How creative are you?

Morgan Flatley is the Global CMO of McDonald’s.

McDonald’s is one of the most visible, valuable, and influential brands in the world. Since the company’s birth, it’s been powered by creative thinking and innovation. Today, that’s more true than ever.

Leadership is an awesome responsibility. Do it well or do it badly, you will change people’s lives, either way.

The creative industries have some exceptional leaders. At their heart lies a passion for creating an environment in which others can unlock their gifts.

A passion, as Morgan describes it, for nurturing creative thinking, for protecting it and giving it a space to grow.

In the middle of all that, it is sometimes easy to overlook everything that you bring to the table. To underestimate your own gifts.

I was fortunate to spend a good part of 2006, 7 and 8 in the company of Sir Ken Robinson. His TED Talk, “Do School Kill Creativity?” has been watched 75 million times. I’ve included a link in the episode notes.

His basic belief that we are all born creative, resonates so powerfully with people that whenever I was with him, he was stopped over and over again by strangers who told him that he had changed their lives. He died much too young and much too soon.

My definition of creativity comes from him. Original thinking that has value.

In my work, I have learned that most leaders don’t fully recognize their own extraordinary abilities. And many of the very best leaders instinctively feel that they are not creative. I have lived that reality myself.

Surrounded by world-class creative ideators and talent, it is easy to believe that we lack their gifts until someone helps us to see ourselves differently.

I was fortunate to have someone do that for me. Today, helping leaders to see all of their strengths is one of the most rewarding parts of what I do.

Creative thinking comes in many forms. And its value is unlocked exponentially when, as leaders, we gain the confidence to see ourselves as we truly are. Powerfully creative in our own right.

This does not make creative leadership a competition. It makes it an equation focused on the people that work for us.

An equation that says recognizing our own talent can make us even better at unlocking theirs.