# data[].attributes.body
How Leaders Create a Compelling Vision to Inspire

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Lead With Vision

Leaders create a vision and engage a community to achieve it.

What does it mean to lead with vision?

It's a question that authors Bonnie Hagemann, Simon Vetter, and John Maketa researched extensively, surveying over 400 companies in search of the answer.

I recently spoke with the authors about their new book, LEADING WITH VISION: The Leader's Blueprint for Creating a Compelling Vision and Engaging the Workforce.
Would you share the story about "going up the stairs two steps at a time" and how it impacted your view of leadership and culture?
Yes, of course. Back in 2006 I had a meeting with Jim Bolt, the founder of Executive Development Associates (EDA), to discuss how I would run the company. Jim had been developing senior leaders since the early 1980s and was a renowned expert in the field. I knew I had much to learn from Jim and hoped we could work together. I didn't know at the time that the very first piece of advice he would give me would shape and inform every leadership decision I have made since. Before I left that meeting, Jim handed me a book from his shelf called Let My People Go Surfing by Yvon Chouinard, founder and CEO of Patagonia, a sports clothing company.

The book is the story of Patagonia with an emphasis, almost a plea, for sustainability. Jim wanted me to start thinking about how we could help with this effort, I read the book but it was something else within that captured my attention. The CEO of Patagonia wanted to build an organization where employees were compelled to come to work. Yvon Chouinard wanted a company where employees were a part of their environmental mission. He wanted employees to be wholly engaged and committed. He said, "Work had to be enjoyable on a daily basis. We all had to come to work on the balls of our feet and go up the stairs two steps at a time" (Chouinard 2005, 45).

That statement struck me as extremely important. Imagine the creativity and courage and productivity that would come from a workforce like that. The power of it is immeasurable. That is what visionary leadership can do. It can unleash the power of the workforce.

The 4 C's of a Visionary Leader
What's your definition of a visionary leader?
A visionary leader is a person who steps out and creates a clear picture of a positive future state. It takes a lot of courage because creating a vision for the future is basically imagining what could be and what should be. That feels very risky for leaders. It is stepping out of the norm. There are certain things they will need to do. In the book we explain further by putting it into 4 Cs. They must:

1. Embody courage,

2. Forge clarity,

3. Build connectedness, and

4. Shape the culture.

What advice do you have for a leader struggling with creating a compelling vision?
Most leaders struggle to create a compelling vision. They must first push past their limbic brain system which will naturally do its job of keeping the leader "safe" by trying to keep them from stepping out in this leadership capacity. This is a significant struggle for many, so we spend some time in the book helping leaders overcome this.

Then they must bring others along. There are specific actions to each step, but here are the high points:

Imagine the invisible - paint the picture of a positive future state

Vet the vision - ensure it is the right vision for the organization

Create options - ensure that you will not be made or broken by having only one option on how to get there

Decide for change - a compelling vision will require changes, so determine what they are and think through the best method to get there

Communicate thoroughly - make the messaging around the vision as clear as a well-played music note

Foster understanding - ensure that every person understands his or her role in making the vision a reality

Overcome the Common Obstacles
What are some of the most common obstacles to leading with vision? Would you share one and what to do about it?
Every leader will experience his/her own unique obstacles, but we did find some that were common. They include

A lack of unity in the workforce,

Preconceived notions about how things should be

A lack of buy-in throughout the organization

A lack of urgency, and

A lack of personal development by the leader

Creating a compelling vision means that it is compelling for the employees. This is a core message in the book. The leaders must capture the hearts of the employees. Every company is a story, and every employee wants to feel like an important part of that story. Visionary leadership means that everyone knows their part in the story, and they feel like their part is important to achieving the vision.
What's a Makahiki and how can leaders everywhere benefit from it?
That word comes from a story we share in the book about OluKai, a Hawaiian-inspired premium footwear company. They believe that connectedness extends to everything, particularly the brand's relationship with its employees. Everyone who works at or with

OluKai comes together as a true family. When they have sales meetings, they don't call them sales meetings. Instead, they call them Makahiki, which is a Hawaiian word for reunion or gathering. It's a way that they create connectedness for the employees, and connectedness is one of the key ingredients for visionary leadership.

Skip, there's another important word in the Olukai story.

They take their vision beyond the employees all the way to those who wear their shoes with the spirit of Aloha. Most of us have heard this word but had little understanding of its depth. It is a Hawaiian word and means a lot of things. It means life, love, hello, and it also means goodbye. It's a very complex word. The literal meaning of Aloha is 'the breath of life.' It comes from Alo, meaning presence, and ha, meaning breath. Aloha is a way of living and treating each other with love and respect.

"At OluKai, our vision is grounded in our belief that everybody, no matter where you are, you can live Aloha, a life full of love and happiness."

They use their brand as a way to unlock that spirit in all of us.

"We want people who wear a pair of OluKai sandals to connect emotionally to a place and a lifestyle to which they aspire. Maybe they may have never been to a beautiful beach in Hawaii, but they know they want to go. Our footwear brings people one step closer. It's a highly aspirational message that we are delivering."
Toward the end of the book, you talk about the power of storytelling. How do you coach leaders on becoming better storytellers? What's the role of positivity?
I think our biggest challenge with leaders is to help them understand the power of storytelling. Think about it, visionary leaders move us. Some of the greatest, most energizing, and best visionary messages of all time are from United States presidents. We remember some of these messages more than others, just as we remember some presidents more than others because some of them-including Lincoln, Kennedy, and Reagan-touched us all. They were masters at painting a picture of where we needed to go and inspiring others to come along.

Storytelling makes the message stick. That is why we used this method ourselves in the book by including very interesting stories that are tied to our key points.

We coach leaders to do the same. We tell them to:

Put things in motion. They stir things up, agitate the status quo, and create a sense not only of "can do" but also of "want to."

Excite others through their lively thoughts and behavior. Their energy motivates and inspires people to excel, and

Pull others together and propel them in the same direction.

This is not a sidebar for leaders. Visionary leadership is part of their job. It takes time, careful thought, creativity, energy, and passion, but when it's done well, it has incredible returns.
When you work with an executive team, and you sense immediately that they are firing on all cylinders and doing most everything right, what do you notice about them? What qualities of leadership are driving the team?
We love to see executive teams getting it right. One of the first indicators that a team is on the right track is passion. If the leaders are passionate about where the company is going, the rest of the workforce is likely to follow. They know the vision and are crystal clear about who they are as a company. They have a strategy to achieve the vision, and they put their decisions through a filter of whether or not it will advance their strategy. They value each other as team members and value the employees who bring their talents to the company. They care about each other and have respect for each other. This gives them the safety to have healthy debates and vet decisions thoroughly with diverse viewpoints. They succeed and fail together. They take calculated risks. They keep the organization and the employees moving forward.

For more information, see LEADING WITH VISION: The Leader's Blueprint for Creating a Compelling Vision and Engaging the Workforce.

Do you have a VISION for YOU? What type of leader do you want to be? By signing up for FREE to Leadership Insights, you will have a positive stream of insights to reimagine your future! Plus get Skip's free leadership book and digital seminar on creativity.subscribe]

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How Leaders Create A Compelling Vision to Engage & Inspire

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Leaders create a vision and engage a community to achieve it. What does it mean to lead with vision? It's a question that authors Bonnie Hagemann, Simon Vetter, and John Maketa researched extensively, surveying over 400 companies in search of the answer.

# data[].attributes.body
The Dark Knight (2008)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Set within a year after the events of Batman Begins (2005), Batman, Lieutenant James Gordon, and new District Attorney Harvey Dent successfully begin to round up the criminals that plague Gotham City, until a mysterious and sadistic criminal mastermind known only as "The Joker" appears in Gotham, creating a new wave of chaos. Batman's struggle against The Joker becomes deeply personal, forcing him to "confront everything he believes" and improve his technology to stop him. A love triangle develops between Bruce Wayne, Dent, and Rachel Dawes. - Leon Lombardi

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Dark Knight: Directed by Christopher Nolan. With Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Aaron Eckhart, Michael Caine. When the menace known as the Joker wreaks havoc and chaos on the people of Gotham, Batman must accept one of the greatest psychological and physical tests of his ability to fight injustice.

