All leaders need initiating.
The path to leadership – to any meaningful leadership – requires us to get to know ourselves in new ways and to find inner resources that were previously inaccessible.
But what I’m noticing is that the initiation of Chief Creative Officers is something different from the other leaders I work with.
For a CMO or CEO to truly step up and find their voice, the work is often to connect with the deep personal meaning that drives their connection to the role. After a career in service of the system, they have to learn to think beyond it and influence with the sheer force of their Authenticity.
For CCOs the journey is often the exact opposite of this.
Coming up through the ranks as a creative, the sheer force of your vision and your desire to make great work has been the fuel of your rise. The ability to stand before a room and say ‘you can’t see this yet, but believe me – I know this is going to be incredible’. This is how you get in the running to be a CCO.
The magic that other leaders often have to strive for happens to be the one that CCOs often need to let go of a little – or get more loose and playful with.
What does this look like?
A creative department must live off its intense umbilical connection to the work. Unlike most other roles, they are pouring a piece of themselves into the physical output that the world will See.
If the CCO leads purely from this place, they are just another senior creative.
A true CCO lives at the creative space’s frontier with the rest of the community.
A true CCO can safely allow visitors and creatives to pass between the two worlds.
And crucially – this is both inner and outer work. In becoming a CCO the task is often to know when to open the inner door that is protecting the sanctity of your own vision, and when to keep it shut.
In summary, when many leaders are learning to influence others with the force of their personal commitment, those stepping into the CCO role are learning how to safely include a whole community in the experience of making from the soul.
