Every Leader Is An Artist

Company
Aug 2012

The connection between leadership and art has been made many times over, usually as a way to single out certain properties of the arts that carry over to leadership, such as a jazz musician’s ability to create through improvisation. These analogies can be compelling, but my point is more ambitious: leadership is an actual art, not metaphorically an art.

We Create Beautiful Websites

Creating beautiful, best-in-class websites starts at the core of your business. We are good at what we do not because we create best-in-class websites, but because we are students of every one of our clients. We focus on learning what they are passionate about as well as what their vision is for their company and its offerings. After all, a website is nothing more than a reflection of the leaders behind it.

Often times as we are learning about our clients’ passions, we are also learning about their struggles and challenges. Who are we if we are not able to help resolve our client’s obstacles and create breakthrough strategies to help them achieve their goals?

We tread a fine line as we are not consultants, though we do consult. We are not mentors, though we do provide insight based on the wisdom we have gained from learning much from our 500+ clients in an array of industries. We simply love creating amazing websites that improve our client’s companies, so that’s what we focus on.

We Love to Help Our Clients

Last week I was listening to one of our existing clients as they were confiding in me some of the challenges they were facing. More questions lead to more insight about their weaknesses, or “opportunities for improvement,” as I like to call them. I began to understand the scope of the challenges he was dealing with and offered some high level guidance to help mentor him through the growing pains his company was experiencing. As I often see, he is a founder of a company that had grown to a point where it had become bigger than himself. The daunting task of building a team around him while ensuring that the company held tight to its principles and ideals was before him. It is a common challenge experienced by successful entrepreneurs, and it is a delicate and crucial step in growing a healthy and successful organization.

The majority of my guidance was focused on the mantra of being a great leader for his company. Finally, he posed the question to me, “What do you think makes a great leader?”

I had recently read an article (also the name of the book) in the Harvard Business Review, titled Every Leader is an Artist by Michael O’Malley (who also wrote the book The Wisdom of Bees). I suggested that this client read it and call me back to discuss how he might be able to apply those twelve principles to the leadership of his company.

Being a Leader Is a Form of Art

I have worked with many different types of leaders, and there is no one way to effectively navigate a team through the challenges that they will no doubt face. Adversity is natural, and in fact it is a sign of growth. Being a leader IS a form of art. It requires balance, focus, skill, passion, and commitment. With that said, I have never seen the attributes of a leader as well defined as O’Malley and strongly suggest that you not only read his Harvard Business Review blog posting but both of his books, for reading is the key to knowledge.

The follow up conversation with this client was much more focused on the core competencies of a leader and his excitement about applying the principles in this article to his company and its needs. I reminded him that while great artists do often have natural talent, they, like leaders, must work to always be better and push themselves to greatness.

Are you a leader? What are some of the skills you have learned along your path, and can you relate any of them to those of an artist? We would love to hear from you.

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