Are you hearing (creative) voices?

We’re all familiar with the inner critic when it comes to our creative work, but what other sub-conscious voices may be impacting our creativity? I have a theory (influenced by a form of psychotherapy called transactional analysis), that we all have a bunch of internal drives or “voices” vying for our attention in our creative life (an internal dysfunctional family of sorts!).

All these creative voices have a role to play – they’re there for a reason, but frequently they work at cross-purposes creating a sort of chaotic brawl in your head, which isn’t great for your creative mindset, confidence or productivity! As a creativity coach, one of the things I can help people with is to understand their internal creative voices, and help them to play nicely with each other (sort of like family therapy!).

Here’s a quick snapshot of just some the creative voices we have sitting behind the scenes (these are just the main ones – the nuclear family, if you will).

Critic

We all know the inner critic – that loud, judgmental one making you doubt yourself. She’s linked directly with your creative confidence. It’s tempting to dismiss her entirely her, but she actually has an important role to play, and that is to keep you safe. She’s acting on a primitive level where risk equals danger, so she tries to stop you putting yourself in precarious situations (e.g. sharing your work with others where there’s a risk of social rejection).

Unfortunately, she’s not very discriminating, in that she shouts all manner of things at you - both useful critique about your work (e.g. “that paragraph doesn’t sound great - you should move it”), and judgmental, personal comments (“you’re a crap writer – what made you think you could do this!”). Coaching can help you to tune in to her constructive comments and tune out the rest. Once you turn a deaf ear to the negative white noise, you’ll find she’s actually not so bad.

Cheerleader

The opposite role to the Critic is the Cheerleader – that fearless, overly enthusiastic, and carefree voice that tells you that anything’s possible. It’s great to have her positive voice boosting your confidence, proclaiming you’ll be the next Shakespeare or Mozart, but this cheerleader doesn’t spend much time with her feet on the ground, so she’s a little out of touch with reality. Plus her rebellious streak doesn’t care much for your safety, so she’s happy to throw her weight around with little thought for consequences.

Needless to say, Inner Critic and Cheerleader are in constant battle with each other. Like the Inner Critic, her voice matters, but she should only be taken in small doses (plus she can be super annoying at times!), and balanced out with the other voices.

Child

The inner creative Child is a bit all over the place - she can whisper or yell depending on her mood. Like all the voices, your inner creative Child has two sides to her. She can be curious, playful, imaginative and energetic, for example the excited feeling when struck by inspiration, or the bursts of energy you feel when starting a new piece of work. Unfortunately she can also be moody, needy, erratic and egotistical, for example, whining that she doesn’t want to get back to work, or demanding that your partner drop all his prior commitments to pick you up a tube of paint.

There’s different ways to deal with your inner creative Child when she’s cracking it. She can be tricked or bribed into behaving, or you may want to use your inner Competitor to put her in her place.

Competitor

Your inner creative Competitor takes an opposite role to the Child – although both like to play games. Think of your Competitor like a serious athlete. On the plus side, she’s disciplined, focused, organised and hardworking – you get stuff done! She knows exactly what she wants and she’ll do anything to get it, but this level of control comes at a price. This disciplined workaholic can hinder your creative freedom, distance you from other parts of your life, or push you to the point of mental and physical exhaustion. Sometimes the inner Competitor just needs to take a chill pill.

The Competitor-Child interplay is an interesting one. When they’re both at their best, this pairing works really well – your Child helps soften your Competitor’s hard edge, and your Competitor provides the scattered Child with some much needed structure. If these two roles become unbalanced however, things can get messy!

Coach/Counsellor

Your inner Coach is the perhaps the most important role of all because she acts as a central, neutral point between the other voices. Hers is a voice of reason, empathy and objectivity. Think of her like the family therapist working with the dysfunctional family. If your inner Coach is strong, the balance between the other voices will be maintained. She’ll help to bring out their positive sides so they work together, not against each other. If however, your inner Coach is inexperienced or a bit timid, she can easily find herself overwhelmed, and won’t be able to keep the other inner voices in check. At the extreme end this could look like your Competitor coldly dictating to, and attempting to control your Child, who’s flailing around having a massive tanty.

