Should you trademark your business name?: Brand protection tips for creatives

This week we’re introducing a new regular column for 2018, focused on legal issues for creatives. To kick things off, let's take a look at trademarks.

Why trademark your business name?

Trademarking your business name can help ensure your customers identify your product or service as unique, and ensure your business is – and remains – distinguishable from all others. You can trademark your business name on a national and/or international level, after considering whether your business will operate locally, nationally or globally.

The pros

The benefits of registering your business name as a trademark include:

• Protection of your name against imposters and copycats

• A secure brand on social media. Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter and other social media venues have policies in place to protect you against abuse.

• Trademarks are easy to renew.

• Trademarks build brand loyalty and may even evoke pride in employees.

• Trademarks can safeguard against cybersquatting (domain names that are identical or similar to your trademarked name).

A business name alone does not give you exclusive trading rights or ownership over that name. A trademarked business name can be extremely useful as a marketing tool; it gives your business an identity, or brand. You will have ownership and exclusive rights to the commercial use, license or sale of your business name as a trademark. No one else in Australia will be able to commercially use your business name within the class of goods and services it is registered under. It will carry intellectual property protection and you may use the trademark symbol (a capital R enclosed in a circle) following your business name, alerting others that your business name is a registered trademark. This can help build the value of your business, and the trademark may hold value in itself. If another trader tries to pass off her own product or service using your trademark, it will be an offence under the Competition and Consumer Act 2010.

It’s possible to protect your business name as a trademark without registering it, if your business has been using it for a sufficient period of time and has built up a significant reputation. However, in the long run, protecting a trademark without the benefit of registration is likely to be much more difficult and expensive.

New businesses registering their business names will be alerted to your trademark when they use IP Australia’s TM Check to ensure they do not infringe on an existing registered trademark.

The cons

The negative aspects of registering your business name as a trademark include the hassle of dealing with government agencies, the time it takes to jump through legislative hoops and the cost—which is not large, but not insignificant either.

How to register

To register your business name as a trademark, use the Australian Government IP Australia online services. You’ll be offered different cost structures depending on whether you use the TM Headstart service or the Standard filing service; application costs range from $130 to $480 per ‘class’. The ‘class’ refers to the category of goods and services, which are divided into forty-five classes. To discern which class/es you need to register your trademark under, think about the exact nature of your business and consider the following:

• Where do you derive your business income?

• What is the nature of your business?

• What are you known for by your customers/clients?

• What products or services does your business provide?

Once your trademark application is approved, there is no further cost to register the trademark.

It takes three to four months for IP Australia to examine your trademark application and ensure that it meets legislative requirements, is under the correct class and so on. Refunds are not given for errors, so it is important to get the application perfect the first time around. You might save time, energy and money by engaging a lawyer to do the application on your behalf; if you are moving your business to a global platform, a lawyer’s advice on trademarking overseas will be indispensible.

Once your trademark application meets all requirements, it will be registered and you will be notified in writing.

Maintaining your trademark

If you do decide to trademark your business name, you must actively use it in the course of trade. If you do not use it, the trademark can be removed on the grounds of non-use. (Trademarks are not allowed to be registered to simply stop other traders from using them.)

Once registered, your trademark remains for ten years from the filing date. You can renew your trademark from twelve months before the renewal is due, or up to six months after. Current on-time online renewal fees are $400 per class, however there will be extra fees if you renew after the due date.

Weighing up the pros and cons

Overall, trademarking your business name is usually worth the time, effort and cost. It ensures the business you have built will remain solid and hold its reputation for the long term, and you won’t need to change your name or branding down the track.

Jessica Kerr is the director of Sinclair + May, a female-led, boutique commercial law firm that works extensively with the creative industry. Jessica set up Sinclair + May with a view to do law differently and make legal services accessible for small businesses. You can follow Jessica on Instagram for useful legal tips or visit Sinclair + May at sinclairmay.com.au.

Photo by pixabay.com

Better the devil you know: A pre-Halloween reflection on our creative demons

Halloween is just around the corner and I’m a big fan. Yes, the dressing up is fun, but it’s more than that—it serves to remind us that humans need outlets for our darker, distorted and dangerous sides. On October 31st, society gives us permission to show (albeit in a non-threatening, theatrical way) the parts of ourselves not usually let out to play in nice company.

