What does it mean to be creative?

My mind (perhaps like yours?) conjures artists, writers and makers of things. It is also quick (perhaps like yours?) to inform me that this is something other people do—that I myself am not a creative person.

Fortunately, I’ve learned not to listen to my mind all the time.

But because this notion of creativity being exclusive to a talented few is so persistent in my brain, I suspect it’s rattling around other brains too. So let’s talk about the kind of creativity that is available to all of us, and the kind of creating we all need to do, particularly if we call ourselves leaders.

For your consideration, here’s how I define leadership:

Putting forth a purposeful vision for the future
and creating the conditions for the collective to achieve it

Without a vision, we aren’t leading toward anything (no matter our skill at managing things as they are).

Without creating the conditions for other people to achieve the vision together, we aren’t leading anyone.

You can see why creating is the third transformational leadership practice I teach—along with challenging and coaching. It may also be the most important, especially now.

I think it is the practice of creating that differentiates the transformational leader—the kind we desperately need now—from the transactional manager (who’s focused on winning at the status quo) and the tyrannical despot (who’s focused on amassing power by denying it to others) alike.

In transformational times, we aren't meant to merely keep calm and carry on.

We are here to create the future, starting now. And anyone, anywhere can do it.

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“I’ve learned that all my suffering (not pain) comes from wanting reality (including pain) to be different rather than engaging creatively with reality as it is.”

—Sebene Selassie, whose newsletter is a precious gift​

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CONTROL X RELEASE

Stepping Into Power—and Sharing It

We are all subject to everything that has happened in the past, leading right up to this moment.

But the future is subject to the power each of us brings to this moment.

Power is another one of those words we have a fraught relationship with. I wrote about it here last year. For now, suffice it to say that you have power you may not realize, and that’s a good thing.

Your power is your ability to create something new from what exists today.

The world needs you to step into this power. Ideally, now.

Here’s the rub: We won’t be able to see the future clearly enough to know exactly what we’re creating. Sorry! We just never know for sure. It's wise to hold lightly to our plans, and instead embrace creating as a process, or better yet: a practice.

If we are brave enough to engage in a creative practice, something new will emerge as a result. What will it be? That remains to be seen. (You'll find some starter ideas below.)

Tactically speaking, my creative practice looks like this:

• Form a rough idea for how things can be better, and test it simply
• See what works, and do more of that
• See what doesn’t work, and do less of that

Pretty simple, right? Turns out the actual work of creating isn’t so difficult—so what holds us back?

Here are three common challenges we face in stepping into our power and maintaining a creative practice:

1 - Staying in creative mode
​So much of what happens in our work and in our world triggers us into its opposite—reactive mode.

We spend our precious time, energy and attention trying to solve the many problems that present themselves to us on a daily basis. Or if we can’t solve them, to at least survive them. It’s exhausting, isn’t it? And when we’re exhausted, it’s nearly impossible to be creative. We simply don’t have the resources.

Even when devoted to our creative practice, we face resistance both externally and internally—two dimensions that mirror and amplify each other until no, don’t, can’t seem like the truth…

2 - External resistance
​The status quo and its custodians will reject your creations and feel threatened by your creativity.

Your job is to be unbothered by this. The act of creating something, especially something new, is a form of change and change will inevitably meet resistance. It’s natural, normal and not a problem. How others feel about what you’re creating is none of your business—it’s more about them than it is about you.

But we have a way of making it about us...

3 - Internal resistance
​Call it your inner critic, your imposter syndrome, your amygdala… I sometimes call it my small self or my survival self. In the interest of keeping you safe, your survival self will spin up all kinds of stories like:

Who are you to make something new?

Nobody wants what you have to offer.

All of this has been done before. You’re not original.

What do all these stories have in common? They’re about you. (And me! Writing my first book is bringing them up in a big way.)

But Reader, what we’re creating is not about us.

What we’re creating is about the future. Sure, we stand to benefit from a better future, but so do a great many other people. Keeping our creation story small, limiting it to the narrow confines of the ego, will rob our creations of their power every time.

Creative leadership is our generous contribution to the human project of progress.

It invites—no, demands—that we step into our power.

But that’s only half of the practice.

Truly transformational leaders practice not only creation, but co-creation. Once we’ve summoned the courage to step into our own power and make something new, the skillful next step is to share that power with the people around us. To welcome different brains with diverse perspectives and ideas that challenge ours, and gather insights that make our creations better.

Again, our survival selves will be triggered. They’ll cry out things like:

Who are they to challenge me?

I’m the expert!

My way is the best way.

[Notice how these objections run directly counter to the ones we heard above when we were trying to step into our power. Isn’t that wild? The survival self is ever so creative. 😏]

Anticipate this. Be ready to wrap that little self in a warm blanket, thank it for its concern and invite it to rest while you center the creation, not yourself. What seems like self-betrayal to the ego might just be liberation.