Meanwhile your Cheerleader is running about aimlessly shouting empty motivational phrases (“You can do it – yay!”), and on the sidelines your Inner Critic is on her high horse, looking down on everyone, pointing the finger and shouting insults. Let’s not play this mental game!

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The trick with our creative voices is to listen and acknowledge them all, understand their motivations and differentiate between their constructive and destructive sides. Just like real life family members, we’re stuck with them so we need to learn to live in harmony rather than conflict.

Creativity coaching can help ensure all your voices are heard, understood and their constructive sides developed. Most importantly, creativity coaching can help build up your inner Coach so you can maintain a healthy creative life (and your sanity!).

Bronya Wilkins is a creativity coach and founder of Creative Cocoon, a coaching practice dedicated to helping people connect with their creativity to increase wellbeing and life fulfilment. Bronya is passionate about psychology, self-development, and creative expression. Some of her creative hobbies include dance, graphic design, music composition, and photography. For more about Bronya and Creative Cocoon, visit her website and Facebook page, or follow her on Instagram and Twitter.

How to create art for businesses

In the last post on this series, we covered some basic tips for working on art commissions.

On this post, we’ll discuss in more detail things you can do when working on art commissions for businesses. 

Creating art for businesses is very different from creating commissions for individuals, because there will often be a lot more people involved in the process. Whereas some organisations (such as city councils) regularly commission artists and will have a clear process in place, others have never done so before. Because you might be working with feedback and expectations from a large team of people, communication can be even more challenging. 

Keep in mind some of these tips to help you during the process:

Know who is making decisions and giving you feedback. 

Even if you deal directly with only one individual in the organisation, they will often be the spokesperson for a group of people that all have a say in the artwork. Understand who is involved and what process they use to discuss your work and come to agreements. If someone is passing on the ideas between you and a larger team, do something so that they can be easily presented (such as a PDF explaining your concepts) or try to arrange a meeting to present them yourself. 

Establish your creative context.

You need to understand from the start what they expect from you as an artist and how much your creative input will be valued and listened to. Some businesses will have a designer / creative team, and they might see you as a collaborator on the conceptual phase or merely want you to reproduce their ideas, as well as anything in between those two extremes. If there is an existing creative project in place (such as interior redesign or a rebrand of the company) try to speak to the designers to understand what your creative context is. 

Always understand their brand and who you are creating for.

Even if you have complete creative freedom with your piece, make an effort to understand the company’s brand and values, as well as the audience of your artwork, so that you can sell your ideas. If you have to justify any creative choices, it’ll be much more effective to do so explaining how they are relevant to the company and the people involved with it. 

Make art for the audience, not the boss. 

Inevitably, sometimes you will receive feedback that is based on the personal taste of an authority in the company or the individuals working with you. Although their understanding of the organisation is essential, their personal taste should NOT determine the direction of the artwork. It is essential that the conversations about your piece centres around its audience, whether it's existing customers, prospects or staff. Be prepared to explain your creative decisions and stand your ground on important points. 

Accept that some people will hate it. 

The bigger the business, the smaller the chances that every single person in it will love your work. Do the best art you can in the context of the project and don't worry too much about individual opinions.

Follow Julia on instagram at @artofboth, and at her website artofboth.com. 

Project management for creatives

There are many project management strategies to help you reach your creative project goal and delivery. Here are a few of my tips to keep your creative project moving in the most successful and efficient manner.

Define the project

Before you even start working the creative side of the project, define what you are delivering. This can be done as part of the quoting process, scope out the deliverables with the client so you both have the have the same understanding on what you are delivering and what you are not. This can include milestones and invoices as well as the creative product.

Work out your requirements

Work out what you need to do and complete and what you need your client to supply or confirm. Do this early, give yourself and your client time to collate what is needed and ensure that it is ready for when you need it.

Be systematic

Break your project down into manageable bite sized pieces and tackle it in a logical manner. Have client feedback and approvals at regular intervals and ensure they are having input at each step where it is important.