# data[].attributes.body
Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Outliers: The Story of Success [Gladwell, Malcolm] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Outliers: The Story of Success

# data[].attributes.body
Keanu Charles Reeves

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Keanu Charles Reeves ( kee-AH-noo; born September 2, 1964) is a Canadian actor. Born in Beirut and raised in Toronto, he made his acting debut in the Canadian television series (1984), before making his feature film debut in Youngblood (1986). Reeves had his breakthrough role in the science fiction comedy Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (1989), and he reprised his role in its sequels. He gained praise for playing a hustler in the independent drama My Own Private Idaho (1991) and established himself as an action hero with leading roles in Point Break (1991) and (1994).

Following several box office failures, Reeves's performance in the horror film The Devil's Advocate (1997) was well received. Greater stardom came for playing Neo in the science fiction series , beginning in 1999. He played John Constantine in Constantine (2005) and starred in the romantic drama The Lake House (2006), the science fiction thriller The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008), and the crime thriller Street Kings (2008). Following another commercially down period, Reeves made a successful comeback by playing the titular assassin in the film series, beginning in 2014. named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2022.

In addition to acting, Reeves has directed the film Man of Tai Chi (2013). He plays bass guitar for the band Dogstar and pursued other endeavours such as writing and philanthropy.

Reeves was born in Beirut, Lebanon, on September 2, 1964, the son of Patricia ( née Taylor), a costume designer and performer, and Samuel Nowlin Reeves Jr. His mother is English, originating from Essex. His American father is from Hawaii, and is of Native Hawaiian, Chinese, English, Irish, and Portuguese descent. Reeves's paternal grandmother is Chinese Hawaiian. His mother was working in Beirut when she met his father, who abandoned his wife and family when Reeves was three years old. Reeves last met his father on the Hawaiian island of Kauai when he was 13.

After his parents divorced in 1966, his mother moved the family to Sydney, and then to New York City, where she married Paul Aaron, a Broadway and Hollywood director, in 1970. The couple moved to Toronto and divorced in 1971. When Reeves was nine, he took part in a theatre production of Damn Yankees. Aaron remained close to Reeves, offering him advice and recommending him a job at the Hedgerow Theatre in Pennsylvania. Reeves's mother married Robert Miller, a rock music promoter, in 1976; the couple divorced in 1980. Reeves and his sisters grew up primarily in the Yorkville neighbourhood of Toronto, with a nanny caring for them frequently. Because of his grandmother's ethnicity, he grew up with Chinese art, furniture, and cuisine. Reeves watched British comedy shows such as The Two Ronnies, and his mother imparted English manners that he has maintained into adulthood.

Describing himself as a "private kid", Reeves attended four different high schools, including the Etobicoke School of the Arts, from which he was expelled. Reeves said he was expelled because he was "just a little too rambunctious and shot my mouth off once too often... I was not generally the most well-oiled machine in the school". Reeves has dyslexia and has said, "Because I had trouble reading, I wasn't a good student". At De La Salle College, he was a successful ice hockey goalkeeper. Reeves had aspirations to become a professional ice hockey player for the Canadian Olympic team but decided to become an actor when he was 15. After leaving De La Salle College, he attended Avondale Secondary Alternative School, which allowed him to get an education while working as an actor. Reeves dropped out of high school when he was 17. He obtained a green card through his American stepfather and moved to Los Angeles three years later. Reeves holds only Canadian citizenship.

1984-1990: Early work

In 1984, Reeves was a correspondent for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) youth television program Going Great. That same year, he made his acting debut in an episode of the television series, called . In 1985, he played Mercutio in a stage production of Romeo and Juliet at the Leah Posluns Theatre in North York, Ontario. He made further appearances on stage, including Brad Fraser's cult hit in Toronto. He also appeared in a Coca-Cola commercial in 1983, and in the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) coming-of-age, short film One Step Away.

Reeves later said that, when he was looking for work in the mid-1980s, his agents advised him to go by a different name because his first name was "too ethnic." He briefly initialized his first and middle name and attended auditions as "K. C." or "Casey" Reeves before reverting to Keanu.

Reeves made a foray into television films in 1986, including NBC's Babes in Toyland, Act of Vengeance and Brotherhood of Justice. He made his first motion picture appearances in Peter Markle's Youngblood (1986), in which he played a goalkeeper, and in the low-budget romantic drama, . He was cast as Matt in River's Edge, a crime drama about a group of high school friends dealing with a murder case, loosely based on the 1981 murder of Marcy Renee Conrad. The film premiered in 1986 at the Toronto International Film Festival to a largely positive response. Janet Maslin of The New York Times describes the performances of the young cast as "natural and credible", with Reeves being described as "affecting and sympathetic".

Towards the end of the 1980s, Reeves starred in several dramas aimed at teen audiences, including as the lead in The Night Before (1988), a comedy starring opposite Lori Loughlin, The Prince of Pennsylvania (1988) and Permanent Record (1988). Although the latter received mixed reviews, Variety magazine praised Reeves's performance, "which opens up nicely as the drama progresses". His other acting efforts included a supporting role in Dangerous Liaisons (1988), which earned seven nominations at the 61st Academy Awards, winning three: Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Costume Design, and Best Production Design. This was followed by Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (1989), in which he portrays a slacker who travels through time with a friend (portrayed by Alex Winter), to assemble historical figures for a school presentation. The film was generally well received by critics and grossed $40.5 million at the worldwide box office. Film review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gave the film a 79% approval rating with the critical consensus: "Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter are just charming, goofy, and silly enough to make this fluffy time-travel Adventure work".

In 1989, Reeves starred in the comedy-drama Parenthood directed by Ron Howard. Nick Hilditch of the BBC gave the film three out of five stars, calling it a "feelgood movie" with an "extensive and entertaining ensemble cast". In 1990, Reeves gave two acting performances; he portrayed an incompetent hitman in the black comedy I Love You to Death, and played Martin, a radio station employee in the comedy Tune in Tomorrow. He also appeared in Paula Abdul's music video for which featured a Rebel Without a Cause motif, with him in the James Dean role.

1991-1994: Breakthrough with adult roles

In 1991, Reeves starred in Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey, a sequel to Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, with his co-star Alex Winter. Michael Wilmington of the Los Angeles Times wrote that the sequel was "more imaginative, more opulent, wilder and freer, more excitingly visualized", praising the actors for their "fuller" performances. Film critic Roger Ebert thought it was "a riot of visual invention and weird humour that works on its chosen sub-moronic level [...] It's the kind of movie where you start out snickering in spite of yourself, and end up actually admiring the originality that went into creating this hallucinatory slapstick". The rest of 1991 marked a significant transition for Reeves's career as he undertook adult roles. Co-starring with River Phoenix as a street hustler in the adventure My Own Private Idaho, the characters embark on a journey of personal discovery. The story was written by Gus Van Sant, and is loosely based on Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part 1, Henry IV, Part 2, and . The film premiered at the 48th Venice International Film Festival, followed by a theatrical release in the United States on September 29, 1991. The film earned $6.4 million at the box office. My Own Private Idaho was positively received, with Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly describing the film as "a postmodern road movie with a mood of free-floating, trance-like despair[...] a rich, audacious experience". The New York Times complimented Reeves and Phoenix for their insightful performances.

Reeves starred alongside Patrick Swayze, Lori Petty and Gary Busey in the action thriller Point Break (1991), directed by Kathryn Bigelow. He plays an undercover FBI agent tasked with investigating the identities of a group of bank robbers. To prepare for the film, Reeves and his co-stars took surfing lessons with professional surfer Dennis Jarvis in Hawaii; Reeves had never surfed before. Upon its release, Point Break was generally well-received, and a commercial success, earning $83.5 million at the box office. Reeves's performance was praised by The New York Times for "considerable discipline and range", adding, "He moves easily between the buttoned-down demeanour that suits a police procedural story and the loose-jointed manner of his comic roles". Writing for The Washington Post, Hal Hinson called Reeves the "perfect choice" and praised the surfing scenes, but opined that "the filmmakers have their characters make the most ludicrously illogical choices imaginable". At the 1992 MTV Movie Awards, Reeves won the Most Desirable Male award.

In 1991, Reeves developed an interest in a music career; he formed an alternative rock band called Dogstar, consisting of members Robert Mailhouse, Gregg Miller and Bret Domrose. Reeves played the bass guitar. A year later, he played Jonathan Harker in Francis Ford Coppola's Gothic horror Bram Stoker's Dracula, based on Stoker's 1897 novel . Starring alongside Gary Oldman, Winona Ryder and Anthony Hopkins, the film was critically and commercially successful. It grossed $215.8 million worldwide. For his role, Reeves was required to speak with an English accent, which drew some ridicule; "Overly posh and entirely ridiculous, Reeves's performance is as painful as it is hilarious", wrote Limara Salt of Virgin Media. In a retrospective interview in 2015, director Coppola said, "[Reeves] tried so hard [...] He wanted to do it perfectly and in trying to do it perfectly it came off as stilted". Bram Stoker's Dracula was nominated for four Academy Awards, winning three in Best Costume Design, Best Sound Editing and Best Makeup. The film also received four nominations at the British Academy Film Awards.

