to your creative possibi...

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...