A search on Amazon shows 62,000+ books on leadership but almost nothing to help creative team leaders build and sustain a creative environment. Creativity and innovation can be delicate and emotionally fraught processes. Leadership theories are helpful, but what do you do when your star designer suddenly starts mailing it in? Or a project team is frozen in infighting? Or one of your designers just can’t find their footing in a new project? When you got your big promotion for being an amazing designer, no one told you that you needed an entirely new skill set. Sink or swim, baby. For this session, Sarah B. Nelson gets practical on the topic of creative leadership. From vision development to team alignment, from bottom-up empowerment to top-down intervention, Sarah will inspire you with practical ideas to motivate your team and rouse them to greatness. She will draw on her extensive experience leading creative teams at Adaptive Path and Hot Studio — and inform the discussion with research and interviews from organizational psychologists, experienced managers, and successful creative leaders.

1. effective creative leadership
Sarah B. Nelson, Tapir & Tine
human-centered product, service, & organization design

2. #creativeleaders
human-centered product, service, & organization design

6. on being creative...
human-centered product, service, & organization design

7. “The frightening and most difficult thing about being what
someone calls a ‘creative person’ is that you have
absolutely no idea where any of your thoughts come from,
and you have no idea where they’re going to come from
tomorrow.”
— “Art and Copy” documentary
human-centered product, service, & organization design

8. what’s your job?
human-centered product, service, & organization design

9. “You would think that as a producer, your job would
be to churn up creativity, but mostly your job is to
police enthusiasm.”
— Tina Fey, “Bossypants”
human-centered product, service, & organization design

10. “The boss's unstated job is to go and
get the pizza for his/her people.”
— John Maeda, Twitter, Feb 24th, 2011
human-centered product, service, & organization design

11. to start, something concrete
human-centered product, service, & organization design

13. Sean Kristy John

14. Sean Kristy John
Goals Goals Goals
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15. Sean Kristy John
Goals Goals Goals
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FEARS FEARS FEARS
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2 2 2
3 3 3

16. Sean Kristy John
Goals Goals Goals
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FEARS FEARS FEARS
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EXPECTATIONS EXPECTATIONS EXPECTATIONS
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17. Sean creative lead Kristy PM John UX LEad
Goals Goals Goals
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2 2 2
3 3 3
FEARS FEARS FEARS
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2 2 2
3 3 3
EXPECTATIONS EXPECTATIONS EXPECTATIONS
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18. Sean creative lead
Goals
1 Add a new e-commerce piece to my portfolio
2 To increase our experience with research projects
3 Try out a new analysis technique for our research

19. Sean creative lead
Goals
1 Add a new e-commerce piece to my portfolio
2 To increase our experience with research projects
3 Try out a new analysis technique for our research
FEARS
1 That I won’t be able to spend enough time with the team
2 that the client’s expectations are unreasonable
3 That the project is underscoped

20. Sean creative lead
Goals
1 Add a new e-commerce piece to my portfolio
2 To increase our experience with research projects
3 Try out a new analysis technique for our research
FEARS
1 That I won’t be able to spend enough time with the team
2 that the client’s expectations are unreasonable
3 That the project is underscoped
EXPECTATIONS
1 Of Sarah: That she is as accessible as possible
2 of the team: That people communicate honestly with each other
3 of SaRAH: that she has the team’s back

21. just because you wrote it on the board
doesn’t make it true
human-centered product, service, & organization design

22. emotional literacy
human-centered product, service, & organization design

23. “Emotional Literacy is made up of the ability
to understand your emotions, the ability to
listen to others and empathise with their
emotions, and the ability to express
emotions productively.”
— Charles Steiner
human-centered product, service, & organization design

24. “To be emotionally literate is to be able to handle
emotions in a way that improves your personal
power and improves the quality of life around
you. Emotional literacy improves relationships,
creates loving possibilities between people,
makes co-operative work possible, and
facilitates the feeling of community.”
— Charles Steiner
human-centered product, service, & organization design

25. Self-awareness
the ability to read one's emotions and recognize their impact
while using gut feelings to guide decisions.
Self-management
involves controlling one's emotions and impulses and
adapting to changing circumstances.
Social awareness
the ability to sense, understand, and react to others' emotions
while comprehending social networks.
Relationship management
the ability to inspire, influence, and develop others while
managing conflict.
— Daniel Goleman
human-centered product, service, & organization design

26. know yourself
human-centered product, service, & organization design

27. Fear
human-centered product, service, & organization design

28. Hungry
Angry
Lonely
Tired
human-centered product, service, & organization design

29. know others
human-centered product, service, & organization design

31. “Just being able to be there for others and to listen to them
is one of the most important capacities a leader can have.”
— Joseph Jaworski, “Synchronicity: The Inner Path of Leadership”
human-centered product, service, & organization design

32. human-centered product, service, & organization design

33. thank you!
sarah@tapirandtine.com
@sarahbeee
www.sarahbnelson.com
www.tapirandtine.com
human-centered product, service, & organization design