In 1993, he had a role in Much Ado About Nothing, based on Shakespeare's play of the same name. The film received positive reviews, although Reeves was nominated for a Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Supporting Actor. The New Republic magazine thought his casting was "unfortunate" because of his amateur performance. In that same year, he starred in two more drama films, Even Cowgirls Get the Blues and Little Buddha, both of which garnered a mixed-to-negative reception. The Independent critic gave Little Buddha a mixed review but opined that Reeves's part as a prince was "credible". The film also left an impression on Reeves; he later said, "When I played this innocent prince who starts to suspect something when he has the first revelations about old age, sickness and death, it hit me. [...] That lesson has never left me."

He starred in the action thriller (1994) alongside Sandra Bullock and Dennis Hopper. He plays police officer Jack Traven, who must prevent a bus from exploding by keeping its speed above 50 mph. Speed was the directorial debut of Dutch director Jan de Bont. Several actors were considered for the lead role, but Reeves was chosen because Bont was impressed with his Point Break performance. To look the part, Reeves shaved all his hair off and spent two months in the gym to gain muscle mass. During production, Reeves's friend River Phoenix (and co-star in My Own Private Idaho) died, resulting in adjustments to the filming schedule to allow him to mourn. Speed was released on June 10 to a critically acclaimed response. Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune lauded Reeves, calling him "absolutely charismatic [...] giving a performance juiced with joy as he jumps through elevator shafts [...] and atop a subway train". David Ansen, writing for , summarized Speed as, "Relentless without being overbearing, this is one likely blockbuster that doesn't feel too big for its britches. It's a friendly juggernaut". The film grossed $350 million from a $30 million budget and won two Academy Awards in 1995 - Best Sound Editing and Best Sound.

1995-1998: Continued acting efforts

I do love it [Shakespeare]. It's like this kind of code that once you start to inhabit it with breath and sound and feeling and thought, it is the most powerful and consuming and freeing at the same time. Just, literally, elemental in sound, consonants and vowels. What I found out in doing it [Hamlet] was that it brought up for me all the anger that was inside me for my mother. I mean, it surprised me, just what was there, and I hadn't seen that before.

Reeves's next leading role came in the 1995 cyberpunk action thriller Johnny Mnemonic, directed by artist Robert Longo and based on the 1981 story of the same name by William Gibson. Set in 2021, it is about a man who has a cybernetic brain implant and must deliver a data package before he dies or is killed by the Yakuza. The film received mainly negative reviews and critics felt Reeves was "woefully miscast". Roger Ebert opined that the film is one of the "great goofy gestures of recent cinema, a movie that doesn't deserve one nanosecond of serious analysis but has a kind of idiotic grandeur that makes you almost forgive it." As part of the film studio's marketing efforts, a CD-ROM video game was also released.

He next appeared in the romantic drama A Walk in the Clouds (1995), which also garnered mixed-to-negative reviews. Reeves plays a young soldier returning home from World War II, trying to settle down with a woman he married impulsively just before he enlisted. Film critic Mick LaSalle opined that " A Walk in the Clouds is for the most part a beautiful, well-acted and emotionally rich picture", whereas Hal Hinson from The Washington Post said, "The film has the syrupy, Kodak magic-moment look of a Bo Derek movie, and pretty much the same level of substance".

Besides film work, Reeves retreated briefly to the theatre playing Prince Hamlet in a 1995 Manitoba Theatre Centre production of in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The Sunday Times critic Roger Lewis believed his performance, writing he "quite embodied the innocence, the splendid fury, the animal grace of the leaps and bounds, the emotional violence, that form the Prince of Denmark ... He is one of the top three Hamlets I have seen, for a simple reason: he is Hamlet".

Reeves was soon drawn to science fiction roles, appearing in Chain Reaction (1996) with co-stars Morgan Freeman, Rachel Weisz, Fred Ward, Kevin Dunn and Brian Cox. He plays a researcher of a green energy project, who has to go on the run when he is framed for murder. Chain Reaction was not a critical success and gained mostly a negative reaction; review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gave it a rating of 16% and described it as "a man-on-the-run thriller that mostly sticks to generic formula". Reeves's film choices after Chain Reaction were also critical disappointments. He starred in the independent crime comedy Feeling Minnesota (1996), with Vincent D'Onofrio and Cameron Diaz, which was described as "shoddily assembled, and fundamentally miscast" by Rotten Tomatoes. In that year, he turned down an offer to star in Speed 2: Cruise Control, despite being offered a salary of $12 million. According to Reeves, this decision caused 20th Century Fox to sever ties with him for a decade.

Instead, Reeves toured with his band Dogstar, and appeared in the drama The Last Time I Committed Suicide (1997), based on a 1950 letter written by Neal Cassady to Jack Kerouac. Reeves's performance gained mixed reviews; Paul Tatara of CNN called him "void of talent [...] here he is again, reciting his lines as if they're non-related words strung together as a memory exercise", whereas magazine thought "Reeves gives the nearest thing to a performance in his career as the enthusiastic feckless drunk". He starred in the 1997 supernatural horror The Devil's Advocate alongside Al Pacino and Charlize Theron; Reeves agreed to a pay cut of several million dollars so that the film studio could afford to hire Pacino. Based on Andrew Neiderman's novel of the same name, the feature is about a successful young lawyer invited to New York City to work for a major firm, who discovers the owner of the firm is a devil. The Devil's Advocate attracted positive reviews from critics. Film critic James Berardinelli called the film "highly enjoyable" and wrote, "There are times when Reeves lacks the subtlety that would have made this a more multi-layered portrayal, but it's nevertheless a solid job".

1999-2004: Stardom with The Matrix franchise and comedies

Reeves promoting The Day the Earth Stood Still in Mexico, 2008

In 1999, Reeves starred in the critically acclaimed science fiction film , the first installment in what would become The Matrix franchise. Reeves portrays computer programmer Thomas Anderson, a hacker using the alias " Neo", who discovers humanity is trapped inside a simulated reality created by intelligent machines. Written and directed by the Wachowskis, Reeves had to prepare by reading Kevin Kelly's Out of Control: The New Biology of Machines, Social Systems, and the Economic World, and Dylan Evans's ideas on evolutionary psychology. The principal cast underwent months of intense training with martial arts choreographer Yuen Woo-ping to prepare for the fight scenes. The Matrix proved to be a box office success; several critics considered it to be one of the best science fiction films of all time. Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times felt it was a "wildly cinematic futuristic thriller that is determined to overpower the imagination", despite perceiving weaknesses in the film's dialogue. Janet Maslin of The New York Times credited Reeves for being a "strikingly chic Prada model of an action hero", and thought the martial arts stunts were the film's strongest feature. The Matrix received Academy Awards for Best Film Editing, Best Sound Editing, Best Visual Effects, and Best Sound.

After the success of The Matrix, Reeves avoided another blockbuster in favour of a lighthearted sports comedy, The Replacements (2000). He agreed to a pay cut to enable Gene Hackman to co-star in the film. Against his wishes, Reeves starred in the thriller The Watcher (2000), playing a serial killer who stalks a retired FBI agent. He said that a friend forged his signature on a contract, which he could not prove; he appeared in the film to avoid legal action. Upon its release, the film was critically panned. That year, he had a supporting role in another thriller, Sam Raimi's , a story about a woman (played by Cate Blanchett) with extrasensory perception asked to help find a young woman who disappeared. The film grossed $44 million worldwide. Film critic Paul Clinton of CNN thought the film was fairly compelling, saying of Reeves's acting: "[Raimi] managed to get a performance out of Reeves that only occasionally sounds like he's reading his lines from the back of a cereal box."

In 2001, Reeves continued to explore and accept roles in a diverse range of genres. The first was a romantic drama, Sweet November, a remake of the 1968 film of the same name. This was his second collaboration with Charlize Theron; the film was met with a generally negative reception. Desson Thompson of The Washington Post criticized it for its "syrupy cliches, greeting-card wisdom and over-the-top tragicomedy", but commended Reeves for his likability factor in every performance he gives. (2001) marked Reeves's attempt in another sports comedy. Directed by Brian Robbins, it is based on the book Hardball: A Season in the Projects by Daniel Coyle. Reeves plays Conor O'Neill, a troubled young man who agrees to coach a Little League team from the Cabrini Green housing project in Chicago as a condition of obtaining a loan. Film critic Roger Ebert noted the film's desire to tackle difficult subjects and baseball coaching, but felt it lacked depth, and Reeves's performance was "glum and distant".

