Creative Leadership

I just returned from a South Caribbean cruise that provided a few opportunities for reminders on leadership.  I’ll share a few in the next posts.  One of the favorites?  A quartet of kids in St. Kitts making their own brand of music.  Their instruments?  A ukulele, a flute made from PVC pipe, a cheese grater, and a triangle.

Chances are their songs won’t make ITUNES top download list in the near future – but they were having fun doing what they enjoyed, they made a lot of people smile, and they showed some ingenuity using what was available to them. They even made a few dollars from the looks of the traffic stopping to listen.  They weren’t sulking about not having the instruments they wanted and didn’t have.  They weren’t arguing about who got to play what instrument – at least not in public.  Nothing but smiles.

Leadership is about looking at the resources you have available and coming up with a plan on how to use them best. What is your cheese grater that needs to reallocated?  What is your piece of PVC that would be better with holes in it?

Leadership is about creating the future with something greater than the sum of the parts –  individually each of the instruments have limited options (haven’t heard a CD dedicated to a cheese grater).  Together, much is possible and much more than credited alone. 

Leadership is about keeping people motivated and making a great impression with the work they do.  Help your team celebrate the roles they have and blend together.

Take a look around you.  Inventory your resources. Create the future.  Celebrate the successes.  Learn from some kids in the South Caribbean looking to have some fun.