Last Sunday, as I was browsing through Facebook feeds, Anna Wintour’s image appeared on the computer screen. As a huge fan of this iconic woman, who’s been a force in the editorial world and fashion universe, my fingers stopped swiping and my eyes gazed with curiosity. It was an ad for a MasterClass with Anna Wintour where she teaches creativity and leadership! Without a hint of hesitation, I clicked on the ad to view the course outline and register. I thought this is a great opportunity to learn some valuable leadership and creativity tips from a distinguished female with a track record in the field of publication and fashion, and is known as a fierce influencer in a highly competitive realm.
Who is Anna Wintour
She’s that lady with large dark sunglasses and light brown pageboy bob you may have seen in fashion magazines and on TV. She strikes you as a confident and elegant woman with a vast taste in fashion. In fact, she’s the inspiration behind the fictional character Miranda Priestly in The Devil Wears Prada novel and movie. Anna is the Dame of Fashion, and has been the Chief Editor of Vogue magazine for over 20 years. She recently became the creative director at Conde Nast, a global Mass Media company and home to famous magazines like Vogue, Glamour, GQ, AD and the New Yorker among many others. Needless to say that she’s the chairwoman and host extraordinaire for Met annual fundraising gala.
Although Anna has been frequently criticized by people who worked or socialized with her, one must appreciate her leadership skills, creativity and intuitiveness. It takes a strength of character and high intelligence to head a global editorial fashion magazine like Vogue. She managed to sustain the magazine as one of the most authoritative editorials in fashion, society and culture. So now that you understand my infatuation with Wintour, let me share some of the key lessons I’ve learned from her MasterClass.
On Leadership
Own Your Decisions
“Own your decision without an apology” Anna said. Leaders are visionaries who understand and respond to criticism. Often, great leaders make tough decisions and take full responsibilities for the results, as they should. They are elected to take charge and lead people towards “victory”, a goal.
A trusted leader is often perceived as a hero with a vision who takes charge and ensures everyone is aligned and has a clear understanding of what is expected. But to earn the title, a leader must stand her ground, show confidence in her decisions, give credit to her team and take charge of the consequences. It’s about being true to your vision with clarify and conviction.
Trust Your Team
“You are nothing without a good team” Ann admitted. She believes leaders should invest in their people, and have a diverse range of talent from different cultures, ages and backgrounds. As well, give people the opportunity to be challenged and discourage settling in, to keep the pace moving.
This makes sense for career oriented and driven individuals who constantly crave challenge and new learnings. You can’t be a good leader by assuming you team is happy with a “stale” career even if they are great at what they do. Anna’s leadership approach has helped many people move up the ladder including renowned fashion designers such as John Galliano. Fostering the growth of a team is one of the most valued leadership qualities.
Lead With Impact
Leaders pave the way for change and find better ways to connect with their audience. As we know, traditional leadership styles don’t fit the values of today’s workforce and consumers. Therefore, leaders must find new ways to create a purpose, a way and an impact by embracing important causes and pioneering the change.
Leaders should know when to make that impact or change, and people expect that of them. Wintour explained that when a leader wants change, she should stand up and declare things are different now. She has to engage the team and bring everyone into the process. But at the same time, allow the masters (the team) to take charge of executing the change. It boils down to leading from the heart and trusting your team.
On Creativity
Foster Your Talent
Each person is born with an intrinsic talent and skill set. However, it takes time and dedication to discover one’s own talent and nourish it. Your talent is your voice (your brand) which speaks of your creativity and ingenuity. Take the time to figure out your true talent and passion. Then build upon it until you achieve mastery.
This is a great advice for anyone who wants to become a creative expert, whether in music, arts, writing and other creative disciplines. Knowing that we are passionate about an innate talent doesn’t mean we are the masters of the trade. We have to constantly learn, practice and try to push our boundaries to become the trusted expert.
Feed Your Creativity
Creativity is a distinctive feature in humans we use to solve problems, create art and invent new products to meet our desires. In order to expand our creativity, Anna Wintour encourages us to expose ourselves to cultures, arts, and travel. The exposure to new cultures and arts expands our minds and creative abilities.
I have touched upon the idea of traveling to enhance creativity in this blog. There’s nothing greater than going out and being present at an art museum to view a collection, as opposed to browsing images of a collection online.
Free Yourself
Creative minds cannot survive captivity for long. Freeing oneself opens the mind to inspiration and inventiveness. Anna doesn’t think we lock ourselves in one path but rather have a sense of freedom to experiment and grow our portfolio of ingenuity. The most liberating sentence I love to hear is “act like no one is telling no.”
Therefore, don’t hesitate to get out of your comfort zone when you believe in an idea, a concept or a venture. Listen to advice and recommendations but continue to lead your point of view with confidence. Just trust in yourself and your own choices, and don’t surrender to pressure or consensus, she said.
Share Your Passion
Anna advises fashion designers, who aspire to be leaders in this domain, to talk about their passion, what they believe in and share thoughts openly. This same advice applies to everyone else including entrepreneurs and women who are in pursuit of a vision and a dream. Opening up about your passions enables everyone around you and beyond to engage with your cause, relate to it and support it.
When talking about your passion, show the value it will bring to your audience. People love relating to visions that have positive impact on society, the environment and ethics. Your passion can exude a sense of confidence which serves as an inspiration for others to support you and follow your lead.
Be Bold
We know that being bold requires lots of courage. It mean that you’ve taken a risk and made a decision to do things differently. However, bold initiatives take time and require diplomacy. One doesn’t just wake up one day and decides to take a bold action. In fact, there’s lots of thought and calculated effort associated with the decision to take risk.
To have a bold mindset requires us to build confidence and courage to take a leap of faith. But at the same time, you should be ready to accept criticism, resistance and discouragement for wanting to be bold. Don’t let this discourage you, but rather, allow yourself to learn diplomacy and the art of persuasion to influence your audience with bold decisions.
Summary
Leading with impact, influence and ingenuity is a discipline many corporate executives seek to learn. Anna Wintour’s lessons reflect a number of principle ideas in this discipline that can be adopted and utilized for effective leadership. You don’t have to be a corporate executive to learn how to lead with impact. Everyone should learn the principles of leading with impact and apply it in their daily lives. Whether you’re an entrepreneur or a full-time mom, exercising such principles will help you achieve business and personal growth and the ability to lead your tribe, team or family towards a common goal.
Here’s a list of some of the best selling books on leading with impact. I’ve also snuck in a fun book about the rivalry between two powerful women in fashion.
2 comments
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