The Hidden Value of Building Leadership’s Creative Confidence

Our guest is Cliff Goldmacher, a Grammy-recognized songwriter, speaker, and author. We discuss the hidden value of building leadership's creative confidence in the face of unprecedented challenges and opportunities in the business environment.     One of the toughest parts of leading innovation and transformation today is that there are no tried-and-true answers. Many of the challenges and opportunities leaders face are genuinely new. For instance, a competitor may appear with a very different business model; geopolitical conditions can shift quickly; AI and other technologies can change what stakeholders expect. The list goes on. Responding effectively to all these challenges requires more creative confidence than ever before. That's why we're speaking with returning guest Cliff Goldmacher. He's a GRAMMY-recognized, #1 hit songwriter, two-time TEDx speaker, and author who helps organizations build cultures of innovation and boost creative confidence through the power of songwriting. Over the past decade, Cliff has partnered with global leaders like Accenture, Bank of America and Dell to enhance collaboration, engagement, and adaptability. Cliff’s insights have appeared in Forbes and Fast Company. He is the author of The Creative Confidence Playbook and The Reason For The Rhymes: Mastering the Seven Essential Skills of Innovation by Learning to Write Songs. He’s also collaborated with top institutions like IDEO, the ASAE, and Vanderbilt’s Owen Graduate School of Management. We discuss why in the uncertain environment, creative confidence can have both short-term and long-term benefits for leadership and the company. Cliff draws parallels between physically building muscles at the gym and building the "muscles" for creative confidence. He also shares a surprising statistic on how creativity and productivity go hand-in-hand. Digging deeper, Cliff shares a brief story about an especially skeptical leader that experienced a breakthrough as the result of their time building creative confidence.  We also share three immediately useful for leaders to strengthen creative confidence for themselves, their teams, and their organizations. This week on Growth Igniters® Radio, we discuss: Why Cliff believes that Creativity and productivity go hand-in-hand Cliff's approach to developing creative confidence through small, intentional practices An example of an especially skeptical leadership team that experienced a change in perspectives during one of Cliff's sessions Three immediately useful ideas strengthening creative confidence