When it comes to our creativity, it’s no different. We’re encouraged to focus on the “good” parts of our creative process, products and mindset and lock up our less socially acceptable feelings and responses away in dark cupboards. Door shut…end of story. Well, not quite. “Therapy 101” tells us that when they’re all locked up together, these nasties fester away and leak out through the cracks. 

As a creativity coach, I hear a lot about people’s creativity monsters (although they rarely recognise them as such), and I’ve come to realise that the best way to defeat them is to identify and understand them—as they say, “better the devil you know.”

Meet Your Monsters

What creativity monsters are hiding under your bed? Here are some of the usual culprits who try to wreak havoc on our creative success. 

Madam Fear, the Shape-shifter
This lady’s the leader of the gang and controls all the other monsters. She’s the ultimate shape-shifter and is super sneaky and hard to spot because she can look like any number of things. In your creative life, she often shows up as “bad stuff,” like procrastination, laziness, severe self-criticism, overthinking, controlling, denial, arrogance, perfectionism or addiction. At other times, she’ll morph into what seems like one of the “good guys”: virtuosity, sacrifice for others, martyrdom, and so on. But beware! These disguises are devious techniques designed to distract you from connecting with your creativity. Madame Fear cannot be vanquished, so you’ll have to get used to her presence…but her power greatly diminishes when you identify her and call her out on her tricks.

The Anger Banshee
Someone’s taken credit for your work? A gallery’s ripped you off? Your laptop was stolen and it had the only copy of your manuscript? You’ll probably be visited by the Anger Banshee. Unlike Madam Fear, there’s no mistaking this wild woman. You’ll recognise her the minute she enters the room because she screams in your ear and smacks you in the chest, leaving your pulse racing and your adrenaline pumping. If you stand your ground and don’t let her take over, however, she can actually be helpful because she reveals your values, limits and boundaries. 

The Evil Jealousy Fairy
When you hear yourself thinking, “Isn’t Jane doing well with her business….why can’t I be more like her?” or “Why is Rachel getting noticed….my work is so much better than hers,” then you know the Evil Jealousy Fairy has come to play the comparison game. Her seemingly innocent whisperings in your ear are far from harmless because she never strays far from her mistress, Madam Fear (who’ll be creeping up behind you dressed as self-doubt and criticism). This insidious little imp is tricky to spot, but when you do, question her motives directly—she hates being confronted, and will quickly back down.  Enough direct contact and this nasty little nymph can be transformed into a good fairy, supporting and guiding you instead of carrying out constant comparisons.

The Pain Zombie
Like the Anger Banshee, the Pain Zombie is also hard to miss; she’s not the most subtle of creatures. The Pain Zombie will shuffle (surprisingly quickly) into your life when you’ve experienced trauma or loss of some kind. It’s very difficult to ignore all her moaning and groaning and get on with the business of your creativity when it feels like parts of you are missing. As much as you’d like to, the Pain Zombie cannot be ignored. Gentle understanding, self-care and time is the way to help heal her broken body and soul and return to life and creativity. 

The Guilt and Shame Ghost
This eerie spectre feeds on your past disappointments, regrets and mistakes. While she prefers to stay in the background, she occasionally comes out to rattle her bones and wail “Ooooooohhhhhhh” at your attempts to succeed creatively in the present and plan a creative future. She likes to remind you of past failures, and spooks you into thinking you’re future is chained down by these. Well, it’s not. As soon as you accept your skeletons in the closet for what they are (dusty old decaying remnants), then the Guilt and Shame Ghost loses her power. Let her howl away in the corner, but don’t let her haunt your dreams.

Manage Your Monsters

It’s tempting to keep the lid of our own Pandora’s Box firmly closed, but by doing this, we’re denying valid parts of ourselves that are crying out to be heard, and in turn denying ourselves opportunities to grow creatively. Any of your monsters have the power to shut down you down creatively; it’s up to you whether or not you let them do so. Here are some tricks (and treats…sorry, couldn’t resist!) to help you befriend the beasts.

Identify: As soon as you feel “badly” about your creativity, try to identify which monster(s) have come out to play.   

Understand: Notice how this monster manifests itself in your creative life. What types of behaviours does it trigger in you? Are these behaviours helpful or harmful for your creativity and yourself? Are there specific people, places or situations where the monster is more likely to turn up? Consider what purpose the monster serves; are the reasons rational or ridiculous?

