
Embrace that you can lead by exploring comfortable, authentic leadership for creative professionals, focusing on learnable skill areas to become a happy, confident leader.
Embrace your new leadership role, understand why you were chosen, and prepare to coach, communicate, and motivate your team. Develop and practice the softer skills that define effective leadership.
Why not you? Learn to be a comfortable, authentic, and effective leader by leveraging your strengths, addressing growth areas, and embracing humanity despite imposter syndrome.
step into leadership by being authentic, listening, and observing rather than making dramatic changes. stay present, acknowledge your new role, and support your team as you grow together.
Learn how teams progress through forming, storming, norming, and performing, with early chartering, ground rules, and engagement norms, while recognizing normal backslides and guiding teams to renewed performance.
Lead your team through change by communicating early and often, listening deeply, and recognizing that people bring emotions and past experiences; sell change with empathy and coach with vulnerability.
Listen to stakeholders through focus groups and surveys, crystallize a change plan, and clearly explain why change is needed while outlining benefits to customers and the organization and addressing concerns.
Foster a collaborative leadership culture by embracing conflict as a source of innovation, with clear team ground rules and a simple conflict resolution process that values every voice.
Bonus for you! "Collaborative Intelligence" is a book I wrote based on my doctoral research into online social networks as collaborative tools. It's written in a straightforward conversational style and will give you some additional ideas to consider when trying to enhance collaboration on your teams. Enjoy it!
Delegate tasks to team members to foster growth and leadership, freeing your headspace for bigger priorities while coaching performance and developing successors.
Lead with authenticity and practice self-management as you move from team member to leader. Align your actions and communication with integrity, and commit to continuous improvement.
I'm sharing an excerpt from a book I co-wrote, "Improv to Improve your Business" in the hopes that it may prove thought-provoking for you.
One of the most scary career moments is when you become a leader of other people. In creative organizations, this can be even more challenging due to the fascinating mix of people involved. You probably got the job because you were good at doing things, but now you will be measured on how well the people who report to you perform, and your role goes from one of doing to one of motivating, inspiring and coaching your team members. Nervous? of course you are! I would like to help you settle into your new role and offer encouragement, and some helpful tips that will get you started in the right direction. Trust me, you can do this, and this course will help you!
When I envisioned this course, I was imagining a scenario where I got contacted by someone who said "Rob, I've just been made leader, and I'm terrified! Could I spend an hour or so with you to get your insights on how I can do well?" So I made this course with that person in mind. I'd like to impart in a short amount of time what I feel are the most important ideas that emerging leaders can take with them into the new role and can continue developing as they move forward. By taking this course, you will be able to avoid the classic mistakes that can happen, and get yourself launched in a way that will leave you and your team better off, happier and more effective.
In addition to being a multiple award-winning filmmaker, I am also a business advisor and coach with an MBA and a doctorate in business leadership. I have been teaching leadership and management courses at the college level for years and have written books on both creative and business topics. As someone with a well-developed business and creative crossover skill set, I feel I can offer you some powerful insights into what leadership is like in creative fields. I have learned a lot over the years, and have distilled what I feel are the most powerful lessons I have learned so that you can quickly get up to speed in your leadership role and be more confident and comfortable in your choices. Sound good? Let's get started!