What Improvisation Teaches Us about Leadership
Improvisers have a process -and at the very critical points, they ditch it and follow their gut.
Why are these skills important to Leadership? Because the best business plan, marketing plan or sales pitch is as good as its execution. And each inescapably is confronted by unanticipated events where they inevitably become an act of improvisation.
Just some of the principles practiced are:
Say "Yes, and..." to raise positive energy around any idea. Great leaders allow for possibility.
Prepare to be unprepared - be ready for anything.
Rely on the team - Trust that in the moment, under the spotlight when you don't always know what is going to happen, it with your colleagues that there is trust and true safety.
Martha not only has had a managment career and a coaching career, she trained with theatre luminaries such as Mike Nichols, Paul Sills (founded Second City) and George Morrison among others.