Acknowledge: Allow the monster to exist…but stare it down, severely reprimand it and send it to the naughty corner, where it can watch you paint or write or sing while it sulks to its empty heart’s content.

Self-care: Look after yourself. Creativity monsters feed off fatigue and neglect and grow weaker when you take time to nurture and centre yourself. You know what to do… exercise, sleep, healthy food, social support, mindfulness and creative play time.

Here are some more resources to help you manage your monsters:
▪      The Artist’s Way, by Julia Cameron
▪      Fearless Creating, by Eric Maisel
▪      The War of Art, by Steven Pressfield
▪      Living with a Creative Mind, by Jeff and Julie Crabtree
▪      Mindfulness for Creativity, by Dr. Danny Penman

Happy Halloween!

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.

Leading creative organisations

Over the course of this series on creative leadership we have focussed the discussion largely on individual leaders, while acknowledging that you can’t have a leader without a follower. For this last post, it’s worth taking a look at leadership within creative organisations, the traits that make them distinct and the best strategies to effectively lead them to success.

Most research into leadership and management in organisations is conducted in large corporate workplaces. This happens for a variety of reasons: big profit-driven organisations have the money to do research and the motivation to determine how leaders impact performance measures like shareholder value, and are large enough to undertake research of significant size and anonymity.

A significant portion of creative workers, however, do not conduct their business in large-scale companies. Research into the Australian creative industries from the census and other industry sources show that around 13 percent of those in the cultural sector are sole traders, compared to 6 percent in the broader economy. There are approximately 123,000 creative businesses in Australia; 98 percent of these employ less than twenty staff and have a turnover of less than $200,000 annually.

If creative businesses are largely small-scale and tight on resources, how does this impact the role of creative organisational leaders?

We typically associate leadership with positions of authority, what is known as headship. Those who are managers, owners, founders and directors are generally recognised as leaders by those around them. Research has shown, however, that leadership does not necessarily equate to managerial position and, importantly, those who do not have a role function that includes leading people can still display the characteristics, and exert the influence, of leaders. Creative leadership, despite our preconceptions of it as a hierarchical construct, is often more distributed in nature.

In the reality of creative occupations, leadership is more likely to be associated with influence than organisational power. To get things done as a small business operator or sole trader, a leader needs to clearly articulate her creative vision, build relationships, communicate needs and outcomes, and effectively and encourage others to support her goals.

This distributed—or relational—idea of leadership actually aligns with the current understanding of creativity. Whereas historically, creativity was associated with individual talent, something only a lucky few were born with, it is now recognised as existing in the spaces between people. It is a process that is fostered and enhanced in the sharing of collaborative ideas. Thinking about leadership has travelled along a similar path. We no longer ascribe to the “Great Man” theories of the past, in which leaders are born with inherent traits that lead to their positions in society. Leadership is rather a collective process enacted by many.

Research shows that creative leaders are comfortable with the visionary aspects of leadership. Perhaps unsurprisingly, creative leaders are good at crafting narratives and communicating their stories to others. What they are less comfortable with, however, is the ‘people side’ of leadership, the area where it overlaps with management. Many creative leaders struggle with the idea of working through others, delegating instead of being a one-man band. This reluctance or inability to share responsibility means that creative organisations may fail to grow, and those who work with such leaders may fail to develop their own skills.

What can be done to develop operational management in creative organisations?

I hate to put my ex-HR hat on here, but a bit of structure wouldn’t go astray. One creative leader told me that in her job description (she had one!), point number 16 was “Manage team and HR.” This shows how far down building and developing a successful team lay in her company’s list of priorities.

The solution to these problems doesn’t have to be overly burdensome. If you are a leader of staff (or volunteers), you need to give their management and development some thought. To start with, ensure all staff understand the strategic aims of the business and, crucially, what roles they play in the achievement of those aims. Second, all staff need accurate, up-to-date job descriptions that include not only their required tasks and priorities, but the skills required to do them. Third, using job descriptions as a basis, have a discussion about staff performance and development. Does your team have all the skills necessary to do the job? If not, what can you do together to develop those skills (projects, research, on-the-job experience in addition to learning options)? If they are performing well in the job, what’s next? How can you provide stretch in their roles?