Make a plan

Map out the entire project, from beginning to end, bite sized piece by bite sized piece and include your clients / stakeholders review and approval times in it. Once you have these written down you know the next steps at any point of the project. There are many project management tools out there that can help with the mapping it out, creating gantt charts etc. Find one that suits you if you want to use one.  

Review your plan regularly

Review your project plan each day as you track through the project, before you get your head stuck into the creative side, take five minutes to review the plan and create the day’s tasks. Your creative project may move and sometimes you need to shift with it and adjust to keep it moving, this can be easier if done daily.

Manage expectations

Continually keep your lines of communications open with your client and stakeholders. Schedule in regular catch ups and send them updates at least once a week. Keeping them in the loop and up to date with progress can help them to feel confident in the delivery and ensure that any unknowns or assumptions are found early.

Avoid scope creep

You don’t ever want to under deliver and it is just as important that you don’t over deliver either. Make sure when you have defined what your project is you keep reviewing your scope and you stick to what you said you’d deliver. If more is required, you have somewhere to refer back to, making sure you have additional budget and time is allocated for the additional deliverable.

Quality, budget and time

It is often said that you can have two out of the three when managing any project. Keep an eye on these three main elements when completing your creative, they are all equally important and can easily slip.

Revisit

Each project is different, each outcome is different. At the end of each project take some time to review what worked and what didn’t. Then apply these learnings to the next project. Then you can spend your time focusing on the best part of each project: the creative work!

Jes is a ‘practical creative’, doing the business in a digital agency, being an artist and an university lecturer. Follow Jes on Instagram.

Learning leadership

In the first two posts within this leadership series, we considered how leadership is a flexible concept that has changed over time, and explored reasons why creative practitioners may be reluctant leaders. This third post discusses how we can learn to be leaders when working in or running creative organisations.

When many of us consider “learning,” we immediately think of courses and programs facilitated by experts in the field. In recent years, there has been an explosion of leadership courses and books, both academic and professional, many of them aimed at those working in the creative sector.

But developmental programs, workshops, and tertiary education can be expensive and, for many in the arts and creative industries, out of reach. While there are professional development grants available from government funders such as the Australian Council for the Arts, they are few and far between, not to mention highly competitive.

How to learn leadership (on the cheap)

What alternatives, then, are there to formal development? Management research shows that on-the-job experience—such as jobs, work-based hardships, and special projects—is the most useful for leadership development. This correlates with my research, which shows that creative workers learn leadership primarily through practice. Importantly, however, it is our collaboration with others that builds the most effective leadership capacity and understanding. When we engage professionally with peers, we participate in a process known as “social learning.” Traditionally, learning was represented as the transfer of knowledge from experienced practitioner to novice learner. Social learning, however, explores how learning relates to the social environment. This approach sees learning as a collective activity, where knowledge is not acquired or passed on from one individual to another, but developed through participation in shared activity. Through collaboration we learn what it is to be a leader within our specific community.

Learning leadership through practice

Even if the most effective way to learn leadership is through social engagement, work, and practice, you can’t just sit back and let leadership "happen." To maximise your capacity to build leadership knowledge, understanding, and skills, you need to be aware of what social learning is and how it can benefit you. Here are a few strategies that might help:

Participate in social learning through professional work or individual creative practice. 

The number one way to learn creative leadership is to collaborate with other practitioners. For some, this comes with the job, working in teams to achieve mutually defined goals. (Yes, all that group work at Uni was for a reason!) If you are a solo practitioner, you can still get involved in collaborative projects in the creative community. Think about joining a co-working space, or getting involved in local groups that provide opportunities to learn from (and share with) your peers. Forums like Creative Women’s Circle are perfect for meeting like-minded people; be proactive and put out the call. Other examples include knitting groups and writing groups that share feedback or evening art sessions. Once in these environments, test out your leadership skills by sharing ideas, exploring group dynamics, and teaching others. You might not recognise it at first, but these environments will give you confidence to lead in more formal settings.

Explore different kinds of leadership and then embrace the style that supports your practice.

