It’s really no surprise that both of these iconic film-makers have been all over the press of late, allowing us to see the intimate thoughts and frustrations with their own creative life struggles.  So many aspects of our growing economy are changing the game.  Big business is not what it was, and the life-long employee isn’t either.  This certainly brings the challenges of employee engagement and motivation to the forefront, among other aspects of Talent Management – compensation, assessment, employee evaluation, and then some.  You don’t have to be in the film business to understand the challenges of creativity and authenticity.  All industries feel it, in a whole host of ways.

“How to Lead a Creative Life,” Fast Company (Jan 2012) – great map, this is how you do it:

I do believe this is a wonderful time to be a creative & authentic force, in whatever way that notion strikes you.

Maybe you want to:

• Develop a new product or system in a different way
• Measure & reward in a different way
• Analyze in a different way
• Create & produce in a different way

Bottom line… it takes a bit of risk.  Think hard about the word risk and what RISK & FEAR mean to you.  And when you’ve got a notion of the answer, think about how Wikipedia and Google fought back last week – incredibly creative and risk seeking companies, even the way in which they decided to fight was a risk – who would have thought?

And then think about the Japanese art of Dwarf Trees – what risk-taking, creative horticulturist thought of that??

And the question:  How to remain authentic in light of forever changing and shifting circumstance?

Often times the hardest thing to do is make the switch from competitive worker-bee to Manager.  We are not usually guided nor taught the intricacies of this shift, yet so crucial and necessary.  I use the word Manager lightly but what I really mean is the shift to Leader.  For years and really decades you spend your time and energy focused on educating yourself, developing your career, being innovative and creative, comprehending office environments, politics, and culture.  You analyze Self in the context of environment – toy with personal needs versus professional needs, real needs versus perceived needs (i.e. Maslow) and then one day you turn around and you’re a Leader.  And then maybe it hits you – all that it means to be a Leader is truly complex.  On top of that, you have to now figure out what kind of Leader you are and how you can be an Authentic Leader.  Here’s a guide in THREE steps:

1. Think about who and why you want to develop certain people in the organization (those hi-pos)

2. Think about what is most important for these folks to know and understand and how you will guide them

3. Think about how you can find assets for development in all of the rest of the folks you manage

I said THREE steps, I didn’t say THREE easy steps. A paragraph from the article “How Will You Measure Your Life,” by Clayton M. Christensen (HBR) from over a year ago sticks in my mind:

“Management is the most noble of professions if it’s practiced well. No other occupation offers as many ways to help others learn and grow, take responsibility and be recognized for achievement, and contribute to the success of a team. More and more MBA students come to school thinking that a career in business means buying, selling, and investing in companies. That’s unfortunate. Doing deals doesn’t yield the deep rewards that come from building up people.”

How often do you ask yourself that question?  The answer doesn’t really matter – the point instead is that we all often ask that question.  The problem is that the value of mistakes is not quantifiable, and that’s simply because there is no such thing as a ‘mistake,’ in my book.  The same way I don’t believe in the concept laziness (more about that and the factor of motivation at another time).  Instead, the essence of a ‘mistake’ involves a complex weave of factors in life that bring us to thoughts of error.

In order to move forward in life, we need to assume a certain degree of risk.  Now the ‘magnitude’ of that risk is an individual choice, which some can handle more than others.  There is great variation in the way individuals evaluate the same situation (think Election Day yesterday), however, at the end of the day we all come back to the same place – ‘what degree of risk am I willing to take & how do I evaluate my efforts’?  If you need help answering that question:

• Seek feedback from a variety of sources
• Accept that every move involves risk and move forward with your plan
• Be willing to stop, evaluate, and proceed as needed
• Remember there will be no change, without movement
• Understand that movement is a process, which cannot begin without risk

Whatever you, or your company does, do not remain stagnant, for that only indicates fear of change and the potential for future loss – while your competitors keep it moving.

I don’t know about you, but at the end of the day, Tiger is still the golf genius child-protégé he was to me a few months before all the scandal. Really, how many of us actually care about his ‘issues’ with remaining loyal to his wife. I know, many of you are probably aghast at what I (a woman!) am saying right now. However, the truth is the truth. We’re not mad at his recent apology because we think he hasn’t suffered enough for his wrongdoing, we’re mad because deep in the depths of our psyche we know that once he gets back to focusing on the game, we will all, once again, be enthralled with this genius of a player. End of story, enough said, hope all that personal life stuff of his works out. So why all the hoopla?

It’s a simple distraction, and an entertaining one at that. It’s also the tale of a mistake, maybe a big one, maybe a small one, time will tell (I err on the side of the later). We think that in order to succeed, we need to avoid making mistakes. This could not be farther from the truth. In fact, mistakes are a wonderful thing. They cause pause. They encourage us to reevaluate and rethink. They enable us to review what might be missing and how we can fill in and improve the next time around. Mistakes bring us back to our motivational behavior that encouraged the activity or venture in the first place.

And in some cases, we learn exponentially from the mistakes of others. The Olympics are the most awesome example of exactly that – motivation that spurs from mistakes. If anyone saw Apolo Ohno take home a bronze medal in the men’s 1,000 meter short track over the weekend you know just what I mean. Oh the sight, with Ohno whipping into 3rd position seconds before the finish and the announcer most appropriately stating “you’ve got to wait for the mistake and then make your move.”

Make your moves, learn from your mistakes, and certainly learn from the mistakes of others.