The common theme in the above activities is conversation. Take the time, regularly, to talk to your team about their role and development, not just the work of the day. Step away from the activity at hand to discuss their performance, find out how they are doing and ask if they need support. Staff perform best with a clear understanding of what is required of them and how it fits into the bigger organisational picture, regular feedback, and leadership that recognises their input and development.

By focussing more on staff, or followers, your organisation will not only flourish, but you will become a better leader. A true win/win situation.

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).

Time management for creatives

It is so easy to get swept up in what you are doing, losing track of time whilst you’re creatively busying away. Try these time management tips to see if you can become more productive and efficient and make the most of your workday.

Schedule

Before you get stuck in what you are creating, use the first thirty minutes of each day to plan which tasks you need to complete and briefly review the rest of the week ahead. Give yourself a break every 90 minutes to refresh your brain and keep yourself going.

Positive task lists

Write each task in your to-do list in the past tense, as if you’ve already done it. So instead of ‘Design research and concepts,’ call it ‘Research and concepts submitted.’ Help yourself succeed before you start. Think about each task you’re about to begin and work out what you want to achieve in the set timeframe. At the end of each task, review it to see if the desired result was achieved.

Priority order

Group related tasks together and do the most important tasks first. The most important thing might not be the most enjoyable, but that isn’t how you are prioritising the list. Try doing this first thing in the morning, when most of us are the most productive.

Time limit

Put a time limit on your tasks, giving yourself a maximum of 90 minutes to solidly work on each one at a time. If you work longer, make sure you have a break every 90 minutes. Setting constraints will make you more focused and, hopefully, more efficient.

Avoid distractions

Focus completely on the task at hand and train yourself to ignore distractions. Practice not answering the phone or emails. Turn them off and focus. If people are coming up to you, send a ‘do not disturb’ signal by putting on headphones, posting a sign, or going into a different room.

Use your calendar

A calendar isn’t just for scheduling meetings. Put in your deadlines and blocks of time to focus on certain tasks. Take responsibility for each hour of your day by scheduling what you need to do where and when, then follow it. Even if you don’t feel like doing it at that allocated time, just start it and follow your plan.

Be early

Approach your deadlines by planning to complete and submit the creative at least a day early. Put yourself ahead before you even begin.

Emails

Don’t spend ages sifting through emails. Speed up your communications by having your inbox organised. File messages into folders that suit you—such as by clients’ names, ‘urgent,’ ‘needs action,’ ‘complete,’ and so on. If you’re using Gmail, try installing Boomerang, which enables you to write emails in advance and schedule them to be sent at a later date. You can also put a hold on emails coming in whilst you’re working so you don’t get distracted.

Do less

Only do what is important; don’t focus on unimportant details. Don’t try and multitask, just do one thing at a time.

Move

Keep your body moving. You don’t have to be a gym junkie—it can be as easy as going for a walk or taking the stairs instead of the lift. Not only does movement clear your head and enable you to focus, but studies have also linked a healthy lifestyle to better work productivity.

Jes is a ‘practical creative,’ managing the business end of a digital agency and working as an artist and university lecturer. Follow Jes on Instagram (@paper_chap).

How to make the most of the holiday season

I’ll let you in on a secret. Every December, I write a business preparation checklist on an A4 piece of paper and stick it into my brand new diary. I tape it in around the October section so I can remember the lessons I learnt this season to be as prepared as possible for the next holiday season. Future Christina is always thankful that I take the time to do this. As a jeweller, the last three months of the year are my busiest, and account for the largest percentage of my earnings. Most small businesses see a rise in sales in the lead-up to Christmas. Being disorganised at this time of year leads to missed opportunities, negative word of mouth and worst still, loss of sales. Managing your time, cash flow, stock and production for the holiday season really begins in January. But fear not! Here's what you can do right now to make the most of the holiday season and be better prepared for next year. Your future self will thank you!

Holiday season business prep checklist

Stocktake consumables: Make a list of the items and packaging you will need between now and the new year. Include everything, then overestimate how much you will need of each item and start stocking up as cash flow allows. For my business, this includes mailers, packaging, business cards, stickers, ribbon, metal, drills, emery, flux and wrapping paper. Most supply businesses shut down before Christmas and open again mid-January. Rushing to order branded gift boxes or ribbon at the last minute is not only stressful, but is time better spent working on revenue earning tasks. Buying in bulk will also save you money with lower prices and postage costs.