A key factor in the development of creative leadership is the ability to lead in a way that aligns with your creative practice. To do this, you must learn about leadership. Observe the leaders around you: the good and the not-so-good. Read books and, if you have a chance to participate in a program, go for it! But observe with a critical eye. Beneficial development expands the idea of leadership and adjusts for personal approaches rather than projecting an idealised set of behaviours.

Create space for personal reflection.

Leadership reflection is the ability to relate theory back to personal experience. Consideration of past experiences may offer new perspectives when coupled with an expanded idea of what leadership looks like. Take the time to consider your role as leader and how it relates to your work and creative practice. Think about key experiences—both positive and negative—and what you learned from them. Consider those around you who are role models and what makes them good at what they do. But refrain from personal judgement, understanding that there is no perfect leader.

Share your leadership stories and learn from others.

Through the sharing and co-construction of stories, and exposure to role models, emerging leaders are exposed to new leadership ideas that take creative leadership from the theoretical to the personal. This means we need to hear a diversity of voices speaking about creative leadership. Moreover, it is important for emerging cultural leaders to be exposed to more than just stories of success from established leaders. Hearing about struggles and failures paints a more realistic picture of what it is like to lead in the creative world. If you can tell your story, do so with gusto.

If you’re an organisational leader, understand your role in developing others.

Lastly, a tip for those who run their own creative organisations or manage others: just because you may not have the resources to send staff on training programs doesn’t mean you cannot contribute to their leadership development. Organisations have the power to create learning through job structure and a focus on learning through experience. In addition, organisational leaders can encourage social learning by creating space for dialogue in meetings, encouraging collaborative work through projects, and through physical workplace design. Developmentally oriented organisations focus on how learning helps achieve organisational goals without having to pay consultants for expensive training programs.

There’s so much more to learning leadership than understanding a set of requisite behaviours that will turn you into the perfect leader. For creative workers, learning leadership involves the melding of creative practice and leadership opportunity in a way that provides a safe, enjoyable space for learning.

Kim Goodwin is an academic researcher and arts manager with a background in leadership, human resources, and career development. Since leaving her corporate career, Kim has focused on building understanding in how creative leaders are developed while working in a variety of arts organisations and academic environments. She can be found on LinkedIn, or follow her on Twitter (@KimAroundTown).

Career change 101: Personal development

Are you thinking about changing careers? Perhaps you’ve been wanting to take up your creative pursuit full time and quit your day job, or maybe you’re taking the leap to start your own business, or doing further study to advance your career in a new direction. Whatever your situation, career change can be a minefield. Once you’ve made the decision to move onto something new, it can be difficult to know to where to start. Should you enrol in a course? Create a website? Ask around for advice and find a mentor? Or should you be networking like crazy to get your foot in the door?

All of these options are important when starting afresh in a new industry, job, or business, and it’s easy to concentrate on the practicalities and neglect to pause and look inward first. But career change, like any major life change, requires cultivating skills that we don’t always think of as relevant to our working lives. So take a look at the steps below before you touch that LinkedIn profile, CV, or website theme.

Reflect on your long-term goals (and not just the career ones)

When at a career crossroads, it can be useful to pause and reflect on the bigger picture of your life. This is your chance to plan your career and work around the life you want to create for yourself. What sort of hours do you hope to work? In what sort of environment would you like to spend your time? How much money do you want/need to earn to keep up your security and lifestyle? How much time would you like to dedicate to your family, social life, and volunteer or “passion projects” outside of work? In other words, it’s a good time to think about what sort of life you want, not just what sort of job/business you want. What is your ideal life, and what sort of working life will help you fulfil this in years to come?

Learn to back yourself

Let’s face it, it can be hard to tune out the voices of criticism when you’ve decided to go against the herd and start something new. There will be plenty of people who try to tell you that you can’t—or shouldn’t—do it. The quicker you learn to shut out those voices, the better. One of the biggest mistakes we all make when initiating a big change is to seek out advice…from anyone who will listen. This invariably leads to a melting pot of opinions that can be confusing at best and discouraging at worst. People project their own fears onto you if they feel threatened by your bravery (because you are taking a brave new step!).

