The SFLC Monthly Newsletter

Creative Leadership
Greg Papay, FAIA, Lake/Flato Architects

Francis Parker School by Lake/Flato

(Greg Papay was our keynote speaker at the April Santa Fe Seminar. His contribution below is based on his remarks. Greg is a partner with Lake/Flato Architects in San Antonio, TX and has been the lead architect on a number of building projects at schools including Francis Parker School in San Diego, CA and Cranbrook School in MI).

One of the 20th century's great architects, Louis Kahn, once remarked about distinguished architectural works, "Architecture begins in the immeasurable, proceeds through the measurable, and then returns to the immeasurable." He was describing how great architecture begins in the design process with the intuitive and the artful, evolves during the drawing and construction phases with the scientific and demonstrable, and returns to impact its constituents in emotional ways.

If we abstract that concept to leadership we can say that an act of leadership starts as an passion in the soul, achieves some realization through the mind, and returns as a transcendent feeling in the heart. So leaders then must be creators, enablers, and perpetuators if they are to imagine, inspire, and continue in a purposeful way. So let's establish three postulates and take a quick look at each:

Leadership is a creative act.
Leadership is an enabling act.
Leadership is a perpetuating act.

Leadership is a Creative Act
Leadership requires vision, foresight, and the creative ability to imagine positive future outcomes and design ways to get there. Leaders must envision the final product and also the process by which to achieve it. That creativity requires courage, as leaders are frequently heading in an imagined direction but along an unformed path.

We certainly would all love Apple's, Mercedes', Ritz Carlton's, or even Stanford's resources to prototype processes or products before implementing them, but the reality is the vast majority of us are not afforded that opportunity. We must use mental prototyping, which is a fancy way for saying we must use creativity to propose steps and solutions. Luckily, if we think of leadership as a creative act, one that requires design, it implies there is no single correct process or outcome but there are many possible paths and desired solutions. As leaders then, as a necessity, we must use our creativity to frame or reframe issues, see strength where others see deficiency, and maximize the impact of the resources we have.

So leadership requires creativity because it asks us to feel, imagine, and envision long before we can substantiate with results.

Leadership is an Enabling Act
William Ward once wrote of teachers, "The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires." We can think of leadership the same way and if we aggregate those thoughts we can say that leaders enable.

To enable someone requires an understanding of purpose, both the purpose of a particular project and the driving purpose of an individual. Daniel Pink has recently addressed purpose as one of the main motivators for individuals, together with mastery and autonomy (I'd like to say autonomy in some situations, interdependence in many more.) With these dual purposes understood a leader can piece together the resources necessary to enable someone to achieve goals and satisfy purposes.

Sometimes enabling requires the approach of inspiring and mentoring, which are abstract concepts that establish broad, philosophical understandings. Others times it takes the shape of demonstrating and explaining and is thus more didactic. But in all situations it requires time and caring for the individual and the cause. So leaders must be natural givers, people who derive joy simply from giving of themselves, from the treasury of their heart, mind, and time.

Leadership is a Perpetuating Act
When Lake|Flato won the American Institute of Architects Firm Award in 2004, we were tasked to address a crowd of over 1,000 at the awards banquet in National Building Museum in Washington DC. Our founding partners spoke eloquently about our clients, our work, and thanked many who had enabled our success. However the part I remember most vividly was when they said that greater than any structure we had built was the firm we had created together, and how they hoped that it would live on beyond their time in our office.

Leaders seek to perpetuate leadership. They see its impact, know its value, and understand that there is greater satisfaction to be part of its continuum than to exist in isolation. This requires a certain relentlessness on the part of leaders as there are typically many forces aligned to pull opposite. And it requires an attitude of stewardship - leaders caretake leadership and pass it to ensuing generations in greater health than how they inherited it.

Conclusion
Carla, Gary, and Tim's work with the Santa Fe Leadership Center creates wonderful groups of opportunity. Those who have attended - and will attend - the Santa Fe Leadership Center have such ability to exhibit and enable leadership as their gift in return. We can all have 'The Touch of the Master's Hand'(1) in our everyday lives if we imagine ourselves as creators, enablers, and perpetuators of leadership.

(1) 'The Touch of the Master's Hand' is a wonderful poem by Myra Brooks Welch.