This is natural law: Everything is co-created. From the trees that don’t exist without soil, light, water and fungi, to the books that don’t exist without a writer, her ideas, her influences (and trees), everything is a collaboration. Nothing in existence came from just one person, one source, one mind. Everything has been inspired by other sources and other minds, fed into by others’ talents and shaped by others’ responses.

I’ve come to understand that the only way we can realize our true power, our innate potential, our creative practice, is in relationship with the world around us.

Acorns

Aristotle noticed
the tiny acorn
can only grow up to be
the mighty oak tree

it cannot be a fig
will never be a fir
but if it hits just right
a giant it just might

does the acorn know its
purpose and design?
does it need to see
to fulfill its destiny?

I suspect it’s like us
waiting for the miracle
hoping for the best
holding the whole forest

In Practice: What will you create today?

I'm not asking you to take on a big project or create some world-changing technology. No, my friend, what we'll be creating together is both smaller and stronger. It can take many forms. Here are a few:

Space - Viktor Frankl (allegedly) wrote about the “space between stimulus and response… in that space is our power to choose our response.“ Can you create that space in your own mind? Can you offer that space to others? The work of creating begins when we resist the pull of reactivity and unplug from the familiarity of habit.

Thoughts and Ideas - Speaking of space, how much space do you allow yourself for thinking in your busy life? How do you cultivate and capture your ideas? This can include all kinds of thinking: reading, reflecting, daydreaming, brainstorming, therapy and/or coaching, asking questions... even meditation because it's a chance to look reflexively at our thinking. Hannah Arendt implored us to “think what we are doing,“ and then do (or don’t do) that thing on purpose, with intention.

Prototype and Experiment - You aren’t going to get it right the first time, so instead of striving to create a perfectly finished product, create a prototype—the simplest possible version of your idea. No bells, no whistles, just the basics. Then you can create a way to test this prototype on a small scale, with your early adopters, so you can find what works… and what needs work.

Community and Relationship - I think the most important thing you can create in this particular moment are connections. What would it look like to create safer spaces in your relationships? Where can you join, grow or build brave communities for co-creation?

Vision and Story - And if you’re ready to get serious about change, it helps to start with a clear and purposeful vision. Your vision tells you where you’re going and why. From that imagined future state, you can look back and craft a story of how you’ll get there from here. This kind of clarity serves as both a catalyst and a container for your creative practice—it will guide you, ground you, and inspire others to co-create with you.

Got Doubt?

If there’s still any doubt in your mind that it’s time to step into your creative power as a leader, I’m willing to bet it sounds something like this:

But I don’t have the authority to create, or to engage others to co-create with me.

Maybe the people you need to influence don’t report to you on the org chart. Maybe they aren’t accountable to you in terms of their priorities. Maybe they are your peers… or your boss.

This is our focus for this month’s Mini-Retreat: Influence without Authority.👇 Because creating, while essential to leadership, has nothing to do with being the one who can tell others what to do. Often it involves doing the thing nobody is asking you to do, simply because you know it’s the right thing to do.

​Join us in two weeks, and I’ll show you how to influence without authority—but with lots of integrity—bringing others into your creative practice and co-creating the future together…

September Mini-Retreat: The Power Paradox - Influence without Authority

True power doesn't come from control—it comes from connection. In fact, the more we try to control, the less influence we actually have. Empowering others ultimately amplifies our own impact.

In this Mini-Retreat, you'll learn to step into your power while also sharing it and deepen your capacity to co-create, bringing your own ideas forward while also championing other perspectives. It's time to trade control for genuine influence that sparks real change.

Friday, September 12, 2025​
5 - 6:30 p.m. GMT
12 - 1:30 p.m. ET
9 - 10:30 a.m. PT

Zoom link sent upon registration

Mini-Retreats are free for RadiantLeader.co members, who can RSVP here. 💛

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Co-creation in Conversation

The brilliant Jennifer Romolini has recently created something special: Her Extended Scenes podcast picks up where her memoir Ambition Monster left off, asking necessary questions about what it means to be “successful” and how our work reflects (but does not define) who we really are. I joined her latest episode, where we talked about, as Jenn puts it:

emotionally surviving the moment we’re in;
understanding the price of community even when it’s annoying;
building resilience in our relationships;
staying open and curious, not stuck in old versions of ourselves;
and, most of all, learning how to have healthy, productive conflict in a time when this feels more challenging than maybe ever in our lifetimes.

What We Make Makes Us

The practice of creating can be terrifying, but it gets easier. With everything we create, whether for ourselves, a loved one, a team or a community, we become a creator—not just of the thing that you’ve made, but of the future we are all moving into together.

Right now we are in a liminal space. The old ways are dying, and the new ones haven’t yet been created.

Liminal spaces feel like chasms, but if we look down at our feet on the ground, we find fertile soil for nurturing what will come next.

Let’s stop waiting for permission. No one’s going to give it to us.

Let’s start stepping into our power, and commit to sharing it with others.

Let’s use our collective power to create healthier, higher-performing systems in our work and in our world.

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Onward together.

Kristen Lisanti
​Radiant Change​
​Teaching Leaders How to Transform Cultures