By 2002, his professional music career had come to an end when Dogstar disbanded. The band had released two albums during their decade together; Our Little Visionary in 1996 and Happy Ending in 2000. Sometime afterwards, Reeves performed in the band Becky for a year, founded by Dogstar band-mate Rob Mailhouse, but quit in 2005, citing a lack of interest in a serious music career. After being absent from the screen in 2002, Reeves returned to The Matrix sequels in 2003 with The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions, released in May and November, respectively. Principal photography for both films was completed back-to-back, primarily at Fox Studios in Australia. The Matrix Reloaded garnered mostly favourable reviews; John Powers of praised the "dazzling pyrotechnics" but was critical of certain machine-like action scenes. Of Reeves's acting, Powers thought it was somewhat "wooden" but felt he has the ability to "exude a charmed aura". Andrew Walker, writing for the Evening Standard, praised the cinematography ("visually it gives full value as a virtuoso workout for your senses") but he was less taken by the film's " dime-store philosophy". The film grossed $739 million worldwide.

The Matrix Revolutions, the third instalment, was met with mixed reception. According to review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the consensus was that "characters and ideas take a back seat to the special effects". Paul Clinton, writing for CNN, praised the special effects but felt Reeves's character was unfocused. In contrast, the San Francisco Chronicle's Carla Meyer was highly critical of the special effects, writing, "[The Wachowskis] computer-generated imagery goes from dazzling to deadening in action scenes that favor heavy, clanking weaponry over the martial-arts moves that thrilled viewers of The Matrix and The Matrix Reloaded." Nevertheless, the film grossed a healthy $427 million worldwide, although less than the two previous films. Something's Gotta Give, a romantic comedy, was Reeves's last release of 2003. He co-starred with Jack Nicholson and Diane Keaton, and played Dr. Julian Mercer in the film. Something's Gotta Give received generally favourable reviews.

2005-2013: Thrillers, documentaries and directorial debut

Reeves at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2009

In 2005, Reeves played the title role in Constantine, an occult detective film, about a man who has the ability to perceive and communicate with half-angels and half-demons. The film was a respectable box office hit, grossing $230 million worldwide from a $100 million budget but attracted mixed-to-positive reviews. The Sydney Morning Herald's critic wrote that " Constantine isn't bad, but it doesn't deserve any imposing adjectives. It's occasionally cheesy, sometimes enjoyable, intermittently scary, and constantly spiked with celestial blatherskite". He next appeared in Thumbsucker, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2005. A comedy adapted from the 1999 Walter Kirn novel of the same name, the story follows a boy with a thumb-sucking problem. Reeves and the cast garnered positive critical reviews, with The Washington Post describing it as "a gently stirring symphony about emotional transition filled with lovely musical passages and softly nuanced performances".

Reeves appeared in the Richard Linklater-directed animated science fiction thriller A Scanner Darkly, which premiered at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival. Reeves played Bob Arctor/Fred, an undercover agent in a futuristic dystopia under high-tech police surveillance. Based on the novel of the same name by Philip K. Dick, the film was a box office failure. However, the film attracted generally favourable reviews; Paul Arendt of the BBC thought the film was "beautiful to watch", but Reeves was outshone by his co-star Robert Downey Jr. His next role was Alex Wyler in The Lake House (2006), a romantic drama adaptation of the South Korean film (2000), which reunited him with Sandra Bullock. Despite its box office success, Mark Kermode of The Guardian was highly critical, writing "this syrup-drenched supernatural whimsy achieves stupidity at a genuinely international level [...] The last time Bullock and Reeves were together on screen the result was Speed. This should have been entitled Stop". Towards the end of 2006, he co-narrated The Great Warming with Alanis Morissette, a documentary about climate change mitigation.

Next in 2008, Reeves collaborated with director David Ayer on the crime thriller Street Kings. He played an undercover policeman who must clear his name after the death of another officer. Released on April 11, the film grossed a moderate $66 million worldwide. The film's plot and Reeves' performance, however, were met with mostly unenthusiastic reviews. Paul Byrnes of The Sydney Morning Herald stated, "It's full of twists and turns, a dead body in every reel, but it's not difficult to work out who's betraying whom, and that's just not good enough". The Guardian opined that "Reeves is fundamentally blank and uninteresting". Reeves starred in another science fiction film, The Day the Earth Stood Still, a loose adaptation of the 1951 film of the same name. He portrayed Klaatu, an alien sent from outer space to try to change human behaviour or eradicate humans because of their environmental impact. At the 2009 Razzie Awards, the film was nominated for Worst Prequel, Remake, Rip-off or Sequel. Many critics were unimpressed with the heavy use of special effects; The Telegraph credited Reeves' ability to engage the audience, but thought the cinematography was abysmal and the "sub- Al-Gore environment lecture leaves you light-headed with tedium".

Tiger Chen and Reeves at the Fantastic Fest film festival, 2013

Rebecca Miller's The Private Lives of Pippa Lee was Reeves' sole release of 2009, which premiered at the 59th Berlin International Film Festival. The romantic comedy and its ensemble received an amicable review from The Telegraph's David Gritten; "Miller's film is a triumph. Uniformly well acted, it boasts a psychologically knowing script, clearly written by a smart, assertive human". In 2010, he starred in another romantic comedy, Henry's Crime, about a man who is released from prison for a crime he did not commit, but then targets the same bank with his former cellmate. The film was not a box office hit. Reeves' only work in 2011 was an adult picture book titled Ode to Happiness, which he wrote, complemented by Alexandra Grant's illustrations. Reeves co-produced and appeared in a 2012 documentary, Side by Side. He interviewed filmmakers including James Cameron, Martin Scorsese, and Christopher Nolan; the feature investigated digital and photochemical film creation. Next, Reeves starred in Generation Um... (2012), an independent drama which was critically panned.

In 2013, Reeves starred in his own directorial debut, the martial arts film Man of Tai Chi. The film has multilingual dialogue and follows a young man drawn to an underground fight club, partially inspired by the life of Reeves' friend Tiger Chen. Principal photography took place in China and in Hong Kong. Reeves was also assisted by Yuen Woo-ping, the fight choreographer of The Matrix films. Man of Tai Chi premiered at the Beijing Film Festival and the Cannes Film Festival, and received praise from director John Woo. A wider, warm response followed suit; Bilge Ebiri of Vulture thought the fight sequences were "beautifully assembled", and Reeves showed restraint with the film editing to present the fighters' motion sequences. The Los Angeles Times wrote, "The brutally efficient shooting style Reeves employs to film master choreographer Yuen Woo-ping's breathtaking fights [...] is refreshingly grounded and old-school kinetic", while Dave McGinn of The Globe and Mail called the film "ambitious but generic". At the box office, Man of Tai Chi was a commercial disappointment, grossing only $5.5 million worldwide from a budget of $25 million. Also in 2013, Reeves played Kai in the 3D fantasy , a Japanese fable about a group of rogue samurai. The film premiered in Japan but failed to gain traction with audiences; reviews were not positive, causing Universal Pictures to reduce advertising for the film elsewhere. 47 Ronin was a box office flop and was mostly poorly received.

2014-present: Resurgence with John Wick

Reeves in 2015

After this series of commercial failures, Reeves' career rebounded in 2014. He played the title role in the action thriller , directed by Chad Stahelski. In the first instalment of the franchise, Reeves plays a retired hitman seeking vengeance. He worked closely with the screenwriter to develop the story; "We all agreed on the potential of the project. I love the role, but you want the whole story, the whole ensemble to come to life", Reeves said. Filmed on location in the New York City area, the film was eventually released on October 24 in the United States. The Hollywood Reporter was impressed by the director's "confident, muscular action debut", and Reeves' "effortless" performance, which marked his return to the action genre. Jeannette Catsoulis of The New York Times praised Reeves' fight scenes and wrote he is "always more comfortable in roles that demand cool over hot, attitude over emotion". John Wick proved to be a box office success, grossing $86 million worldwide. Next, Reeves starred in a smaller-scale horror feature, Knock Knock (2015), a remake of the 1977 film . Described as "over-the-top destruction" by the Toronto Star, Reeves plays a father, home alone, when two young women show up and start a game of cat and mouse. His other releases in 2015 were the documentaries , about crime on the dark web, and Mifune: The Last Samurai, about the life of a Japanese actor ( Toshiro Mifune) famous for playing samurai characters. He narrated both films.

