What happens when leadership is no longer just discussed, but expressed?
In one recent leadership workshop, as the afternoon unfolded, the walls filled with visual artefacts until we found ourselves standing in our own gallery, rich with imagery, words and connection. Each piece distinct, yet part of a shared experience.
That gallery didn’t emerge by chance. While I design and facilitate the experience, I make space for co-creation. I bring ideas, processes and structure; the people I’m working with bring their lived experience, perspective and possibility. Each workshop develops its own focus, humour, and energy, shaped by the client and the people in the room. Together, we shape the direction of the day.
The workshop followed a simple but intentional structure:
- Create the conditions for psychological safety and open dialogue (Ways of Working / WoW)
- Explore the experiences that shape our leadership identity (Provenance)
- Recognise A-side strengths and B-side potential (Leadership Superpowers)
- Use creative processes to provide insight (Visual Exploration)
- Embody leadership through lived experience
We began with the WoW Factor, inviting everyone to pause and consider what would help this group feel able to speak openly, listen well, and fully engage.
This early attention to how a group will work together is often overlooked, yet it shapes everything that follows.
We then explored leadership identity through personal history, which we call Provenance. Developed over several years with my colleague Geof Hill, the concept draws on the art world, where provenance refers to the origin of a painting or artefact and the history that shapes its value. Applied to leadership, the lens shifts from roles and titles to the influences and experiences that shape who we are.
As people reflected on key moments, altered trajectories and unexpected turning points, stories and patterns began to surface. Through dialogue, professional identity became richer and more nuanced. This process often opens new perspectives, deeper insight and renewed clarity about what matters.
From Provenance, we stepped into Leadership Superpowers, leadership behaviours and mindsets developed with my colleague Helen Zink, such as curiosity, sensing and candour, alongside the idea of A-sides and B-sides. The A-side is well practised – the strengths and habits we instinctively rely on. The B-side is not a weakness; it is simply less exercised. Under pressure, we tend to return to a familiar track. Expanding into the B-side gives us more choice in how we respond, especially when decisions are complex, or conversations are conflicted.
From Conversation to Creation
Rather than staying in discussion, we shifted to a visual activity. Portraits and body maps provided a playful platform that talking alone could not. The focus is not on artistic skill, although people do immerse themselves in the creative process. It is about making the invisible visible. Working out loud, visually.
People worked at large and small scale. Shapes, scenes and colour emerged. One person noticed that their black and white image mirrored their black and white thinking (and clothing). Introducing colour became a visible step towards more creative thought. Another recognised that resilience had been present in far more moments than they had realised. Several spoke about candour as a superpower they wanted to explore, acknowledging both its value and the courage it requires.
And that is how the leadership galleries emerged: leaders giving themselves permission to work differently. A willingness to engage the whole self. When we work in this way, leadership becomes embodied, relational and grounded in lived experience.
As often happens when I work with others, I notice my own patterns too. Creative work reveals the habits we default to, where we might stretch, and the blind spots we rarely notice.
Like any immersive experience, it can be hard to explain. Facilitation, coaching, creativity and artful ways of working don’t fit neatly into a formula or even a quick fix. That’s part of their value. They help people make sense of complexity together. They help us come to our senses, both metaphorically and practically.
As AI continues its march into our professional and personal lives, human centred skills like empathy, listening, curiosity, life-long learning, flexibility, resilience, creative and critical thinking, and nuanced judgement can only be matured by being interacting with others in deeply human ways.
Leadership is not one-dimensional. Development should not be either. When leaders engage in Artful Inquiry and stand before their gallery, the full range of who they are becomes visible. The quality of conversation shifts, and new possibilities emerge.
If leadership feels narrow or habitual at times, perhaps the question is not about adding more tools, but about changing the lens.
For this project, my client was looking for an innovative approach to their leadership program. Together we explored a range of workshop possibilities and designed something that fit their context. If you are exploring new ways to develop leadership, strengthen conversations in your team, or approach learning in deeply human way, it may be worth having a conversation about what that could look like in your organisation.