Instead of asking anyone and everyone whether they think you should take the leap and how you should go about it, seek out people you know will champion you. They are the ones you want to hear from; simply tune out the rest. And then concentrate on building your confidence and reminding yourself of your strengths and how they can be applied to your new role.

Cultivate self-discipline

Particularly if you’re looking to leave the world of nine-to-five and pursue your own freelance career or business, you’ll need to recalibrate your working style to ensure you can self-motivate when external deadlines are not present. Even if you’re just looking to move from one industry to another, you’ll need self-discipline to get yourself up to speed on developments in that area, market yourself properly, and get out and meet people who can help you succeed in your new field. Develop a singular focus (eyes on the prize!) and remember why you set out to do this when there are a million other tasks and fun plans vying for your attention.

Get used to being uncomfortable

You probably already know that this career change business is uncomfortable. From the very beginning, even before you’ve made the change, planning to take this sort of leap requires stepping out of your comfort zone. You’ll have to learn new things, develop networks, and put yourself out there in a way you may not have had to do for years (if ever). The good news is that being uncomfortable equals growth, which is exactly what you want: to grow into your new career. Not to mention the fact that once you get comfortable with being uncomfortable, you will find this serves you for years to come as you continue to learn and grow and take on challenges in your new role. Discomfort may not be our preference, but when it comes to creating the career you want, it will be worth it.

Bec Mackey is a writer, teacher, and producer of screen-related things. She uses a decade of experience in the business sides of media and arts to help creative people fund and promote their work in ways that work for them. Bec writes about funding, promotion, creative careers, and life on her website, Brightside Creatives.

The reluctant creative leader

What would you say if someone asked you, “Are you a leader?” Would you stand a bit taller and give an authoritative “Yes!”? Or would you hesitate, not wanting to seem a bit, well, pompous?

For those who work in large organisations, leadership is a hot topic and something staff are expected to aspire toward. The Centre for Workplace Leadership found that sixty percent of the Australian organisations they surveyed offered some form of organisational leadership training. The ability to lead and manage others is not only something employees are prepared for; in many companies, staff are told “we are all leaders” regardless of position or title. Leadership: it’s a vibe.

Is it different, however, for those in the creative sector? Leadership, as outlined in my post published in April, is a fluid concept. We talk about it a lot, but we don’t have a solid idea of what it actually is. With this in mind, do creative practitioners aspire to be leaders?

I’ve spent the past four years talking to creative practitioners about leadership across four states and nine different disciplines, from visual arts to digital design and theatre. The vast majority of those I spoke to were undertaking leadership roles: running organisations, managing staff and volunteers, influencing cultural debate, and representing their communities. However, when I asked them, “Do you consider yourself a leader?” I discovered that their relationships with leadership were complex.

Emerging leaders were often hesitant to embrace the title of “leader.” Some worried that it made them seem “up themselves” (a very Australian concern); others didn’t recognise themselves in the media portrayals of successful leaders.

My research considers how we define ourselves as leaders—not only through our internal thoughts and feelings toward leadership, but also how outside forces shape our leadership identity. Some of them may be familiar to you.

Leaders are often held up as an ideal. “Good” leaders are those who win awards, make a lot of money, inspire praise, and receive attention in the media. Think of the late Steve Jobs, Richard Branson, and even Sophia Amoruso, whose book #Girlboss inspired the new Netflix series of the same name. Emerging leaders have a tendency to compare themselves to these ideals, which are often highly constructed and marketed versions of leadership. We also compare ourselves as leaders with those around us. For those who work in organisations, you may look at your managers and peers and consider your skills, knowledge, and experience in light of theirs. Many creative practioners with whom I spoke saw being a leader as something they were not yet equipped to do. They believed they needed more skills, more experience, more recognition.

But being a leader is also something bestowed upon us by others—for example, by being promoted from team member to team leader, or by having “supervisor” or “manager” added to your job title. Many creative practitioners felt the weight of organisational expectation when it comes to leadership, especially when a new role or organisational progression meant moving away from individual creative practice to the management and organisation of others to achieve creative goals. Creative practitioners often felt comfortable being recognised as a leader in their discipline, but were resistant to the idea of managing other people.

