Essays · · Updated
Creativity, Mental Health, and Leadership
Ten minutes of drawing is as important as the meeting. Your mind shows up healthier for both.
Greg Murray, Founder, Human Creative Coaching
In short
Creativity is not a luxury for leaders; it is equipment. Making things has measurable mental health benefits, drawing on visual, emotional, memory, and language systems at once. CEOs name creativity the most important quality for navigating complexity. And intentional creative practice invites flow, the state in which we feel and perform best, which carries over into more creative days afterward.
In this piece
Are you an executive, artist, or thought leader looking to unlock your human potential? Life demands a lot of you: expenses, teams to build, damaged family relationships to heal, goals, a massive to-do list, unmotivated employees, politics pulling us further apart. A key ingredient to navigating all of it as a high-capacity leader is your creativity.5
What does creativity do for mental health?
Making art, and creative activity in general, has real mental health benefits. Art-making is used in clinical practice and is impactful enough to help people living with dementia.2 Simply drawing or painting "activates visual pathways, stimulating self-narratives and emotional expressions while reinforcing existing language, memory, socialization, and visuospatial abilities."4
Who counts as creative?
There's freedom in creativity. Do you paint? Write code? Solve problems all day? Build furniture? Lead business development? Manage a sales team? Play music? Doodle in meetings? Run a tech company? Creativity is not limited to traditional art forms. You are creative. A few extraordinary people have their doodles in museums; no matter who sees your work, we all benefit from exercising creativity.
You are CEO of your own life, with demanding problems and a beautifully rewarding life to be realized.
What does creativity have to do with leadership?
When IBM surveyed more than 1,500 CEOs, creativity came out as the single most important leadership quality for navigating complexity.5 Creative leaders are more innovative, courageous, and adaptable. Even if you don't run a company, you are CEO of your own life, with demanding problems to solve and a beautifully rewarding life to be realized. The same study found creative leaders:
- Score much higher on innovation
- Are more courageous, making decisions that alter the status quo
- Consider previously unheard-of ways to drastically change their enterprise (that is, your life)
- Make greater business-model changes to realize their strategies
What does this mean for you? Honoring the space to be present in creativity is the first step. Could I propose that ten minutes a day of drawing, painting, playing music, or even a game of charades is as important as your business meetings? Because your mind will show up healthier, more flexible, and firing on all cylinders. You may find solutions you would never have seen.
What is flow, and why does it matter?
Intentional creativity encourages a mental state psychologists call flow: the optimal state of consciousness in which we feel our best and perform our best.3 And it doesn't stay in the moment. Teresa Amabile's research at Harvard found that positive affect and creative thinking on one day carry over into heightened creativity the next.1 Flow flows over.
Closing
Embrace creativity in your daily life and watch your mental health and leadership grow. This is your life. Get out there, be creative, and live it fully, because you, your family, and your company are worth it. For more, read the pieces on what creativity is and on expanding your imagination.
Questions I hear
How does creativity improve mental health?
Creative activity engages visual, emotional, memory, and language systems together, supports emotional expression, and invites flow. It is used clinically and benefits people well beyond the clinic.
Why do leaders need creativity?
Because complexity cannot be managed by procedure alone. Surveyed CEOs rank creativity as the top leadership quality, and creative leaders are more adaptable, courageous, and innovative.
What is flow?
A state of full absorption in a challenge that matches your skill, in which people feel and perform their best. Creative practice is one of the most reliable doors into it, and its benefits carry into the following day.
References
- Amabile, T. M., Barsade, S. G., Mueller, J. S., & Staw, B. M. (2005). Affect and creativity at work. Administrative Science Quarterly, 50(3), 367–403. DOI
- Chancellor, B., Duncan, A., & Chatterjee, A. (2014). Art therapy for Alzheimer's disease and other dementias. Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, 39(1), 1–11. DOI
- Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1990). Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience. Harper & Row.
- Hass-Cohen, N., & Carr, R. (Eds.). (2008). Art Therapy and Clinical Neuroscience. Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
- IBM Institute for Business Value. (2010). Capitalizing on Complexity: Insights from the Global Chief Executive Officer Study. IBM. Source
This article is written from a coaching perspective and is for general information. It is not psychotherapy, counseling, or medical advice, and it is not a substitute for care from a licensed professional.
Greg Murray · TPRAT certified, TLP Director, TPRAT co-facilitator. Coach to founders, executives, and artists. Writes here about what actually changes a person.