Reeves appeared in five film releases in 2016. The first was , a crime thriller about a detective who investigates his partner's death and discovers police corruption along the way. The film received negative reviews for its confused plot, and Reeves was criticized for displaying limited facial expressions. His next release, the comedy , was better received. In it he voiced the eponymous kitten. Reeves then had a minor role in The Neon Demon, a psychological horror directed by Nicolas Winding Refn. He played Hank, a lustful motel owner who appears in Jesse's (played by Elle Fanning) nightmare. In his fourth release, he played a charismatic leader of a settlement in The Bad Batch. His final release of the year was The Whole Truth, featuring Gabriel Basso, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Renée Zellweger, and Jim Belushi. He played Richard, a defence attorney. Noel Murray of described it as "moderately clever, reasonably entertaining courtroom drama", with a skilled cast but overall a "mundane" film. Reeves also appeared in Swedish Dicks, a two-season web television series.

In 2017, Reeves agreed to reprise his role for a sequel in the John Wick franchise, John Wick: Chapter 2. The story carries on from the first film and follows John Wick as he goes on the run when a bounty is placed on him. The film was a critical and commercial success, grossing $171.5 million worldwide, more than its predecessor. Chris Hewitt of Empire magazine praised Reeves' performance, which complemented his previous action roles ( Point Break and Speed). However, Justin Chang of the Los Angeles Times described the picture as "a down-and-dirty B-picture with a lustrous A-picture soul". Besides to this large-scale feature, Reeves starred in a drama, , in which he plays a doctor helping a young woman with anorexia. It premiered at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival, followed by distribution on Netflix in July. Early reviews were positive, with praise for its non-glamorized portrayal of anorexia, although the New Statesman magazine thought it was irresponsible. That year, Reeves also made cameo appearances in the films A Happening of Monumental Proportions and .

Guillermo Amoedo and Reeves on the set of Knock Knock, in 2014

Reeves reunited with Winona Ryder in the 2018 comedy Destination Wedding, about wedding guests who develop a mutual affection for each other. They had worked together previously in Bram Stoker's Dracula, A Scanner Darkly and The Private Lives of Pippa Lee. Reeves also co-produced and starred in two thrillers. , in which he plays a diamond trader who travels to Siberia to search for his Russian partner, and , which tells the story of a neuroscientist who violates laws and bioethics to bring his family back to life after they die in a car crash. Siberia was critically panned; reviewers thought the plot was nonsensical and Reeves had little chemistry with co-star Ana Ularu. Replicas did not fare well with critics either; The A.V. Club praised Reeves' performance, but gave the film a grade D−, adding it is "garbage". It was also a box office failure, earning $9.3 million from a budget of $30 million.

Returning to the John Wick franchise, Reeves starred in John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum (2019), the third feature in the series directed by Stahelski. The film takes place immediately after the events of John Wick: Chapter 2 and features new cast members including Halle Berry. The film was another box office hit, grossing $171 million in the United States and more than $155 million internationally. The Globe and Mail's reviewer gave the film three out of four stars, praising the fight scenes, but felt there was "aesthetic overindulgence" with the cinematography. The Guardian's Cath Clarke questioned Reeves' acting; she wrote that "he keeps his face statue-still [...] three movies in, franchise bloat is beginning to set in". Reeves was nominated for Favorite Male Movie Star of 2019 in the People's Choice Awards, and the film itself was nominated for Best Contemporary Film in the Art Directors Guild Awards. Reeves then voiced Duke Caboom in 2019's , the fourth instalment of Pixar's Toy Story franchise. In that same year on April 27 and 28, a film festival was held in his honour, called KeanuCon, hosted in Glasgow, Scotland. Over two days, nine of his films were screened for guests.

As early as 2008, Reeves and Alex Winter had shown enthusiasm for a third film, but the project went into development limbo. Finally in 2020, Bill & Ted Face the Music, the third film in the franchise was released. The critic from magazine was disappointed in Reeves' performance, but praised the film for its message that "music has the power to unite the world". Leah Greenblatt of Entertainment Weekly gave the film a grade B, and complimented the onscreen chemistry between Reeves and Winter. He also appeared in The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run as a tumbleweed named Sage. Reeves appears as Johnny Silverhand in the video game Cyberpunk 2077. In December 2021, Reeves returned to the screen for the fourth film in The Matrix franchise: The Matrix Resurrections. Carrie-Anne Moss also reprised her role as Trinity. The Matrix Resurrections was a box office disappointment; one critic praised Reeves' and Moss' performances, but thought the film was "no game-changer".

Lionsgate's John Wick: Chapter 4 premiered on March 24, 2023; Reeves reprised his role as the title character. He also reprised his role as Johnny Silverhand in the Cyberpunk 2077 expansion, Phantom Liberty.

Upcoming projects

In 2019, Reeves travelled to São Paulo to produce a Netflix series, Conquest. Details are being kept secret. A comic book series, , co-written by Reeves was published in March 2021. He is expected to star in a film adaptation of it. A fifth sequel to John Wick was planned, but Stahelski said he would like to give the franchise a "rest" for the time being.

Personal life

In 1998, Reeves met director David Lynch's assistant Jennifer Syme at a party thrown for his band Dogstar, and they started dating. On December 24, 1999, Syme gave birth eight months into her pregnancy to the couple's child, who was stillborn. The couple broke up several weeks afterward, but later reconciled. On April 2, 2001, Syme was killed when her vehicle collided with three parked cars on Cahuenga Boulevard in Los Angeles. Syme was impaired, and also not belted in. Reeves told investigators that they were back together, and had brunch together in San Francisco the day before the accident. Reeves acted as a pallbearer for Syme, who was buried next to their daughter. He was scheduled to film the sequels to The Matrix the following spring, but sought "peace and time", according to friend Bret Domrose of Dogstar.

Reeves has also been romantically linked to longtime friend and filmmaker Brenda Davis, whose child he is godfather to, and model-actress China Chow. In 2009, Reeves met Alexandra Grant at a dinner party; they went on to collaborate on two books together. They went public with their relationship in November 2019.

Reeves is discreet about his spiritual beliefs, saying that it is something "personal and private". When asked if he was a spiritual person, he said that he believes "in God, faith, inner faith, the self, passion, and things", and that he is "very spiritual". Although he does not formally practice Buddhism, the religion has left a strong impression on him, especially after filming Little Buddha. He said, "Most of the things I've come away with from Buddhism have been human-understanding feelings, impermanence, and trying to understand other people and where they're coming from."

When asked on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert in 2019 about his views on what happens after death, Reeves replied, "I know that the ones who love us will miss us".

In 2023, the lipopeptide Keanumycin, a substance deadly to fungi, was named in honor of Reeves.

Business and philanthropy

Mural of Reeves in Santiago de Chile

Reeves supports several charities and causes. In response to his sister's battle with leukemia, he founded a private cancer foundation, which aids children's hospitals and provides cancer research. In June 2020, he volunteered for Camp Rainbow Gold, an Idaho children's cancer charity. Reeves has said, "Money is the last thing I think about. I could live on what I have already made for the next few centuries". It was rumoured that Reeves gave away a substantial portion, estimated to be $35-$125 million, of his earnings from The Matrix to the special effects and makeup crews. However, this has been significantly embellished; Reeves negotiated a smaller deal, relinquishing his contractual right to a percentage of the sequels' profits in exchange for a more extensive special effects budget.

After filming John Wick: Chapter 4, Reeves, Chad Stahelski and Brazilian jiu-jitsu instructor Dave Camarillo, signed an exclusive training uniform that was put up for auction in March 2023 to raise money for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.

Reeves co-founded a production company, Company Films, with friend Stephen Hamel. In 2011, Reeves, an avid motorcyclist, co-founded Arch Motorcycle Company, which builds and sells custom motorcycles, with Gard Hollinger. In 2017, Reeves, Jessica Fleischmann, and Alexandra Grant founded book publisher, X Artists' Books (also known as XAB). He has written two books: Ode to Happiness and Shadows, both of which are collaborations with Grant; he provided the text to her photographs and art.

Censorship

In 2022, Reeves's recitation of the Beat poem " Pull My Daisy" for a virtual benefit concert for Tibet House US, a nonprofit organization affiliated with the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, angered Chinese nationalists. Reeves's films have been banned from streaming platforms in China such as iQiyi, Tencent Video and Youku.

