Not me, you say? I am not creative. That is what many of the TEC/Vistage Chairs said when we began day one of our annual meeting in Colorado for Chairs with 10 years or more at Vistage. Creativity means artistic or musical. Not many Chairs can draw, a few sing or play musical instruments, … some take good pictures.
We began the morning with looking back at our creativity as children. In my small groups, we first remembered all those who stomped down on our creativity. Color within the lines, get down from that wall, use your inside voice.
And, even when we uncovered the creative things we had done in our lives – invented companies in areas that hadn’t existed, developed new ways to take products to market, found ways to motivate our teams that later became best practices in our industry…. we didn’t see ourselves as creative.
By the afternoon of day 2, after drawing pictures, strolling Boulder taking snapshots of objects we wouldn’t normally notice, and meeting again in small groups and exploring what we are passionate about, we began to put it all together.
Artists, maybe not, but creative, yes we are. So doubling down on our unique creativity and refreshed by being with our community, 100 Chairs dispersed to all areas of the US, England, Canada and Argentina.
If you want to explore where your unique creative brilliance lies, find a partner and dig deep in your past for those areas where you colored outside the lines, or came up with something original. Start there and see if that lines up with a passion you have. When you work from your strengths, you are uniquely amazing. Have fun!
picture photoshopped by Paul Dye