Leading our teams can be difficult.

As creative teams develop, especially when our teams include volunteers, there are a few things that we have to remember. It is as important for us to LEAD as it is to CREATE. The funny thing is, we are artists to and we still have to find ways to connect with our art.

Honestly, at times, life gets so busy that I go days without creating or touching anything really creative and I slip into management mode rather than creative leadership mode. Here are a few things I try to remember in these times:

• Seek Wisdom & Insight- Pray for it, ask questions, quiz people, study…while we feel we may not have the time to do this, if we don’t we wont be able to create.
• Intentionally create pockets to be creative and not to be a manager. Without these we will be more focused on decisions and meetings than we will be with art and moving our organizations forward.
• Don’t make promises for someone else – Only make promises based on what you can control. One of the most powerful ways to thin our attention is to have to cover promises we made for others. Managing expectations is vital because it forces honest conversations.
• Lead with vision – Lead with a vision to where we are going, not just where we are today.
• Explain the how and the why. How we will do this and why we need to do this.
• Delegate – Bottlenecks thin attention quickly. Diversity enhances creativity.
• Pick The Team – Surround yourself with high capacity people who carry the vision. When we see vision link address it immediately.
• Remain Skeptical Put Positive – Being skeptical, without being negative, is a trait that forces us into reality while living in a creative world.
• Encourage others. Encouraging forces us to refocus on positives and find things that are working.
• Remember we set the pace & the tone – Our teams watch us. We are setting the pace and we are also setting the tone. How we manage our emotions matters.
• Fight for what matters. – And let the stuff that does not matter go. It’s not worth it.
• Control What You Can Control – When we worry about stuff that is outside of our control it only breeds frustration.
• Find solutions not just problems.
• Find a system that works then use it – Systems can help us carry the heavy lifting.
• Embrace failure. The feeling of failure sucks, but if we fail by being audacious it is worth failing to get things right.
• Always be looking for a new or better way. Fall in love with the message not the method.
• Protect your team but be honest with them even if it hurts.

I am tired of not creating our best art because of pace and system. We can do better. Personally, I am committing to it…how about you?

There are so many more important aspects of leading creative people, but these are a few we are working on right now…what are some of yours?