Artistic Leadership Manifesto

Artistic Leadership Manifesto (as of April 16, 2023)

Written by Tiffany Thompson

Artistic Leadership is a multi-faceted consultancy and training partner that helps companies develop the creative capacity of their employees through experiences that equip them with an artistic mindset. In today's fast-changing world, organizations need creative solutions to survive and thrive, and our services are designed to meet that need. We focus on communication, empathy, emotional intelligence, self-awareness, creativity, and leadership. Our strategic sessions and learning experiences help employees think differently about problem-solving, connect deeper to their collaborators, and expose their creative contributions in professional settings for the betterment of organizational bottom lines. We partner with leaders and organizations who invest in developing soft skills and know that innovation is the key to long-term success. We leverage neuroscience research, adult learning principles, and positive psychology to design workshops, team-building sessions, keynotes, and coaching services. At Artistic Leadership, we help companies cultivate a workforce that responds with personal artistry to the confusion of global markets, and we empower organizations to inspire and develop the creative capacity of their most important resource: people.

Full Essay

Georges St-Pierre is widely regarded as one of the greatest fighters in mixed martial arts (MMA) history. A world champion, St-Pierre is a master of his craft and describes three types of winners: fighters, athletes, and artists. Fighters have an unbreakable will and give up everything to win. Athletes are fast and possess superior athleticism. Artists are the most creative and surprise you with new approaches.

In life, we regularly dance between these roles. In organizations, people need to be able to leverage all three approaches for long-term success. Rosabeth Moss Kanter, co-founder and former director Harvard's Advanced Leadership Initiative, worked with hundreds of successful professionals and executives, as well as aspiring young entrepreneurs, to identify the leadership paradigm of the future. She determined it is the ability to "think outside the building" in order to overcome establishment paralysis and produce significant innovation for a better world. In essence, the most important approach to hone is that of the artist. 

At the speed our world is changing and with cognitive overload knowledge workers feel, organizations know they need creative solutions to survive and thrive. There is pressure on immediate returns and long term innovation; there is demand for bottom line results and cultural investments; employees need hard skills for execution and soft skills for collaboration. Poet and business consultant David Whyte underscores this tension stating, “For all their emphasis on the bottom line, companies are adrift from the very engine at the center of a person’s creative application to work, they cultivate a workforce unable to respond with personal artistry to the confusion of global market.” 

Artistic Leadership supports organizations committed to developing a collaborative workforce and innovative leadership team through experiences that equip them with an artistic mindset. We define artistic as the awareness of the creative process moving people from individual expression to collaborative experimentation and onward to public performances. We focus on communication, empathy, emotional intelligence, self-awareness, creativity, and leadership. We explore how ideas become reality through the process of failure, critique, risk, and collaboration. We reveal how tone matters, meaning matters, and moments matter.

Our Process

Artistic Leadership’s strategic sessions and learning experiences help employees think differently about problem-solving, connect deeper to their collaborators, and expose their creative contributions in professional settings for the betterment of organizational bottom lines. We partner with leaders and organizations who know innovation is the key to long-term success and who invest in developing soft skills. We leverage neuroscience research, adult learning principles, and positive psychology to design workshops, team-building sessions, keynotes, and coaching services.

A.L. develops better leaders and collaborators who focus on not just winning, but finding the way forward, together. Our facilitation reveals the linkages between artistry and work, creativity and productivity, and creation and execution. Our experience designs and pedagogies pull from three levels and six elements of artistic practice:

Individual   

Reflection 

Contribution

Collaborative

Trust 

Experimentation 

Public 

Risk 

Feedback  

Though many artistic modalities can be used, Artistic Leadership’s inaugural product offerings are anchored in music and Kintsgui. In their groundbreaking new book, Your Brain on Art, “Magsamen and Ross offer compelling research that shows how engaging in an art project for as little as forty-five minutes reduces the stress hormone cortisol, no matter your skill level, and just one art experience per month can extend your life by ten years.” In the knowledge economy, our brains are our most powerful resource. This is why companies are prioritizing mental health now more than ever before. If an employee’s brain is drained, they might “be” at work but won’t be “doing” work.

For our sessions leveraging music as the teaching modality, research shows music is a powerful aid for making and retaining memories because music fires your brain neurons. When you hear the same song again later, those memory patterns become stronger. The more you hear that familiar tune, the stronger those neuron connections become. As author Anne Lamott writes, “You can’t stop the raging storm, but singing can change the hearts and spirit of the people who are together on that ship.”

In a 2021 article in Forbes Magazine, Ed Beltran, a Forbes Council Member and CEO of Fierce Conversations, wrote though the overwhelming majority of companies agree “soft skills are more important [than hard skills] to long-term success, the same individuals admit that their organization are more likely to focus on hard skills training.” 

Our Clients 

Fast Company defines the most innovative companies as those with “brilliant problem-solving and an irrepressible spirit,” and the top three in 2023 are delightfully diverse: OpenAI, McDonald’s, and AirB&B. Three different industries, three different missions, three different products. Whether at these global companies or in your favorite local coffee shop, the question is the same: how do we create useful solutions that are aligned with our values? Enter creativity: the fodder of innovation.

When you think of artistry at work, job titles such as graphic designer and marketer probably come to mind. But at innovative companies, artistry and creativity are synonymous and weave through every aspect of the business. Fast Company defines the most innovative companies as those with “brilliant problem-solving and an irrepressible spirit.” It’s that spirit word that harkens over to the soulful contributions of artistry on a team. Harvard Business School underscores the importance of creativity at work regularly, stating that is shows up across every aspect of business, particularly these four areas:   

  1. Innovative solutions don’t exist without a component of creativity.

  2. Creativity gives you permission to work smarter instead of harder, which can increase productivity.

  3. In the face of unseen disruptions, imaginative thinking is critical to maintaining business operations.

  4. One of the main hindrances to a business’s growth is cognitive fixedness, and if leaders don’t take the time to clearly understand the circumstances they face, encourage creative thinking, and act on findings, their organization can stagnate—one of the biggest barriers to growth.

If framed this way, one can see the prolific importance of getting creative at work. “Engaging in creative behaviors,” says Ruth Richards, a psychology professor at Saybrook University and Harvard Medical School, “makes us more dynamic, conscious, non-defensive, observant, collaborative, and brave.” These creative behaviors are mirrored in Stanford professor Carol Dweck’s research on growth mindsets. Dweck shows how high performers focus on process, time, learning, and effort, seeing the win as an outcome–not the goal.

From HBS to Dweck, we observe creativity is more about the process than the product, more about framing than the outcome. This mindset shift is a powerful accelerant for companies that need their employees to have growth mindsets and strong soft skills.

At many organizations, art as a means of developing soft skills and creativity might seem like a stretch, but remember what Einstein said? Saying yes to music as a mode of communication and method of training immediately puts your people in a new plane of conception. Once there, we combine theory and practice to leave your people feeling inspired, motivated, and ready to contribute from a place of artistry.