Leading Is Creating

Leaders create that which does not yet exist. Yet leaders need not be creative to create.

Creating is to take action to change reality. It is to bring something into being. What is created may not be unique. Creativity usually refers to originality. But to create something does not require that the creation be something that has never been done before. To create is to simply bring something into existence within a time and place in which that something did not before exist.

Differentiating between creating and creativity can encourage individuals to lead. Leading does not require originality. The leader does not have to invent something that has never been done before. What the leader does is originate something within a particular context. What the leader implements may have been done elsewhere but not in the time and place in which the leader is currently operating. This frees leaders to learn from others in other places and from other times. Leaders need not reinvent the wheel; they simply apply the wheel where it has not been used before.