Inspiration for Your Leadership Is Love All Around You

The beauty of inspiration (that little spark of brilliance) is that it can come from anywhere. Magic happens when our minds are open, and we catch flying sparks. Here is an example of how we stay inspired at Managance. For more than a year, we’ve read a variety of books together, discussing chapters weekly and relating the ideas from these sometimes seemingly off-topic books to our consulting and leveling up leadership work. With every discussion, we come up with ideas that sharpen and shape the leadership messages we want to share with you. Our current book, Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear, by novelist Elizabeth Gilbert, explores where creativity comes from and the commitment and compassion that’s required to nourish and feed it. The bottom line: it’s all about staying on the path of doing what you love, even if the path gets rocky!

Gilbert suggests that we create for ourselves. Sometimes it’s just that. Sometimes we can let it go to benefit the rest of the world, and sometimes we won't be able to do that, but we shouldn't deny ourselves the joy and openness of creating. She encourages us to keep being creative and that sometimes we will even have the courage to share it with others.[1]

Being creative and doing things that bring us joy, are ways of taking care of ourselves. When leaders take care of ourselves, we expand the positive energy we have to support others with empathy and to lead collaboratively. When we permit ourselves to be kind and generous with ourselves, we nurture the mindset and personal resources to be more compassionate, generous and thoughtful with those around us.

Leadership is a journey, and each leader’s journey is different. For some leaders taking care of ourselves first can mean stretching around new ideas and new perspectives. For others, it can mean changing behaviors that no longer serve them well. Whatever your journey, embracing it with an open mind and an open heart will delight you. And when you get stuck, take a break. Creativity requires constant practice. Transforming leadership to the next level, like living out creative passions, requires the same amount of dedication. The more we practice, the more it becomes a possibility for us. So, this month, find some ways to take better care of you.

Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.

–John Fitzgerald Kennedy

[1] Gilbert, E. (2015) Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear. New York, New York: Riverhead Books.