There were also personal identity factors that influenced creative workers’ relationships to leadership. Australians like to see themselves as egalitarian in nature, especially in the arts, and have a tendency to shoot down “tall poppies.” Creative leaders are concerned about remaining humble, wanting to be seen as one of their peers rather than putting their hands up to lead.

Gender is also an inescapable topic when considering leadership. Many of the women I spoke to were uncomfortable calling themselves leaders, while these feelings of inadequacy were less likely to be expressed by their male counterparts. Participants in my study—of both genders—also noted that there is an (incorrect) perception that female leaders in the arts are bitchy, catty, and not supportive of their peers. In a number of sectors, leadership was closely associated with competition. Those in positions of power did not have a sense of generosity toward the development of others; their focus was more often organisational survival and gaining access to scarce resources or opportunities.

The result of all these pressures felt by emerging leaders in the creative sector is that they are less likely to identify personally as leaders. We might ask, “So what?” As long as they keep acting as leaders, as many are, who cares if they don’t proudly wear the “leader” label?

If the next generation of cultural innovators, pioneers, and trailblazers are reticent to call themselves “leaders,” they may also be unwilling to apply for leadership opportunities, development, and positions. Leaders require confidence to reach out and grasp what the future offers.

In addition, Australia needs strong, vocal, creative, and cultural leadership. The economic challenges facing creative industries, cuts to funding and arts education, culture wars—all of these all require leaders in the community to be strong not only for their organisations and individual businesses, but for the sector as a whole.

When a leadership opportunity arises, will you be ready to step up to the challenge? Or are you a reluctant creative leader?

Kim Goodwin is an academic researcher and arts manager with a background in leadership, human resources, and career development. Since leaving her corporate career, Kim has focused on building understanding in how creative leaders are developed while working in a variety of arts organisations and academic environments. She can be found on LinkedIn, or follow her on Twitter (@KimAroundTown).

Your creative personality type

Have you ever wondered how your personality type impacts your creativity? You’ve probably heard of the Myer’s Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)—it’s a widely used psychometric tool for assessing personality. I sometimes use it in my coaching practice to help clients make sense of their personality preferences in the context of their creative lives.

About the MBTI

The MBTI has been used for decades as a tool for enhancing self-awareness and development in business and personal life. It’s based on four dichotomies (pairings) that interact with each other to produce a total of sixteen possible personality types. The preference dichotomies are:

• Introversion (I) vs. Extraversion (E)
• Intuition (N) vs. Sensing (S)
• Thinking (T) vs. Feeling (F)
• Perceiving (P) vs. Judging (J)

A person’s preferences will fall on one side of each dichotomy; across the four pairings this results in a “type.” For example, my type is an INFJ: Introversion/Intuition/Feeling/Judging.

While the complexity of personality can’t be explained by any single assessment, and there are some validity issues with the MBTI, I still find it a useful tool if the results are considered within a broader life context. In my experience, the MBTI genuinely helps people make greater sense of how they interact with the world and how they perceive and process information.

How does your type impact your creativity?

The realm of creativity isn’t “owned” by any one type, although some preferences may help or hinder creativity in different ways. Let’s explore some of these below.

Introversion (I) vs. Extraversion (E)

Contrary to popular belief, “introvert” doesn’t refer to a quiet, shy wallflower, but instead a person who recharges and gains energy from time alone, regardless of how outgoing or friendly she is.

When it comes to building a dedicated creative practice—something that requires a lot of focused, solitary time—introverts may have a head start. The challenge for creative extraverts is to balance social and creative time to meet both needs. Conversely, when it comes to promoting one’s creativity, extraverts’ social ease and larger networks offer more opportunities for connecting with potential collaborators and supporters, a task introverts often find daunting.

Tips:

• If you’re an extrovert, determine how much time per week to spend on your creativity and block it out in your calendar, so social events don’t creep in over the top.
• If you’re an introvert, learn ways to promote your creative practice that are more aligned with introversion, such as blogging. Also, challenge yourself to get out there as the face of your practice.

