Halloween Leadership Lessons
I usually encourage the leaders I work with to find leadership lessons from all their daily activities. With Halloween around the corner it makes sense to think about what leadership lessons can be gained from Halloween. Here are a few I came up with. See if you can find others and share them with us.
Try something new
One of the reasons children and adults like Halloween is that they get to take on a different identity. That’s what masks and costumes are for. They seem to free people to act differently, to dare, to try new roles. Maybe leaders should encourage people more often to try different roles, to think “what if. . .” to act as if they were someone else. In fact, you could try that too. You might be surprised with what you find out.
Participation rocks!
Many people love costume parties. Why? Because everyone is engaged! Everyone participates! When people are engaged in an activity that holds their interest, the effort isn’t their focus. They’ll do whatever it takes. You can raise the level of engagement of your team by giving them more opportunity to participate in all aspects, starting from inception to execution.
Creativity brings energy
Children and adults get very excited by the process of coming up with an idea for a costume and by the process of getting it done. When you give people an outlet and purpose for their creativity, they will be creative and come up with awesome ideas. An important part of your leadership is to recognize and nurture creativity.
Everybody likes fun!
One of the reasons Halloween is one of the most popular holidays is that it gives people permission to just have fun. As a leader, remember people will be more productive if they can have fun in the process. Lighten up! Even though leadership is serious business, humor and fun lightens the mood and the burdens.
Remember. . .
You can find leadership lessons from almost everything. Use your imagination and while you are having fun this Halloween, think about what you can apply to your leadership.