I stumbled across an article called, "Why Creative People Are Rarely Seen as Leaders" by @Susan Cain here: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-creative-people-rarely-seen-leaders-susan-cain" - and to be honest, not very delighted by the article.
My reply to the article is as per below (Credits to @Gray Hammond for encouraging this):
I partly agree with your article and disagree to some. As a designer-turns-marketer myself, it is true that some designers may be introverts or eccentric in their own ways, but there is also a niche within this community such as:
- like in Malaysia we have a designer-turned-millionaire like Irfan Khairihttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46xpa4B0ljE
- or Alec Lynch of DesignCrowd from Australiahttps://au.linkedin.com/in/aleclynch
- or 7 other designer-turned-entrepreneur which can be found here
- And Jessica Alter of Wired.co.uk felt the same way too
- design consultancy IDEO,
- technology innovator E Ink,
- internet giant Google,
- pharmaceutical leader Novartis
who tends to evolve their ability about bringing perspective to things and sharpen their minds towards the bigger picture instead of thinking about the prolific details and this happens based on 3 factors.
a) FACTOR 1: CREATIVE PEOPLE ARE POSITIONED WITHIN EXTREME ENVIRONMENTS
Creative people in extreme environments will eventually force their minds to be tuned to the right frequency. (which I called 'the leader's channel' - a channel for political know-how extroverts) They will then know that ideas are best kept and only to be shared when at greatest necessity - best to be observant or leverage people's skills and behaviours which will remove the perception of them from being 'creative' all the time. Speak only when needed or speak loud and sharp as possible when you do, but at the right lingo of not making the upper management felt threaten by your presence or making them think that you're gonna threaten their power or influence base. Upper management doesn't always literally mean your bosses because that is only when you're working under employment. Upper management can also mean your partners, your customers, your stakeholders or anyone who puts you into the game.
b) FACTOR 2: CREATIVE PEOPLE WHO ARE ALREADY AMBIVERTS
Designers who are already having the extrovert or ambivert/dual personalities (which is not always the case but there are a few) will be able to switch their personality spectrums from being an introvert (during any design tasks) to an extrovert (when it comes to other things than design) - and switch it again whenever necessary depending on the social situations they're in. These are whom I called the 'lucky ones' because they practically have every skill needed to survive (and when I say 'skill', I don't mean talent because talent can also be perceived as 'creative' - I was solely referring to communication skill) Ambiverts tend to have a diverse personality which is crucial of what it takes to be a leader. A leader must have the balance of being a visionary and a harsh critic. Micromanage only when they need to and switch their views to see things in a bigger picture. And this is what these 'ambiverts' creative people are able to do.
c) FACTOR 3: CREATIVE PEOPLE WHO MANAGE 'CREATIVE' AS MUCH AS CREATING 'CREATIVE'
Creativity has always been something too elusive and intangible; thus considered by many as unmanageable (at least, they thought it is). Concentrating on it produced a less immediate payoff than improving execution, therefore, it hasn’t been the focus of any company C-suite who practices traditional management in their organizational behavior. This 'traditional' mindset defines creativity in a way such that the one who actually becomes a leader is normally not the one who originates the initial idea. It is someone who knows the art of commercializing one's original idea and blast it off to the market. As Cook put it, “Traditional management prioritizes projects and assigns people to them. But increasingly, managers are not the source of the idea.”
However, creative people who possess managerial skills (such as have a comprehensive understanding on mapping the phases of creative work, managing commercialization handoff, knowing how to tackle the bureaucracy throughout the ideation to execution) as much as creating the idea itself (a leader who constantly recasts himself/herself as an employee) are the people who are able to embark the leader's journey better than any other leader who practices the conventional management method.
These 3 factors multiplied by the burning desire to succeed and to do something bigger than themselves will then create a series of natural instincts of what are the next steps to do to reach 'there' (If you are from creative industry and don't know where to start, try this). It's like how you train your mind to attract wealth and abundance using the Law of Attraction. When a creative person actually tells himself/herself that he/she will become a leader, that is the channel he/she will be tuned in. Subliminally. Doesn't happen overnight. Focus and determination are vital to staying on that path. Should they choose to stay, not only they will simply show that they're creative in designs, but they will tend to show creativity in the way they view things on a bigger scale. Politics and leadership do require a strong sense of creativity on how you want to adapt to any situation. This kind of passion which lurks within a few, does push oneself further towards what it takes to be a leader.
CHANGING THE PERCEPTION
According to a research implemented by Teresa Amabile and Mukti Khaire of Harvard Business School, Cook told the story of an eye-opening analysis of innovations at Google: Its founders tracked the progress of ideas that they had backed versus ideas that had been executed in the ranks without support from above, and discovered a higher success rate in the latter category. Similarly, it was noted that Philip Rosedale, the founder and chairman of Linden Lab, the fast-growing company that manages Second Life, claims to give most workers enormous autonomy, and says the greatest successes come from workers’ own initiatives.
Research by Israel Drori, a professor at the College of Management in Israel, and Benson Honig, a professor at Wilfrid Laurier University in Canada, highlights the hazards of not distributing creative responsibilities across the organization. They observed an internet start-up offering a new, sophisticated form of computer graphics from its inception in 1996 until its collapse, seven years later. While the venture enjoyed initial success, it was ultimately unsustainable because it depended too much on the genius of its award-winning artist-founder—and took organizational creativity for granted.
CREATIVE LEADERSHIP IS THE WAY FORWARD
In conclusion, creative people can be good leaders as much as the non-creative ones. The benefit of being creative as a leader is, he/she will always spark the culture of innovation within the organizational's society; encouraging an exponential momentum of business growth other than being understanding towards his/her employees due to the practice of tapping ideas from all ranks instead of letting just the managers to get the 'trophy'.
Source:
- Mostly own experience
- Bits and pieces from https://hbr.org/2008/10/creativity-and-the-role-of-the-leader
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Author is a 7-year-experienced marketer who constantly strives to be bold and different than anybody else, Nik M Harith, married and Kelantan-borne, he aimed to follow the footsteps of Michael Kenji Shinoda, a technopreneur from Linkin Park – which is to be one of the top recognized technopreneurs in Asian region by 2018 – with the aim to join the technopreneurs’ league such as Facebook, Intel, Microsoft, Apple and many others.
Without any professional background or qualification neither in multimedia,design and music, he successfully managed to climb the ladders from nothing to a well-respected designer & music composer in which his works have been showcased not only in Malaysia, but also including USA, India, Indonesia, Singapore and many more.
His artwork alone has reached the government sectors including Dato’ Seri Najib Tun Razak himself and the Prime Minister’s Department, Dato’ Seri Rais Yatim, Ministry of Green Technology, MATRADE Corporation, DATUM Corporation of PKNS and many more. His musical work, on the other hand,have been premiered worldwide – gaining him a 2000 fanbase within a few months which comprises from Germany, Austria, United Kingdom, USA, Australia and many others. Due to his outstanding 11As achievement in SPM, he was granted by the US Department of State of being an ambassador representing Malaysia to Ohio, USA, in order to speak to thousands of American students about the culture and socio-politics of Malaysia.
