The Seven C’s of Creative Leadership
By Tony Vengrove
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Welcome to Episode 4 of The Seven C’s of Creative Leadership! In this conversation we discuss the third C: Creativity. There’s so much discussion taking place in the blogosphere about creativity right now; we think it’s important to reiterate a key point: executive leaders do not need to feel pressure to express their own creativity. Rather, their number one job is to create the conditions for others to be creative. As Warren Bennis once said:
“There are two ways of being creative. One can sing and dance. Or one can create an environment in which singers and dancers can flourish.”
In this week’s episode, we welcome Chief Creative Officer, David Bonner, to share his 
perspective about how leaders can help employees flourish creatively. Highlights from David’s interview include:
- Using the analogy of a film director to express the spirit of Warren Bennis’ creative leadership quote.
- Sharing how his company, Marriner Marketing, invites everyone into “the creative kitchen.”
- Avoiding the “wit-seeking missile!”
- Just like fine wine, creativity takes patience, time and resilience.
Creativity is a lengthy subject to cover in one thirty-minute interview. The aim of this episode, however, is to motivate you to create better conditions for your employees to express their creativity. Quite often, this means addressing cultural dynamics and bad behaviors that tend to send creativity running for shelter. The good news is that by demonstrating you value creative thinking and will do what it takes to protect such work, employees will quickly rally to your cause!
Join us next week for Episode 5 as we welcome author Max Mckeown to the show to discuss Connecting. Max just released a must read for any creative leader: The Innovation Book. Through his research with various leaders and organizations, Max has fresh perspective on what it takes to “build a bigger collective brain.”
You can follow the show and listen to archived episodes at our official landing page at Business in the Morning.
Miles Finch Innovation helps companies navigate the messy territory of corporate innovation. We’re strategic thinking partners who can help you get unstuck and identify creative solutions to your toughest challenges. We also love to train and speak on the subject of Creative Leadership. Email us or call us at 860-799-7505 to learn how we can help you you unlock the creative potential of your employees.