Creative Leadership Is...

Vision Driven

As a visionary, you are aiming at a target that others don't see yet, so you'll need to be inner directed, patient, and persistent. Also, you'll need to create a scene of the vision in the hearts and minds of your early adopters. (I prefer that term over the word "followers.") Be sure they can see, hear, and feel it in their imaginations. This is the basis for creative leadership that is...

Integrative

Genuine holistic concern for your early adopters is essential in order for them to be 100% "there" (i.e. "whole") for you. Get their minds, bodies, spirits, and emotions on board. Offer them access to coaching, and hire one for yourself. You may even consider coach training for yourself and/or others. Coaching skills are wonderful tools for the creative leader!

Give your early adopters compelling reasons to develop their own intrinsic motivation to stay with you in body, mind, and spirit. If you try to lean on just your credentials or, worse yet, just a title, these crutches will snap like dry twigs and leave you sitting in the dust! Help your early adopters grow, and they will return the favor, because creative leadership is...

Inter-Developmental

Through working with your early adopters, you will change and benefit from the synergy of the group. See them as your partners. Model behaviors for them that they can take out into the world on behalf of your vision.

Positive regard, support, and affirmation should be allowed to flow freely from you and to you within the group. Seek out the valuable resources of your early adopters for manifesting your vision.

Learn to read the energy of your team in action, and use this information for morale maintenance. Tune in so you'll know when the energy of the group is dragging. Change the pace or tone of the group's activity accordingly, and reframe vague or uninspiring aspects of the project at hand.

Encourage buy-in from your early adopters by getting them involved in the development of goals, strategies, mission statements, and the like. If you've empowered your team sufficiently, you won't fall into the trap of micro-managing. Save your shepherding for the...

Sacred Stewardship of Your Vision

Your early adopters will help you with this stewardship if you let them. You and your team are a collective, protective vessel for your precious, embryonic vision!

Keep the vessel sound by maintaining and encouraging impeccable integrity (yes, "wholeness" again) and authenticity. Nurture your vision by providing it with a firm foundation for the collective vessel...physically, emotionally, spiritually, and environmentally. Coaching can help tremendously with this, too. Email me at scleaver@dejazzd.com for details about a complimentary session!

Once this foundation is in place, you are free to be...

Flexible

You'll be ready to turn on a dime when you need to. (See my April 1, 2008 post.)

If you and your team act on your inspired ideas at the point of 75% certainty, you'll need to be ready for rapid course adjustments as the actions bring you closer and closer to 100% manifestation. It will also keep you out of the trap of waiting around for 100% certainty, which is a much bigger risk, because you just can't get there from here without inspired action. So go ahead and follow your intuition to the fullest manifestation of your vision!

My best to you,
Susan

P.S. To those in the greater Philly, PA, area: Registration closes on Monday, April 28, for my Advanced Journaling Workshop that will be taking place on Sunday, May 4. Please email me at scleaver@dejazzd.com for details.

If you're a journaling fanatic like me, but you can't be at the workshop, email me at scleaver@dejazzd.com for details about ordering my guided journal, "The Whispering Heart." Thanks!

***All of Susan's creative4life posts are copyright of Susan Cleaver.***

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Small Changes, Big Results

I once heard an anecdote about a group of listless otters in a zoo who were brought back to their usual playfulness simply by having someone dangle a piece of paper in their play area. It caught the attention of one or two of the otters, setting off a chain reaction until all the otters were lively again. The dangling piece of paper was a small change that brought about a big result.

In similar ways, we can stimulate our creativity with small changes in our routines and environments, which encourage our brains to make new connections among neurons. Here are some to try, even if for just a day.

• Do something on the spur of the moment.
• Try a new type of physical exercise.
• Try a different art form.
• Try a new spiritual practice.
• Rearrange a room.
• Type when you would normally write by hand or vice versa.
• Try a new recipe.
• Dress differently.
• Style your hair differently.
• Listen to a different kind of music.
• Set up a small meditation alter (or rearrange the one you have).
• Create in a different room, in a public place, or outside. (This is the one I'm using at the moment.)
• Try a new kind of bodywork, such as massage or Reiki.
• Change your working hours.
• Take the bus instead of the train, or vice versa.
• Travel on new routes when walking or driving.
• Shop at some different stores.
• Try different colors of paper and ink, and change the font.
• Change your usual order of tasks or steps in a process.
• If you are around kids, ask for their feedback on your project.
• If you have kids, find a babysitter for an afternoon.
• If you aren't usually around kids, borrow a friend's kid for an afternoon.
• Try some new essential oil aromas.
• Take a bath instead of a shower, or vice versa.
• Try taking more frequent breaks, and experiment with the length of your breaks.
• Take an afternoon off from technology.
• Call an optimistic friend you haven't talked to recently. No whiners, please!
• Create in the presence of a friend or a group as they work on their projects.
• Devise a mini-retreat for yourself.

My friend Mary Beth and I set aside several hours a week where we check in with each other by phone to declare what we are going to work on for the coming hour. Then we check in with our reports and encourage each other to keep going. It's great! With this small change, we've had amazing results over the past year. If you'd like to give it a try, email me at scleaver@dejazzd.com, and I'll do my best to set you up with a "Dig In" buddy.

Good luck experimenting with these ideas, and please let us know what happens. Remember, sometimes a change can be as good as (or even better than) a rest!

