Leading Beyond Limits: Cultivating Creativity

In this episode of Leading Beyond Limits: Cultivating Creativity, Meri Williams joins me to discuss being an inclusive tech leader, leveraging risk to unlock creativity, and how to redesign your leadership role and team for greater impact and enjoyment.  Meri Williams is an experienced CTO and technology leader. She particularly enjoys helping others to level up as technical leaders and managers of organisations, and works as a CTO coach and tech advisor to various companies in this capacity through micro-consultancy ChromeRose. She has led teams that scale in size from 30 to 300, in a range of organisations from Procter & Gamble, to the Government Digital Service, award-winning online print company MOO, mobile-first challenger bank Monzo and patient-inspired AI-driven rare disease treatment discovery company Healx, amongst others. A published author and international speaker, she is the chair of The Lead Developer conference, and a tech advisor for Kindred Capital. She’s also a trustee at Stonewall, the UK’s leading LGBTQ+ rights charity, and together with her wife runs micro-charity One Goes Up to help young women & enby folks pursue STEM education & careers. 3:05 You’ll hear how reflecting on your role, staying curious, identifying what you love doing versus what to partner on with others to leverage their strengths, and how redesigning your role can reduce your stress and increase your impact as a leader. 10:33 You’ll learn how Meri got involved with Lead Dev, the power of soft skills, and how those skills can be cultivated and grown. 12:45 You’ll hear about the power of networking and serendipity in regards to collaboration and opportunity.  13:20 You’ll hear about middle managers as a force multiplier and the cost to productivity, innovation, and creativity of treating people poorly. 20:10 You’ll hear about how staying agile in order to design for change and leveraging experimentation as a propellant for change can also enable creativity and fun. 23:23 You’ll hear how to model and address risks in the context of business continuity in order to unlock creativity and problem solving.  Links mentioned in this episode: shawncarneycoaching.com Slack: Getting Past Burnout, Busywork, and the Myth of Total Efficiency Pleo Lead Dev Chrome Rose Where can you find more? For more information about Shawn Carney Coaching, the podcast, and ways to support, check out the website www.shawncarneycoaching.com and subscribe on YouTube, Spotify, Apple, Amazon, Google, or using your favorite RSS app. You can also support the podcast with ratings, kind words, and by sharing with others.Find Shawn on LinkedIn or Instagram Find Meri on X, Instagram, and LinkedIn 

Leadership is about being in service of others, your customers, your employees, your communities, your partners, your stakeholders, and your shareholders. The level of complexity in the world requires creativity in how we navigate uncertainties, identify challenges and opportunities, and create innovative products and services that meet ever-changing conditions and needs, disrupt the market status quo, and delight the customer. To achieve all of this, creativity isn’t a nice-to-have, it’s a must-have. It's not just about artistic expression; creativity is a powerful force that can propel innovative thinking, out-of-the-box problem-solving, and visionary direction. So, how can you cultivate creativity for yourself and your teams? In this podcast, Leading beyond limits: Cultivating creativity, we talk with leaders from different industries and company sizes, solo entrepreneurs, managers, and CEOs in order to offer tactical strategies to help you tap into your creative potential and inspire your teams to do so as well. If you’re looking to create an impact, to make a difference that matters, to set yourself apart from the crowd, to inspire those around you to greatness, then you’re in the right place. Subscribe, embrace your inner creativity, and watch as it transforms not only your leadership but also the world around you.