In the media

Reeves' star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame

In a 2005 article for magazine, Lev Grossman called Reeves "Hollywood's ultimate introvert". He has been described as a workaholic, charming and "excruciatingly shy". During the production of Constantine, director Francis Lawrence commented on his personality, calling him "hardworking" and "generous". His co-star Shia LaBeouf said, "I've worked with him for a year and a couple of months, but I don't really know him that much". Erwin Stoff of 3 Arts Entertainment has served as Reeves's agent and manager since he was 16, and produced many of his films. Stoff said Reeves "is a really private person" and keeps his distance from other people.

In 2010, an image of Reeves became an internet meme after photographs of him were published, sitting on a park bench with a sad facial expression. The images were posted on the 4chan discussion board and were soon distributed via several blogs and media outlets, leading to the "Sad Keanu" meme being spread on the internet. An unofficial holiday was created when a Facebook fan page declared June 15 as "Cheer-up Keanu Day". He would later downplay the photo, saying, "Man, I was eating a sandwich. I was thinking-I had some stuff going on. I was hungry."

Reeves's casual persona and ability to establish rapport have been observed by the public, leading him to be dubbed the "Internet's boyfriend". In 2019, cited Reeves's unorthodox filmography and ability to appeal to nerd culture as the primary reasons for his internet popularity. While filming Bill & Ted Face the Music in July 2019, Reeves and other cast members came across a house with a banner reading "You're Breathtaking" and "Mini Keanu", two memes that had come out of Reeves's appearance at the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2019 for the game Cyberpunk 2077. Reeves took time to sign the banner, and talk to the family.

Reeves appeared on ' annual Celebrity 100 list in 2001 and 2002, at number 36 and 49, respectively. In 2005, Reeves received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his contributions to the motion picture industry. In 2016, The Hollywood Reporter calculated that Reeves had earned $250 million for The Matrix franchise, making him one of the highest-paid actors. In 2020, The New York Times ranked him at number four on its list of the 25 Greatest Actors of the 21st Century.

Filmography and awards

Prolific in film since 1985, Reeves's most acclaimed and highest-grossing films, according to the review aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes, include: River's Edge (1987), Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure (1989), My Own Private Idaho (1991), Much Ado About Nothing (1993), Speed (1994), The Matrix (1999), John Wick (2014), John Wick: Chapter2 (2017), John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum (2019), and Toy Story 4 (2019). Reeves has won four MTV Movie Awards, and received two Best Actor nominations at the Saturn Awards. He was nominated twice for a People's Choice Award: Favorite Male Movie Star and Favorite Action Movie Star, for his performance in John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum (2019).

In September 2021, Tae Kwon Do Life Magazine deemed Reeves the "#1 Martial Arts movie star in the world" based upon his multiple films in the genre, their popularity, and sheer box office gross.

Bibliography

Reeves, Keanu (text by); Grant, Alexandra (drawings by, book design by) (2011). Bergam, Janey (ed.). Ode to Happiness. Göttingen: Steidl Publishers. ISBN 9783869302096. OCLC 756797130.

Reeves, Keanu (text by); Grant, Alexandra (photographs by) (2014). Shadows: A Collaborative Project by Alexandra Grant and Keanu Reeves. Göttingen: Steidl Publishers. ISBN 9783869308272. OCLC 965117169.

(with Matt Kindt and Ron Garney, 12-issue mini-series, Boom! Studios, 2021, ISBN 9781684156856)

References

Further reading

DeAngelis, Michael (2001). Gay Fandom and Crossover Stardom: James Dean, Mel Gibson, and Keanu Reeves. Durham: Duke University Press. ISBN 0-8223-2728-7.

Ong, Soh Chin (May 15, 2003). "A Man of Many Faces". The Straits Times. Singapore.

"Pondering the mysterious Keanu Reeves". CNN. November 5, 2003. Archived from the original on April 30, 2008.

Smithey, Cole. "Seven magazine interview with Keanu Reeves". Seven magazine. Archived from the original on January 8, 2011.

External links

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Keanu Charles Reeves ( kee-AH-noo ; born September 2, 1964) is a Canadian actor. Born in Beirut and raised in Toronto, he made his acting debut in the Canadian television series (1984), before making his feature film debut in Youngblood (1986).

# data[].attributes.body
How great leaders inspire action
Simon Sinek

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Simon Sinek has a simple but powerful model for inspirational leadership -- starting with a golden circle and the question: “Why?” His examples include Apple, Martin Luther King Jr. and the Wright brothers…

# data[].attributes.body
Can the Arts Inspire Better Leadership?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Željko Katušin, PMBA 2004

As I read through the articles on art and leadership, and in my reflections afterwards, I began relating the material to my past experiences and my personal opinions. The articles really made me think.

The arts are among the most popular and powerful phenomena of humankind. Art has existed since the beginning of civilization and has been a defining part of humankind ever since. The drivers of the arts are individual and group needs to express feelings and thoughts, document them in abstract or realistic forms, capture the sense of related phenomena, communicate with others and affect the senses. The arts are, at the most basic level, ways of experiencing, interpreting and representing our experiences of life.

On the other side, leadership is an integral part of organizational life and management. It too appeared at a very early stage of humanity. It is an outgrowth of the need to organize. Organizing has improved an individual's (and a group's) chances for survival and enables further growth on the evolutionary ladder. Leadership became an important aspect of this organizing behavior which provides one of the successful ways to compete and grow.
Arts and leadership, both having historic origins have been interacting with each other in the past, as well as today. Both disciplines depend on creativity for survival and progression.
The arts have often led as part of the avant-garde of human thinking and can therefore provide innovative and even inspirational ideas for the leadership of organizations.

On the surface, the fundamental concepts of the arts and business leadership seem different. The arts are seen as free, intuitive thought, whereas traditionally business has been seen as more disciplined, rational and organized.

Due to its variety, complexity and abstractness we can surely use the arts as an example, inspiration and model for eventual solutions for contemporary leadership issues. Studying arts issues can provide us with ideas to build new techniques, approaches and methods we can use in our managerial work. It can increase abilities and creative skills to find solutions to real life problems {Austin and Devin, 2003; Darso, 2004; Ibbotson, 2008; Reckenrich, Kupp& Anderson, 2010).

In short, examining the arts increases our ability in creative analyses of real life situations, for making sense of the complexity, taking decisions and providing us with action (Barry&Meisiek, 2010; Springborg, 2010). Through art one individual can, by using one's senses along with one's mind, come to common understandings of the environment in which one acts and therefore come to better decisions and actions.

The arts relate to the sensory-emotional aspects of human experience. Anyone can engage his/her senses, intuition and interpretation to interact with art. There is great potential in these human resources, a potential to engage people to use their senses, intuition and interpretive abilities to think differently. How do we mobilise this?

Thinking differently is a very important issue. For example, Albert Einstein held that we cannot solve today's problems with the same way of thinking used to create the problems. This highlights a central question for all responsible leaders: Do you dare to think differently and take the "other" way?

Reality beyond the obvious is many times "hidden" to the eyes of normal spectators. Daring to see, admit and deal with the whole subject opens the way to new solutions. For example, remember the old story about the Emperor's New Clothes. Here the writer, a creative artist, reminds us of the daring to think differently and presents the idea that it took a "naive" child to see that the Emperor was really naked.

The arts provide alternative ways to see and make sense of our world (Barry &Meisiek, 2010; Taylor & Ladkin, 2009). There are intuitive and qualitative skills, coming from different kinds of arts, available for leaders and their teams. Approaches from theater (Biehi-Missal, 2010; Stevenson, 1996; Wood, 2002), orchestras and bands (Atik, 1994; Koivunen&Wennes, 2011; Drucker, 1992) provide new ideas for team-building skills such as creative teamwork, discipline, focus on common goals, and acquisition of inspiration for repetitive actions - issues all very important for business success.

Just imagine the performance and perception skills of the orchestra musician, simultaneously playing his/her instrument and carefully observing and listening to the others as well as following the conductor's lead - wouldn't that kind of situation perfectly fit an ideal business environment? Why not try to learn and fit it into your team?

There are several practical examples of how to introduce arts methods into leadership practice. Taylor and Ladkin (2009) have suggested four methods in particular. The first is to transfer performing skills from the arts into organizations. The second is to use art's 'projective techniques' in order to express and reflect inner thoughts and feelings. Thirdly, they suggest the use of art's presentation and representation capacities for illustrations of the key ideas and essence of concepts. Finally they suggest getting engaged in the arts yourself by 'making', in order to express your inner self and enhance your creativity, something that can be a cathartic experience.

