Are ‘Ghost Rules’ Holding Your Team Back?
Don't allow invisible narratives to limit your team's engagement.
Are ‘Ghost Rules’ Holding Your Team Back?
Articles about Todd Henry
Gain Focus With These Three Questions
Gain Focus With These Three Questions
If you want to accomplish much of anything, you need to focus. You have a finite amount of attention to allocate to problems that matter. However, many creative pros struggle with questions about what they should focus on, when they should focus on it, and whether the thing they're doing is even the right thing. On this episode, Todd Henry shares three questions you can ask each week to help you allocate your finite attention in the best places, and get more of the right things done.
How To Protect Your Creative Team
How To Protect Your Creative Team
Your team needs to know that it will have the time and attention necessary to do the work. However, organizations are often their own worst enemy, and it can be difficult to protect your team from the onslaught of demands and pressure that can get in the way of...
The Two Things That Creative People Need From Every Leader
The Two Things That Creative People Need From Every Leader
Why the right mix of Stability and Challenge is essential to brilliant work.
Your Customer’s Secret Language (with Jeffrey Shaw)
Your Customer’s Secret Language (with Jeffrey Shaw)
Who is your ideal customer? If you're a freelancer, a small business owner, or even someone designing or writing within an organization, this is a critical question. But you can't stop by identifying that customer, you also need to understand how to communicate in a way that will resonate deeply. In other words, you need to uncover their "secret language".
Jonathan Willis on Passion Projects
Jonathan Willis on Passion Projects
Jonathan Willis is a globe-traveling photographer. His work has been featured by some of the biggest brands in the world, and he's dedicated himself to becoming a true master of his craft. However, over the past few years he's also engaged in a number of "passion projects" as a way to stoke his creative juices and to challenge himself.
What Does It Take To Produce Brilliant Creative 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.
5 Myths About Creative People
5 Myths About Creative People
You've probably heard them before. You might even believe them. However, the myths that exist about creative people in the marketplace can affect your ability to engage in and do your work effectively. On today's episode, I share five common myths about creative people, how they limit our ability to bring value to our clients and organization, and what we can do about them.
Finding Your “Sweet Spot”
Finding Your “Sweet Spot”
What could you be better at than anyone around you? It's a question worth exploring.
What Creative People Need
What Creative People Need
When you create for a living, you might find yourself frustrated with your management or client and not even know why. When you can't articulate what you need, it's really difficult to thrive. On today's episode, I share the few things that creative people need in order to do their best work, and how you can ask for them so that you can be prolific, brilliant, and healthy.
Know What Motivates Your Team
Know What Motivates Your Team
To do brilliant work over the long term, creative people need a great coach. As a leader, you need to understand what motivates the people on your team, and help them align their work around what they do best. On this episode, I share insights from Chapter 5 of...
Lying To The Pope
Lying To The Pope
How do you make decisions in your work, about your career, or for your life as a whole? If you don't have a clear framework for making those decisions ahead of time, then you'll be tempted to compromise your values in the moment. On today's show, I share a simple framework for identifying some of your core drivers so that you are prepared to make decisions before you get into those high pressure situations.
There’s a Bear In Ohio!
There’s a Bear In Ohio!
If you do creative work for a living, trust is your currency. It's impossible to do great, collaborative, creative work without it. However, there are a number of ways in which we can lose trust and never even know it. On this episode, I share a small way we breach trust and how that can affect us at the worst possible moment.
Four Questions for 2018
Four Questions for 2018
It's a new year, and that means many of us are thinking about how we want to make 2018 our best year yet. Last year, I introduced four questions that you can ask to help you gain better clarity and establish more meaningful goals. On this episode, I re-visit those questions and share how I'm answering them for the upcoming year.
Take More Shots
Take More Shots
Winning is often a game of percentages. The more shots you take, the more likely you are to eventually hit your goal and create something valuable. On this episode, I discuss how to practice and hone your skills through unnecessary creation, follow your instincts for opportunity, and to build a diversified portfolio of risk by taking more shots.
Podcast: Staying Creatively Supercharged
Podcast: Staying Creatively Supercharged
Weekends are not only a great time to rest, but also to recreate (as in "re-create" yourself, and to regain your focus and enthusiasm for your life and work.) By instilling a few simple checkpoints, or rituals, in your weekend, you can spark your creative juices and ensure that you're clear-headed and focused heading into your next week
Podcast: The Seven Deadly Sins
Podcast: The Seven Deadly Sins
As we wrap 2017 and head into a new year, it's natural to look back to consider whether your ambitions for the year lined up with your accomplishments. It's easy to unknowingly settle into ruts without even realize it's happening, and to fail to do the work you know you're capable of doing. On this episode, I'll share seven common areas where people and teams unknowingly settle, and a few questions to help you identify and move past them.
Podcast: The Heart To Start (with David Kadavy)
Podcast: The Heart To Start (with David Kadavy)
What's the most important part of doing creative work? Some people say it's getting started, but I think that's a bit simplistic. It's more about getting started right, and then being able to sustain yourself when times get tough. On this episode, David Kadavy shares some insights from his new book The Heart To Start.
Podcast: The Motivation Myth (with Jeff Haden)
Podcast: The Motivation Myth (with Jeff Haden)
How do you find the motivation you need to attack your goals? According to Jeff Haden, the problem is waiting for motivation at all. If you want to experience fulfillment and tackle big projects, it's more about the process. On this episode, we dive into why focus can actually be your enemy, how to find happiness by quantifying your progress, and how to accomplish long-arc projects by thinking small.
The Three Challenges Of Leading Creative Work
The Three Challenges Of Leading Creative Work
Leading a creative team can feel like trying to build a bicycle while riding it. What worked last time might not work next time, so it feels like you're always trying to figure things out as you go. On top of managing personalities and the complexity of the work...