RECENT ARTICLES:
Where Creative Pros Get Stuck
At some point in your career, you will feel stuck. Not stuck because you can't come up with an idea for a project, but stuck in the sense that you feel like you don't know how to go to the next level. How do you continue to grow, to develop your voice, and create more impact?On this episode, we share the two common places where creative pros get stuck, and how to continue moving up the curve into rare air where you can do work worth noticing.
Moving From Control To Influence
Your job as a manager is to unleash the brilliance of your team, not to showcase your own.
Finding Your “Sweet Spot” Of Effectiveness
Where do you add the most value?
A Framework For Choosing The Best Idea
Make the decision in a way that everyone can be onboard with.
Navigating Your Team Through Failure
After a failed project, don't just move on. Do this instead.
The Dangers Of Keeping Score
Have you ever felt anxious about your job, but you don’t know why? Everything is going well, or at least according to plan, and there is nothing obvious that should be causing anxiety. Yet, when bedtime rolls around, you struggle to get to sleep, and you have a perpetual sense that you’re falling behind. Falling behind? Behind what, exactly?
Create Work That Lasts (Interview for Chase Jarvis LIVE)
A few weeks ago I had the chance to travel to LA for an interview with one of my favorite creators and entrepreneurs, Chase Jarvis. Chase is an incredible photographer, and is the co-founder of CreativeLIVE, a platform designed to help creative pros to learn new skills from the best in the business. In this interview, we cover everything from personal habits and rituals, to how to deal with creative doubt, to how to lead creative people effectively.
Keep Your Leadership Fire Alive
If you lead a team of people, you have the responsibility to keep your flame burning bright and hot.
Are ‘Ghost Rules’ Holding Your Team Back?
Don't allow invisible narratives to limit your team's engagement.
The Two Things That Creative People Need From Every Leader
Why the right mix of Stability and Challenge is essential to brilliant work.
What Does It Take To Produce Brilliant Creative Work?
What does it take for a team to produce consistently brilliant creative work? Just talent? A fun and vibrant culture? Sheer will? Actually, in "create on demand" organizations the answer is often something else. Something surprising.
Finding Your “Sweet Spot”
Having worked with and interviewed hundreds of professionals, I’ve come to believe that each person has a “sweet spot”. It’s comprised of the situations and activities where they are maximally effective, and where they create the most unique value for their effort. It’s not necessarily a specific job or task, but rather a mode they go into that separates them from the pack. It’s a unique kind of value that they become known for, and that others seek out.My New Book Herding Tigers Is Here
I've been looking forward to writing this post for over two years. It's with (barely contained) joy that I get to announce that my new book Herding Tigers: Be The Leader That Creative People Need is just two weeks from release.
Get Herding Tigers a Month Before Release
The new book Herding Tigers releases on January 16th, but we want to get it into your hands now. We're sending a limited number of pre-release copies to readers, and here's how you can get one.
The Accidental Creative At 6 Years Old
It's hard to believe it's been six years since The Accidental Creative released. Just for kicks, here's the video we made to launch the book.
A Rocket Scientist’s Advice On How To Do Impossible Things
Have you ever been at a cocktail party, had someone ask you what you do for a living, and wished you could come up with something impressive-sounding to wow them? Adam Stelztner probably never experiences that. He's an engineer at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory who has worked on flight missions including Galileo, Cassini, and Mars Pathfinder, and the Mars Exploration Rover project. He has a lot to say about innovation and leadership.
Three Tactics From Getting Things Done That Transformed My Productivity
GTD is a system for organizing and acting on the work that matters most. There are a lot of nuances to the system, and as a result many people get lost in the weeds and intricate details and get off track and stop utilizing it altogether. That's unfortunate, because there are many principles that can be borrowed from GTD and acted upon, even if you don't use the entire system.
Discover What’s Worth Working For, Then Spend Yourself On It
I just spent years researching and writing a book about voice. Voice? Seriously? Why would I do that? Honestly, if I offered you ten potential books to read, and a book about voice was among them, I'd guess that the voice book would probably be among the least...
Why No One Is Listening To Your Great Idea
The ugly truth is that great work isn’t enough. No one tells you this early in your career; It’s something you learn over time. Cream doesn’t automatically rise to the top, and we don’t live in a meritocracy. If you want your idea to be heard, you have to go the extra mile to ensure that it’s framed to resonate with the right audience.
Failure Is Inevitable. What Matters Is How You Deal With It.
After expending so much time, energy, and focus on something you care about, it can be devastating when it just doesn't click. What you do next is very important.
Where You Get Stuck (And What To Do About It)
There are some common "sticking points" that can stall your work's impact. You must push through them to take your work to the next level.
