The Art of Creative Leadership
I remember standing in my father’s tofu factory as a child, watching him transform simple ingredients into something nourishing through both labor and artistry. Those early lessons in craft and creativity have shaped my understanding of leadership more than any later experience in my professional live ever could.
Leadership, I’ve come to believe, is fundamentally a creative act. When I became president of RISD after years at MIT’s Media Lab, I experienced firsthand the tension between structure and freedom that defines creative environments. Some days I’d find myself thinking: how do you lead people who are trained to question everything?
The answer didn’t come from management textbooks. It came from unexpected places.
I learned from George Clooney, of all people, about reframing failure. Rather than dwelling on mistakes, he simply noted in a Parade article at the time, “Here’s what I won’t do next time.” This small shift in mindset transforms setbacks into stepping stones.
I’ve observed the power of simplicity throughout my career — removing what’s unnecessary to reveal what matters. Good leadership works the same way as in the 10th law: subtracting the obvious and adding the meaningful.
My journey between art, technology, design, and business has taught me that the most innovative thinking happens at these intersections. The creative leader moves comfortably between disciplines, connecting dots others don’t see.
Trust sits at the core of this approach. When I watch a sushi master craft an omakase meal, I’m reminded that sometimes the best leadership means stepping back and trusting expertise. The master doesn’t explain each decision — they demonstrate mastery through confident action. Leadership always requires followership. Over the years I’ve learned to become a good follower to become a better leader.
Emotion matters too. Against conventional wisdom that suggestsleaders should suppress feelings, I’ve found that more emotions — not fewer — enhance leadership. Connecting with your own emotional intelligence helps you connect authentically with others.
The most powerful moments in my leadership journey have come when I’ve embraced ambiguity rather than fought it. Like bubbles rising unexpectedly in champagne, innovation follows patterns we can’t always predict. And they forever change you. Ideally for the better.
I still think about that tofu factory, where my father balanced precision with improvisation every day. Perhaps that’s the essence of creative leadership: knowing when to follow the recipe exactly, and when to create something entirely new.
As my career evolved beyond academia into the business world, I carried these lessons with me. My time at MIT Media Lab taught me to push technological boundaries while remaining human-centered. At RISD, I learned that creative minds require both structure and freedom to thrive.
Today and throughout my various adventures in the business world, I find myself constantly returning to these fundamental principles. The challenges we face now demand creative leadership more than ever. They require leaders who can synthesize disciplines, embrace failure as learning, and foster environments where innovation flourishes.
I’m encouraged these days by seeing a new generation of leaders emerging who instinctively understand this approach. They don’t separate art from technology, emotion from strategy, or creativity from leadership. Instead, they weave these elements together, creating organizations and solutions as innovative as they are human. In their hands, leadership itself becomes an act of creation — and that gives me tremendous hope for our future.