Business study related to arts increases development of the imagination, spatial thinking and abstract reasoning, which are all essential skills for today's students and future business professionals.

The question is whether the arts can, in reality, definitively help and inspire leadership for a better performance. The answer is vague as it all depends on an individual's beliefs, hopes, commitment and an organization's ability to introduce new methods and goals into organizational life.

The goals that are set in the organizations must go beyond the limits of tradition and profit margins. Art suggests that not only profit is enough to fulfill the needs of individuals and successfully complete the mission of an organization. There are more values behind the economic gains. The organizations who are ready to commit to the utilization of creative abilities and serve social good and ecological responsibility will evolve into desirable, modern organizations delivering innovations which will in turn increase their competitive advantage.

During my personal experience with art and leadership development I have often noticed how interconnected they are and how they can positively impact each other. In any respect I think it is worthwhile to stay in touch with art. Even if there is no direct interaction with management and leadership, art's ability to relax, inspire and encourage creative energy serves perfectly to diffuse the everyday stressful and exhausting work of managing.
I have benefited from arts experiences in film making, painting and playing music in a band. All these experiences have informed my work. What about my leadership experience?
My leadership perspective has changed over the past few years, due to several internal and external conflicts. I have grown personally and through my work experience, so did my perspectives change. Additional education in management has brought knowledge and skills, some of which I have implemented in my work. The company where I work has grown and evolved. Most importantly, the world has changed and requires innovative perspectives. The times are different and we have to cope with new situations every day.
Economics and the economy are known for their uncertainties and unpredictability. The present times in particular can be described, as Slovene economist Jože Mencinger has recently done, as to Columbus discovering the New World: when starting his journey he did not know where he was heading, when landing he did not know where he was.

Vision and hope were the main drivers that guided Columbus on his path through unknown territories. Following his innovative idea he was rewarded by additional discovery, which nobody predicted or expected. It isn't rare in life that brave and innovative acts are accompanied with additional unexpected gains and discoveries. "Those who dare, win", the motto is used also for extreme situations in order to ensure maximum faith and motivation of participants.

So much for the past experience, what about future benefits from my arts and leadership studies?

There are several trends that can be recognized in the modern world. The structure and relations of the world have changed through increased global interconnectedness and increased domination of market forces (Adler, 2006). Most important is the recognition that due to modern world changes we need to rethink who we are as human beings.

The standard models cannot cope anymore with the complexities of the present. The world of complexity is driven by discontinuous change, within the network of interconnected teams, acting simultaneously. Creative action is required for adequate strategies to deal with these problems. What needs to be done and how can we do it?

It is important for leaders to recognize, describe and implement the present seeds that will flower in the future, by using their imagination, creative and intuitive abilities without waiting for all the evidence to appear on their desks.

Business organizations shall need to embrace flatter systems, more networked, multi organizational structures including global strategic alliances, joint ventures and partnerships following the leaderless chamber orchestra model.

Managerial approaches shall move from planning-then-doing to simultaneous listening-and-observing-while-doing skills, first ensuring that atmosphere in the team is ready for improvisation and team members do trust their colleagues that they are taking care of the team's best interests.
(Adler, 2006)

Advanced computer technologies have changed the ways of creating new products, services and market relationships. The use of computerized models has enabled rapid and cheap iteration allowing creative leaders to dream new ideas worthy of testing, in that way substituting costly and time consuming experimentation for planning (Adler, 2006; Austin & Devin, 2003).

The most important is the trend of economy-focus change from efficiency oriented towards one based on significance and meaning (Adler 2006; Austin & Devin, 2003). The needs and expectations of the people have changed and economic success alone is no longer enough. There is a strong urge for contributions that make genuine and positive differences in all our lives.

The roles of leaders have changed and they need to be supported by their abilities based on courage and creativity. This courage is to envision new possibilities and challenge and inspire others - just like artists do.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Can the arts really help and inspire better leadership performance?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Željko Katušin, PMBA 2004 As I read through the articles on art and leadership, and in my reflections afterwards, I began relating the material to my past experiences and my personal opinions. The articles really made me think. The arts are among the most popular and powerful phenomena of humankind.

# data[].attributes.body
Art and Leadership

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
I was raised in a home which held art in high regard. Both my grandfathers were artists - one a professional photographer and the other an architect and painter. My parents used to take me to art galleries when I was little and our flat was always full of pantings and albums full of paintings were all over our house. My father played music as a hobby and my mother has been into photography since I can recall.

As a kid I used to invent new songs and tape-record them. I wrote poetry. Later on I took drawing and painting lessons and was granted access to an art high school. I decided to leave myself more options and not focus on arts. In the mid-90's I became fascinated with the hip hop culture. For a few years I was a graffiti artist and rapped in a local band.

Art is a waste of time

I gave it all up when I landed my first job at the age of 19. Suddenly everything had to be „reasonble", „make sense" and „make ends meet". I put the artsy part of myself on the shelf and focused on learning how to do business. I gave up what was dear to me as I thought it was „useless".

Is that true? Looking from another perspective I realize that my early fascination was not only useful in my later career, but giving it up didn't make sense at all. Maybe I just lacked a good mentor at that time. If you are still reading this it means that you either experienced a similar dillema or you have not been into art that much, but consider getting into it from curiosity. There is a number of reasons it is worth a try, so let's dig into them.

Why art may matter to a leader

Courage to make new, imperfect things that nobody will understand.

When you write a poem or draw something with no intention to publish you can hush your internal self-critic. There are no limits to creativity and experiments. It is an excerise of courage. There is no need to worry if it fits the rules, if it is good or bad, it it is off the limits or not. You art is as it is. Doing so you can become more self-confident and willing to show your own style. This translates to your behavioral patterns in your professional life.

Openness to different perspectives.

If you go to a gallery and see a fridge standing in the corner painted with blue and yellow car spray. You may like it or not but as you are already there, you face it and may develop an opinion or just observe with curiosity. What is amazing about art is that it knows no boundries. It feeds on breaking the rules and the element of surprise. Interacting with it may help you develop openness.

Creativity helps in problem solving and programming.

To copy something that exists already is not easy but may require diligent work to reverse engineer an established process. To build something that has never existed is a challenge not only writers but also programmers or product managers face every day. And this is what art is all about - creating new objects in a World where „everything has already been told". Embracing the ability to come up with new ideas is invaluable.

Try painting an object and thinking about something else at the same time. Impossible. One of the reasons why doodling is believed to increase productivity is that it attaches you to the here and now. It turns off the busy mind and improves focus on the thing at hand. Writing or drawing can be the way to pause while your mind is overwhelmed with problems and cannot find a solution.

Hardly anyone can learn how to paint overnight. It requires hours of work and tons of paper to draw an apple that will resemble a real one. Imagine playing Bach after a few piano lessons. Art - as any skill - requires practice. I believe that great artists, just like athletes, build an artistic muscle that can help them overcome challenges in their career in business.

Hitting deadlines and crossing out tasks on the to-do list is obviously everything. Unfortunately, sometimes we may get in the mode when we feel as if nothing except work matters. As if tangible results are the only good reason to live. Doing something that „makes no sense" eg. doesn't give you fame or money, but just pure fun, may seem like a waste of time. Engaging in singing or knitting can bring just pure fun. The fun of creating for the sake of creating. That can bring true relief to a goal-oriented mind.

Is art for you?

Some of the benefits are available just by interacting and being curious about art. Some require becoming an artist. Anyone can become an artist - even if this means making one drawing a year and putting it at the bottom of a drawer. In my opinion it is the state of mind and openness to experiment that make an artist.

Nowadays I go to a gallery wherever I travel. This year I am going to take caligraphy classes and plan to use my own drawings to illustrate some of my writing (eg. the one above). I find it difficult to rewire myself for spending time with this „impractical" state of mind.
If you want to read more on this topic, the following books gave me a lot of joy and were of inspiration:

„What is Art" by Leo Tolstoy
„Bird by Bird" by Anne Lamott
„If You Want to Write" by Brenda Ueland

How do you feel about art?

WRITTEN BY

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Art and leadership - what does it have in common? - Greg Albrecht

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Art is a waste of time...Is that true? Looking from another perspective I realize that my early fascination was not only useful in my later career, but giving it up didn't make sense at all. Why art may matter to a leader? There is a number of reasons it is worth a try, so let's dig into them.