Intuition (N) vs. Sensing (S) T

he N/S dichotomy describes how we perceive and gather information. People with N preferences are described as big-picture people, abstract thinkers, people who make gut decisions. S people are more concrete and focus on details, data, and evidence; they are the “seeing is believing” type of people.

When it comes to artistic creativity, Ns are all about the expression of ideas, while Ss tend to focus on execution and craftsmanship. In coaching, N clients often need guidance with choosing ideas and implementing them consistently, whereas Ss need more help thinking “outside of the box” and “connecting the dots.”

Tips:

• If you’re an intuitive person, remember that sometimes, the devil is in the details. You may have a great idea, but if it’s executed poorly then will it be appreciated? Take time to learn your craft and hone your technique.
• If you’re a sensing person, be sure to regularly expose yourself to new and interesting people, places, and events to feed your senses and expand your creative ideas.

Thinking (T) vs. Feeling (F) Thinkers make decisions based on logic and facts, as opposed to feelers, who tend to decide based on feelings and perceived impacts on other people.

Because feelers perceive their art as extensions of themselves, they often get caught up in beliefs of how the world will perceive them, which can lead to fear, self-doubt, and creative blocks. Thinkers, on the other hand, tend to dissociate a little from their work and treat it like a project to be delivered, rather than an aspect of themselves. This emotional distance may make it difficult to connect with audiences—something that comes far more naturally to feelers, who are in tune with themselves and the feelings and drives of others.

Tips:

• If you’re a thinker, consider the impact your creativity and work have on other people—asking them is a good start! When sharing your work, notice how people respond to it and use that knowledge in your future projects.
• If you’re a feeler, remind yourself that creative failure doesn’t equal human failure. We all need mistakes and failures to learn and grow. Creating a bit of psychological distance between yourself and a creative work can be healthy.

Perceiving (P) vs. Judging (J) Another common misconception is the J label, which doesn’t mean that a person is judgmental. Instead, “judging” refers to the preference for closure, certainty, and organisation. Perceiving, at the opposite end, is a preference for flexibility, open-endedness, and spontaneity.

When implementing creative projects, judgers prefer a structured approach; they set goals, manage timeframes, and follow through to closure. Perceivers, on the other hand, often feel confined by plans. They tend to procrastinate and go off on tangents (albeit sometimes very interesting ones!), which can lead to half-finished projects. Because judgers are so focused on following through, however, they often fail to notice (or even dismiss) opportunities that open up along the way but feel disruptive to the original plan. Perceivers, on the other hand, are quick to recognise new sources of inspiration and information—and take advantage of them.

Tips:

• If you are a perceiver, keep in mind that while it’d be nice to use all your ideas, is it actually doable? Figure out your best ideas, focus on one thing at a time, and follow through even when you’re tempted to jump ship. Hire a coach or get a friend to support you in reaching your milestones.
• If you’re a judger, remember the John Lennon quote, “Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans.” The best plan in the world doesn’t make a project a success, so learn to tolerate more uncertainty and take advantage of new opportunities.

Creative self-development and the MBTI When developing your creative self, it’s sometimes useful to tap into one of your preferences more deeply. Other times, it’s beneficial to challenge them and try the opposite. For example, on the J/P dichotomy, I’m very strongly a J. This is great when working solo, because I know how to balance my need for structure with idea exploration, but when collaborating with others my judging tendency can stifle the creative process. I’ve learnt over time to let go and step in as the structure queen only when necessary.

What next?

• Take the MBTI
• Consider whether you’re taking full advantage of your preferences. Tap into the preferences that are working well for your creativity.
• Think about where your preferences are holding you back. Be brave and challenge yourself to move out of your comfort zone.

Bronya Wilkins is a creativity coach and founder of Creative Cocoon, a coaching practice dedicated to helping people connect with their creativity. Bronya is passionate about psychology, self-development, and creative expression. Some of her hobbies include dance, graphic design, music composition, and photography. You can find her Facebook and Twitter, or follow her on Instagram (@creativecocoon).