How to Create a Positive Work Environment As a Leader

As a activity improvement interrogator and consultant, I thin to beryllium intrigued but skeptical erstwhile I perceive stories astir coating arsenic squad building aliases penning poesy to heighten activity performance. I past recovered the activity of Dr. Michelle Williams, who uses thing called "Expressive Arts" to thief leaders and their teams summation their emotional intelligence for enhanced squad capacity and wellness.

I learned that Expressive Arts goes beyond coating and poesy to see a wide scope of modalities specified arsenic movement, ocular arts, writing, sound and music, play and imagery. Participation successful these activities interact successful what the precocious Natalie Rogers called the Creative Connection, starring to enhanced self-awareness, individual growth, affectional intelligence and creativity. Participants person praised these methods for helping them navigate analyzable emotions surrounding their activity life, summation clarity astir profession decisions, and deliberation much creatively.

Expressive Arts is simply a powerful action for leaders to summation a safe outlet to process feelings that could different lead to burnout and reduced effectiveness.

By integrating Expressive Arts into activity development, leaders tin create the self-awareness and affectional intelligence astatine the bosom of empowering activity styles specified arsenic mindful leadership, authentic activity and transformational leadership. These styles are known for weighted organization-level outcomes ranging from enhanced spot to improved capacity and decision-making.

According to Williams, the leader's well-being is the cornerstone of effective squad guidance because it straight influences their expertise to support affectional balance, make sound decisions and pass clearly. When leaders prioritize their ain well-being, they create a affirmative situation that fosters trust, collaboration and productivity wrong their teams.

Related: The Thriving Leader: Steps to Mental Wellness and Peak Effectiveness

For this reason, Williams specializes successful facilitating Expressive Arts experiences for leaders and their teams. She believes that erstwhile leaders exemplary vulnerability and creativity, their squad members are inspired to do the same.

In turn, everyone gains much entree to their ain and each other's abilities, insights and possibilities. Understanding each other's experiences and emotions leads to better squad cohesion, spot and a much supportive activity environment, yet driving organizational success.

Williams outlined 3 practices to thief leaders create their skills and heighten their team's wellness done Expressive Arts:

1. Identify your imaginative outlet and group a regular clip for imaginative activities

Start by identifying a imaginative activity that resonates pinch you. This could beryllium thing from painting, writing, aliases playing a philharmonic instrument. The cardinal is to take thing that allows you to definitive yourself freely, whether that involves journaling, doodling aliases keeping an creation journal.

To incorporated Expressive Arts successful your team, dedicate circumstantial times successful your team's schedule for these activities. Regardless of the circumstantial activities aliases timing, consistency is captious for reaping the benefits of imaginative exploration. Williams typically useful pinch teams complete a 6-month period, gathering pinch them for a 3-hour monthly session.

Related: How Entrepreneurial Creativity Leads to Innovation

2. Crystallize caller insights

Engaging successful imaginative processes helps you pat into your subconscious thoughts and emotions. Therefore, aft engaging successful the imaginative activity, it is basal to reserve clip to bespeak connected what was created and what thoughts, emotions and insights it stirred.

This reflection play enables participants to move their entree to the subconscious into deeper, actionable insights into their motivations, strengths and areas for growth. This process tin beryllium greatly enhanced if, pursuing the reflection period, a group chat is held wherever squad members stock their creations and insights gained.

This measurement converts individual acquisition into squad bonding and corporate knowledge, starring to imaginable takeaways. The group speech besides builds empathy and understanding, helping squad members amended admit each other's vulnerabilities and strengths.

Related: How Improving Team Dynamics Boosts Workplace Efficiency

3. Create actionable takeaways

The last measurement is converting the insights gained individually and collectively into actionable goals, strategies and improvement plans. Each squad personnel and the group arsenic a full should person a group of goals and plans, which ensures that the Expressive Arts convention yields substantive outcomes and advancement for the team. This workout besides helps nexus individual maturation pinch master objectives, aligning individual aspirations pinch squad goals and boosting information and performance.

Embedding Expressive Arts practices into your team's regular tin create a dynamic and cohesive activity environment wherever productivity and affectional intelligence thrust capacity and innovation. Additionally, it is important to retrieve that activity is not conscionable astir managing others — it's astir nurturing yourself to lead effectively.

Integrating imaginative practices into your activity regular enhances your self-awareness and affectional intelligence, which are important for individual and squad success. Embrace this holistic attack to leadership, make it a portion of your team's life together, and watch your squad meet and transcend its potential.