Be well,

Susan

P.S. My guided journal and inspirational card set both make great holiday gifts, especially for Law of Attraction fans! Email me at scleaver@dejazzd.com for details. Thanks!

***All of Susan's creative4life posts are copyright of Susan Cleaver.***

Another Look at My Bookshelf

Here's some commentary on my Cameron collection favorites. If you're not a fan of Julia Cameron yet, take a look at these.

The Artist's Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity

This book, which Cameron wrote with Mark Byran in the early nineties, is still in print and has become a modern classic.

Here's my history with it in a nutshell:

• 1994: I resisted it.


• 1995: I read it.


• 1996: I lived it. I loved it.


• 1997: I went to Omega Institute for a great workshop with Cameron.


• 1998 to the present: I recommend it whenever I can; it has been pivotal in my own development!

It has what was for me a whole new way of looking at creativity. It also has lots of great exercises. My favorite is called "Blasting Through Blocks," which is about how fears and resentments get in the way of our creativity.

Finding Water: The Art of Perseverance

This is a very personal account of Cameron's financial, emotional, and artistic challenges over the years, which made mine look small by comparison. At the same time, it is very instructive and inspiring. Sometimes we forget that we are not the only ones who have struggled to make our artistic lives work.

Supplies: A Pilot's Manual for Creative Flight

This is a playful book with lively illustrations by her sister, Elizabeth Cameron. It contains thought-provoking questions and warnings of pitfalls to avoid.

My only complaint is that Cameron's comments on the usefulness of therapy were somewhat one-sided. Almost by definition, creatives see and feel more deeply in this world. I feel that for the balance we need to function and feel at this level, many of us find therapy to be very helpful, and I would not want to discourage anyone from seeking the help of a skilled, compassionate therapist.

The Vein of Gold: A Journey to Your Creative Heart

Here Cameron uses the metaphor of a journey through the kingdoms of Story, Sight, Sound, Attitude, Relationship, Spirituality, and Possibility. It contains lots of activities that take you along this path.

Walking in This World: The Practical Art of Creativity

This is the sequel to The Artist's Way, and it takes you through 12 weeks of discoveries. Again, there are lots of activities to assist you with those discoveries. I especially like the one called the "Ta-Dah!" List.

Please comment on your experiences with these books or others that you love!

Thanks,

Susan

P.S. My guided journal, The Whispering Heart, makes a great holiday gift for Cameron fans or even for beginning journalers! Email me at scleaver@dejazzd.com for details.

How I Created My Products Using the Law of Attraction

OK, Law of Attraction fans! On several occasions, I've suggested that you use the Law of Attraction, and I've directed you to www.thesecret.tv. Today I'm going to get specific about a few of the ways I use it in my work.

If you're not a fan of the Law of Attraction yet, come along for the ride anyway, and become one! The Law of Attraction is a natural law that causes the frequencies you are sending out with your thoughts and feelings on any subject to come back to you with manifestations that match those frequencies. This is why affirmations, rituals, and guided imagery are so effective!

About three and a half years ago, I decided that I wanted to write some kind of inspirational book. I started saving quotes and other good bits of information in what I call my "book box." At that point, I had no format or specific subject in mind.

I liked the title, "The Whispering Heart," so I made a mock-up of a book cover using collage, and I hung it in my walk-in closet where I would see it every day. I didn't struggle to move forward on the project. I just kept looking at the cover and tossing things in the book box.

After about two years of this, the idea came to me to write a guided journal using that title and quotes from the book box. I developed questions for the reader to reflect on for each quote I used, designed a format, and self-published it. Everything fell into place very easily, and soon I needed a real cover. I ended up using the mock-up cover as the basis for finished cover. Done!

That's the kind of effortless effort that your work becomes when you use the Law of Attraction to draw to you what you want!

Just recently, I finished my second product, "Food for Thought: Thirty Delicious Quotes on the Law of Attraction." A year or so ago, I knew I wanted to make some kind of inspirational card deck. I wrote the idea down in what I call my "Idea Queue." Again, I did not strive to find a theme or anything else for the project.

Soon, ideas started to bubble up, such as using business card blanks for the cards, and Chinese food take-out containers for the packaging.

One day when I was in the craft store looking for something else, I found packages of pastel take-out containers. I still had no focus for what exactly would go on the cards, but I took a leap of faith and bought several packages of the boxes. I also went to the office supply store and bought the cards. This was a way to affirm to myself that I believed that this project would come together, even if I didn't know how yet.

The Law of Attraction often delivers via synchronicity. One day about a month ago, I was looking for something in my book box, and I realized that I had a whole envelope of quotes on the Law of Attraction, and I was inspired to use them to create the product!

The take-out boxes inspired me to use a food theme, and I put the first set of finished cards in one of the boxes, along with two fortune cookies to complete my prototype. Effortless effort! (And fun, too!) The Law of Attraction is like the Law of Gravity in that if you work with it instead of against it, it makes life much easier. So lighten up, stop striving, and go with the flow!

These two products, "The Whispering Heart" guided journal and the "Food for Thought" card set, are both available for $10 US each. They both make great gifts! Please contact me at scleaver@dejazzd.com to order. Shipping and tax will depend on where you live.
Thanks!

I would love to hear your experiences with the Law of Attraction! Please post them in the comments section so we can all be inspired by them.

To your success,
Susan

P.S. Contact me at scleaver@dejazzd.com to set up a complimentary exploratory coaching tele-session!