Part 3: 6 Practical Strategies for Creative Leadership

6 Practical Perspective-Taking Strategies for Leaders

To bridge individual triggers and team outcomes—and keep creativity alive under pressure—leaders can practice these strategies:

1. Surface your assumptions

   • Pause before acting: “What assumptions am I making?” Interrupt automatic thinking.

2. Seek feedback from a different perspective

   • Ask someone who may disagree: “What do you notice about how I approach this?”

3. Adopt multiple stakeholder viewpoints

   • Imagine the problem from clients, teammates, or other stakeholders to uncover unseen consequences and spark creative solutions.

4. Psychological distancing / fly-on-the-wall view

   • Observe yourself from a third-person perspective during meetings or decisions to slow reactivity and increase self-awareness.

5. Reframe and explore “what if” scenarios

   • Consider extreme, unusual, or opposite perspectives to expand thinking and interrupt habitual patterns.

6. Reframe stressors as challenges, not threats

   • Label stressful situations as learning opportunities to reduce fear-based narrowing of attention and enable creative thinking.

Wrapping It Up

Creativity doesn’t flourish in chaos—it thrives in calm, curious, and courageous spaces.

Leaders who manage their own inner state unlock not just their own problem-solving, but the collective intelligence of their teams. The antidote to fear? Not force. Not speed.

Curiosity. Pause. Perspective. Support.

Start small. Lead intentionally. Your team—and your organization—will thank you.