Restock your shop: Stock up on all the product offerings you will continue to sell in the new year. For me, this means ordering metal, gemstones and castings, then turning these into products to fill my safe. It can be hard to know which products will be the best sellers during the holidays, but keep in mind that price points between twenty and ninety dollars do well. In my business, earrings sell well as they don’t require resizing like rings do. Review your best sellers for the year and make predictions based on these numbers. Stock up on any items you will be promoting.

Organise a photo shoot: While you are stocking up on products and consumables, stock up on images as well. If you are producing high-quality items, you need high-quality visuals to represent your brand. Consumers are bombarded by images and have higher expectations than they used to. Take the time to plan a Christmas-themed photo shoot with images that will stop your clients mid-scroll. What will your theme be? What will be the focus of your Christmas marketing promotion? Create a Pinterest board of inspiration, gather your props, secure a model or friend, get out your camera or hire a photographer and set aside a few hours to style and shoot your products. If you can aim for thirty images, you will have a library to use across all your platforms in the lead up to Christmas. Use free online editing software like Canva to create Facebook, blog, newsletter and shop headers and save them to a file for Christmas branding. Then these will all be ready to go on December 1st, or whenever you choose to start your Christmas promotions.

Organise a holiday-themed photo shoot for your products

Schedule social media: Once you have the images ready, draft blog posts and newsletters and use scheduling apps to plan your social media. When things get busy, social media is often the first thing we stop paying attention to, but is a huge revenue earner at this time of year. I use Dropbox and Mosaico for this. I can then upload every edited image from the shoot, write a caption, create a list of tags and post to a twice-daily schedule on Instagram.

Review your online presence: Check that your product descriptions are up to date, re-read your policies, check for continuity in your branding. Are you using the same profile image across all social media? Send a dummy email from your contact page to confirm there are no broken links. You don’t want to miss customer inquiries, or confuse customers across platforms with mixed branding.

Promote yourself: Start planning and promoting. How will you reach out to prior customers? How will you engage with new customers? What offers will you use to entice customers to purchase now, rather than putting it off? For my business, I print postcards using an image from my Christmas shoot, hand-write a thank-you note and send it on the 1st of December to every customer I had that year, offering them a ten percent discount online. This is the only discounting I do, as I feel discounting is the death of small business, and value adding (for example, offering a free polishing cloth with an order) is a more sustainable practice. I also create limited numbers of lower-price pieces that include postage and offer them exclusively for sale on Instagram. The limited number, price point and time sensitivity mean they sell quickly. I also offer free upgrades to express shipping as my mailing cut-off approaches.

Set cut-offs: I like to sell up to the last possible moment, but knowing when your cut-off dates are is crucial to ensure you can deliver on your promises. Look at your calendar and write down the last possible dates you can mail products to clients overseas, interstate and with Express Post (keeping in mind that even next-day delivery takes two days in many places in Australia). If you sell your goods wholesale, you will also need to advise your retailers of your wholesale order cut-off date. If they place an order mid-December, will you realistically be able to fill it and keep up with your online sales? I tend to make my wholesale cut-off mid-November, but stay as flexible as I can to serve my retailers right up until Christmas. If you create custom work, you will need another cut-off date. In my industry, client work can involve several different processes, from casting to engraving, handmaking to gem setting, and each of these suppliers are likely stretched to capacity. Jobs that can usually be done in one day take a week at this time of year. Start educating your clients about these cut-offs so you get a manageable flow of orders rather than a flood at the last minute. Keep reminding customers of your cut off dates: include them in your newsletters, on your website and again on social media.

Relax: Schedule time for family, friends and social activities this holiday season. By following the checklist above, you will have more time to spend enjoying the season, not just working through it.

Christina Lowry is a designer and jeweller who creates fine jewellery for creatives. Her work is featured in several Australian galleries, as well as in her online store. Christina fell in love with jewellery making while studying a Bachelor of Fine Art/Visual Art. Each piece is lovingly made by hand in her Brisbane workshop, incorporating precious metals and gemstones and using traditional metalworking techniques. To see more of her work, visit her website, Facebook page, and follow her on Instagram (@christinalowrydesigns).

Photography by Trudi Le Brese Photography for Christina Lowry Designs           

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).