The subject of leadership was being much discussed during my day. I was interested to listen to a talk by Drew Povey who is the headteacher of Harrop Fold School, in Little Hulton. It was great to hear the views from another sector of work and to consider the similarities as well as differences.
One of the things that I was pleased to hear was the mention of three elements towards creating positive teams, leadership and driving organisations forward: creativity, innovation and opportunity.
Those three things are something that I talk about during a webinar that I run on behalf of the PRCA looking at developing engaging content. Creativity, innovation and opportunity are essential parts of the creative process, and having a workplace that encourages and allows them to be embraced is critical. When you look at it all three are routed in a freedom to develop in a new way, to try new things and to be trusted to do this.
When we talk about creativity for me a lot of it is developing ideas. I know we need to have lots and lots of ideas before we can find the ones that may be winners. We have to ensure that we aren’t wedded to ideas but are happy to throw them in to a discussion, consider them with teams and then keep some, lose others and develop the ones that might work. Of course, trying new things is always going to lead to some failures and the key is seeing these as a learning experience rather than as a failure. In a world that is becoming increasingly risk averse these are not easy things to achieve.
The positive thing from today is the recognition that creativity, innovation and opportunity have a key part to play for strong and effective leadership. They are things that are important to me and I think they should be important for all professional communicators.
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