Leading creative team, What make a good creative leader?

Leadership is one of the crucial skills in today's business environments, yet it is still misunderstood by many. We often see people get leadership roles just for being excellent at their job, and that's fine, the problem is that not all people have the soft skills required to fill a leadership position despite their skills and competencies.

One might think that being a leader is equivalent to being the one in charge, but it is not always the case. In fact, sometimes leaders can do their job wonderfully while having very little involvement in the execution.

The very core of being a leader is to create a team environment where everyone is motivated to reach a common goal, Without anything holding them back from doing so.

In my career, I had the opportunity to work with good leaders, and other bad ones, So I took some lessons about leadership, and I am giving some practical examples of how to effectively lead a team without falling into the common mistakes made by managers.

1- Communicating goals instead of tasks

Most leaders and managers will assume that it is their job to tell everyone what to do and how to do it, when to start and when to finish.

Effective leaders start with the end result in mind. They communicate clearly the end goals, and let everyone decide how to contribute to this common goal, using their own skills and expertise.

2- Promoting a sense of autonomy

Even though you know exactly how each job should be performed, your job is to let everyone do theirs using their own ways, and be there when they are stuck or in need of help.

Creatives put a lot of value in autonomy, having control over how to work is quite essential for getting the creative thinking going. Good leaders have full trust in their team members, by allowing  them to take complete control of their work.

3- Encouraging exploration and creative ideas

We can't speak of a creative work environment if we don't encourage exploration. As a creative lead, you're responsible for encouraging new ideas and always be open to trying them.

On the other side, a sense of safety is needed so that everyone within the team knows that it is okay to fail. Knowing that they can try risky ideas and bounce of it doesn't work, your team members will feel safe to be creative.

4- Being the last to speak

Being the last to speak in the room means you're able to actively listen to everyone's point of view before making any decision.  

Great leaders are humble enough to understand that they don't have the answer to all questions, and that anyone can offer valuable input to help the decision-making process.

If you constantly find yourself being the first to speak and offer ideas, train yourself to hold back and engage in the different point of views first.

Final thoughts

Leading a team is not an easy skill to master, high team motivation is a result of good leadership. If you're doing a good job as a leader, you will see it reflected in a high team energy, autonomy and innovation.