I’ve been reading a growing range of leadership books , and I’ve realised how much I picked up over the years. There are a good number of things I have taken for granted, or assumed was common knowledge. There are also interesting frameworks I pick up recently, and more and more I hone in on what matters more for me.
But most crucially, the surface question I need to think past is “Why is a creative person learning about management strategies?” One answer is because this particular creative person played a role as a military officer during his National Service. That literally means managing people over a war time scenario, and I have my own skillsets to manage and motivate my men in time of need.
The other answer is due to the nature of the creative’s role in any job function. Even though my tertiary training is in communication design, or visual communication, both rely heavily on communicating and directing how people communicate. Having the skills and abilities to give a better idea of expressing an idea also comes the main portion of who you are communicating to. “Target Audience” is the usual jargon, and more deeply, who is the target audience any time?
Companies and their management teams are the most communicative people, or they have to be. They need to speak, be understood, and then inspire or lead their teams towards completing the tasks set by the leaders. Within a family, parents give a general sense of what to do, and while it is not a company, the idea maintains: how can a parent ensure their child does right when they grow older?
Not all creatively trained people will think this way. I think a lot want to have specific say in the visuals and flourishes of life. That’s important, and I definitely have my own idiosyncrasies about many of these things. But what’s the point of creative culture if the culture is not understood well? Thus, I did play the role managing creative accounts for a small portion of my career. To be clear, I didn’t even manage that much, I was just a little executive then. But I learnt a lot then, and I am encouraged to continue learning more and more about how to better communicate with larger groups.
In this period, I’m currently reading Multipliers by Greg McKeown and Liz Wiseman. The role of the multiplier is one who’s skill is to increase the general intelligence of the group they are in. It is a fascinating skillset, especially for my own training in design, where I am the sole operator of creative wisdom. I question why and how I approach different manpower strategies, and how I think about staffing and internal training.
I’m only just getting into the book, but there are many ideas I wish I could carry out. My own aim has always been to re-create a modern take on Andy Warhol’s Factory. A place where creative people gather, and are motivated to keep on making things. They are congregating together because they know that’s where creativity is nurtured, and I wish a creative source for Singapore’s highly practical society.
I hope to find some tips, but whatever I’ve started on in the past few hours of reading has really gotten me psyched to make more, to multiply genius within a group.
And that’s how I think about leadership books as a creative person.
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