Do you think 'unfocused, irresponsible, childish?' Or do you think ' spontaneous, creative, and enthusiastic'?

I used to think that if I was ‘the leader’ I needed to be serious to keep everyone else around me on track. Now, I'm realising that as a leader, I set the tone for an organisation, which makes playfulness a serious matter.

It’s popular these days to speak about 'innovation'. Innovation is means you need to stay flexible and open-minded to keep up with the rapid pace of change in business. If you want to nurture innovation, you need to foster an environment of open-mindedness, a spirit of adventure, a willingness to explore. If your team is to have the freedom and trust to activate their creativity, they need to have permission to play. It's difficult to come up with new ideas if you're not being 'playful'.

Some dictionary definitions of the word ‘playful’ include: 'humorous, jesting' and 'full of fun and high spirits.' Other words like 'jolly' and 'enjoyable' show up in other definitions.

Of course you want your organisation to be a happy and creative place to work. So, how do you foster more 'PLAY' in your workplace?

I’ve recently begun breaking out of my own comfort zone and summoning the courage to try new things in giving my presentations. Actually, I would say I was summoning more of a spirit of playfulness and exploration rather than ‘courage’. I took a risk in that I went into the unknown and so made myself vulnerable to the unexpected. I tried out a couple of new audience games in one of my recent keynote talks. I used the games to make key points about leadership, and the result is that I had more fun, which resulted in a greater sense of connection with my audience.

The program coordinator who'd arranged for me to speak emailed me the next day saying 'thank you so much for you energetic presentation.  It was obvious that everyone thoroughly enjoyed it and that you connected with them!’ This feedback was a great affirmation of the power of play as a key leadership skill.

When we look at life as a big adventure, we take the pressure off ourselves to be a 'serious' leader and allow ourselves to play in an authentic and spontaneous way. This spontaneity is what leads to greater creativity and greater bottom line results.

So, what can you do to be a more playful leader today? Have fun exploring! :-)

Article by Sally Mabelle

The next ‘voice of leadership’ course is in Auckland on 22nd September - see www.sallymabelle.com/events for details.

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