Creative Process:
- Fear
- Self Doubt
- Questioning yourself - Should I do this?
Why would anyone do something creative if these are the initial steps? How is knowing this comforting in your leadership role?
Because we are creative creatures, we need a means of self expression. There are so many vehicles to express yourself creatively. It can vary widely - from the way you dress or the way you play chess.
Your work place is a perfect environment to let your creativity shine - and by extension, your leadership. In public service, creativity is often demanded. Where you have policies, and processes and a high level of accountability and scrutiny you often need to be creative to work within that construct. Add politics and public opinion to add to the mix, and you have an environment that can be challenging. It requires a lot of creativity - in your thinking and problem solving.
Your work place is a perfect environment to let your creativity shine - and by extension, your leadership. In public service, creativity is often demanded. Where you have policies, and processes and a high level of accountability and scrutiny you often need to be creative to work within that construct. Add politics and public opinion to add to the mix, and you have an environment that can be challenging. It requires a lot of creativity - in your thinking and problem solving.
So how is the fear, self doubt and questioning a comfort?
If you are feeling these emotions, then you are on the right path - you're willing to look at things differently. Growing to new levels is not a comfortable state. I'm sure you can think of a number of times when you felt "growing pains" in past leadership opportunities.
Fear is such a prevalent element that it has been fully fleshed out in the book, Feel the fear and do it anyway, by Susan Jeffers. It is one of my favourite books and I recommend it. There are many YouTube summaries including this one that will give you a sense of the book and fear.
If you are feeling these emotions, then you are on the right path - you're willing to look at things differently. Growing to new levels is not a comfortable state. I'm sure you can think of a number of times when you felt "growing pains" in past leadership opportunities.
Fear is such a prevalent element that it has been fully fleshed out in the book, Feel the fear and do it anyway, by Susan Jeffers. It is one of my favourite books and I recommend it. There are many YouTube summaries including this one that will give you a sense of the book and fear.
Examples
Some of my most creative endeavours have been working with the policies, processes and people to create a necessary framework. You noticed, I didn't say that I ignored the policies, processes and people. True, there have been times when I had to re-write a policy and revise some processes, but the majority of the times project and initiatives have been successful because the environment required a more creative approach to work in that environment.
- Instituting logic models into work initiatives
- Launching new software
- Lean processes (yup, a very creative process)
- New frameworks
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