# data[].attributes.body
Why is Vermeer's "Girl with the Pearl Earring" considered a masterpiece?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Why is Vermeer's "Girl with the Pearl Earring" considered a masterpiece? - James Earle

# data[].attributes.body
Follow the leader Suli Breaks TEDxHousesofParliament

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Follow the leader | Suli Breaks | TEDxHousesofParliament

# data[].attributes.body
Success in Design by being More Persuadable

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Photo by rawpixel on Unsplash

Design Leadership

In the book " Persuadable," Al Pittampalli argues that people must be open to persuasion in order to become great leaders. He dispels of some long-held notions we have about leadership, particularly the ideas that leaders are resolute and unwavering. I couldn't help but think about designers as I was reading this book because many of the myths we believe about leadership, we often believe about design leaders as well.

As I reflect on my own time as a junior designer (and in conversations with junior designers today), I used to believe similar myths surrounding what it means to be a design leader.
If I were to sum up what I felt a design leader, it would be something like:

"You have to push back on dev so they respect design."

"Make a design decision and follow through."

"You're the expert so it's your responsibility to teach others about the value of design."

"You've got to be aggressive to earn a seat at the table."

Any of these sound familiar?
Designers often conjure images of a confident person walking the stage presenting a beautiful design with utter confidence, or a design director asserting design's role in the upcoming product roadmap. Or maybe we imagine a design manager going to bat for their design team when development didn't implement the agreed-upon designs. In fact, behind most strong design leaders is someone who is actually much more persuadable than you'd realize.

I'll be the first to admit that my journey to design leadership started by believing these myths and compensating for my own insecurities by engaging in battles with developers, or arguing against points counter to my own.

Before I felt like I was a design leader, I needed to act the part. But the reality is much different, and I think Pittampalli's points about leadership are perfect for design where we're usually thrust into feeling the need to persuade others even at the expense of getting closed off to others' ideas.

The key to being a great design leader is less about being persuasive and more about being persuadable.

In this article I'll break down his seven practices of persuadable design leadership (I consolidated down to just six). My hope is to dispel the myths we buy into and chart a course for avoiding the pitfalls I've encountered in my journey to design leadership. I hope that design leaders, and those aspiring to lead through design, find this useful.

1. Consider designing the opposite

This is a simple exercise that any designer can start with. Before digging your heels into convince your design team that your idea is great, start considering the opposite. I think this is a trap junior designers can easily fall into because as you put your design forth to more senior people, it's easy to project an air of confidence. And if you have your own feelings of self-doubt (like yours truly), then you might feel that you have to protect your design from any and all opposition. Instead, embrace this as you hone your design because it will make it stronger.
Tactics

Imagine you're designing your feature for a competitor. Designers have a nasty habit (me included) of assuming all competitors are wrong. We feel bolstered in our own work by designing something different. But what if the competition did it for a reason? Allow yourself to open up to what competitors are doing.

Think how another company would solve it. In a similar approach, imagine an entirely different company's solution. There's always the whole, "How would Apple do it?" But you can find better analogous examples to influence your work.

2. Gradually refine your design philosophy or strategy

Pittampalli references one of my favorite books, " Superforecasting," which references how there are two different ways of viewing the world: 1) as a hedgehog that sees everything through one overarching idea, or 2) as a fox that rely on diverse opinions and data (it's actually based on an Isaiah Berlin essay, but Superforecasting gives a lot more detail on studies done since then which validates the concepts). As you can imagine, hedgehogs (which make great/awful political pundits on TV, are much less effective leaders than foxes.

The field of design is rooted in finding inspiration but it's no less susceptible to buying into dogmatic views. These can take the form small things "all apps should have a top nav rather than a side nav," or larger concepts like, "all great design must start with a design system," or "designers should code." But to be successful, it's more important to remain flexible rather than buy into one idea.
Tactics
Read (articles and books). Never stop continuously learning. As much as I bash discussions like "designers should code," I still check in on the debate now and again because I know my views can change.

3. Destroy your concepts

The book uses the oft-used, "kill your darlings" and uses this to explain higher-level business decisions (e.g. Bezos' decision to disrupt Amazon's bookselling business with the Kindle). But this same philosophy can easily be used in design itself.
Tactics

Delete old artboards. Or at the very least burying them in a graveyard page. As you refine your designs, don't be afraid to start fresh.

Let old ideas die. Maybe it's all the Marie Kondo sweeping the nation, but I think having old ideas linger can be detrimental because it adds clutter to your brain. I've heard too many designers say things like "I had this idea years ago," or remain closed off to new ideas because they like their old one better. Remember that ideas are easy and if they come back around again, that means they'll be even stronger. If they don't, then leaving them behind was for the best.

4. Empathize with your broader team members

Empathy with users is considered a key attribute to being a successful designer but we often forget to employ that same mentality when it comes to our team. In the past I've advocated that being a truly successful designer will require that you understand the motivations and incentives for the other functional areas on your team. For example, while I often sparred with QA, I did so because I was irritated they were infringing on my turf. But what I learned was that while I felt I owned design quality, they felt the same way. Their job is to ensure the product has as few defects as possible and sometimes that meant questioning the design itself.
Tactics
Preview your work with functional areas early and often. The longer you wait, the less receptive you'll be and the worse off your design (and relationships will become).

5. Avoid analysis paralysis

In a book about being persuadable, Pittampalli also cautions against being too persuadable. In design this is the tendency to weigh different options endlessly, often to the detriment of your own success. Either weighing other people's feedback, or simply staring at two art boards for the user preferences page you have to finish tomorrow but not knowing whether to go with a side nav, or top nav (not that it's ever happened to me or anything).
Tactics

Match the communication strategy to the design scope. Handle small decisions in lightweight ways. You don't need a meeting to discuss button placement, simply send a slack or have someone stand over your shoulder. Conversely if it's a big foundational concept, a meeting could be warranted.

Match your effort to value. How impactful is the design detail you're poring over? If it's small then save energy. If it's big - either because it affects other parts of the design or it's important to the business - then spend more time on it.

Remember there is no certainty in design. You can avoid over-analyzing or over-weighing others' opinions by understanding that in the end there is no way to be 100% whether your design will work as expected.

Don't use analysis as a comfort blanket keeping you from making tough decisions.

6. Set the standard

I consolidated the final two practices into one because they both pertain to a leaders role in establishing a precedent for others to follow. Leaders must help bridge the gap between their own cohort and ideas that exist outside their group. In design I think this has tremendous importance for two reasons. 1) Design has a unique role in touching many users' lives so the impact of what goes in the design is exponential. 2) Designers' "peers" are often more than just other designers but the broader product team so they can impact more functional areas.

Design leaders will regularly adopt new ways of doing things. In doing so, you will influence others around as a legitimizing reference point. For example, a couple years ago you may have been the one spearheading the creation of your organization's first design system. That may not seem on the surface a very dramatic position to take but make no mistake, it's a big shift you are trying to create in your org, no matter how obvious it seems to implement. Ultimately, being a design leader is about how you can delicately balance the status quo while setting an example for how to evolve.
Tactics

Lead by example in your own work. Something as small as using diverse names and profiles in mockups can set a strong standard. Designers aren't inherently more influential than other roles but the unique position of designs in prototypes, marketing materials, and simply as internal vision pieces can give a platform to lead by example.

Be an ambassador. To be a great designer, you have to balance the views of many people, both internal and external. Designers must fight the urge to be dogmatic in how we create change in our product teams from the outside. For example, it's easy to criticize a product's legacy UI and propose sweeping changes, but if you do this without understanding why it's there to begin with then your ability to change it will be small. Being an ambassador means you are bridging the gap between two ways of thinking.

Being a designer is inherently a leadership position. Whether you are leading the product team with a vision, leading junior designers, or simply designing things that lead users to do something, leadership is a fundamental component. I hope that becoming more persuadable can help guide you to be a great design leader.
When I'm not helping UX designers become more persuadable, I'm helping them with Sketch design tools at Follow UX Power Tools on Twitter Connect on LinkedIn UX Power Tools and leading design at Innovatemap.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Become a Successful Design Leader by Being More Persuadable

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Design Leadership In the book " Persuadable," Al Pittampalli argues that people must be open to persuasion in order to become great leaders. He dispels of some long-held notions we have about leadership, particularly the ideas that leaders are resolute and unwavering.

# data[].attributes.body
Lead Like the Great Conductors

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Itay Talgam: Lead like the great conductors

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
An orchestra conductor faces the ultimate leadership challenge: creating perfect harmony without saying a word. In this charming talk, Itay Talgam demonstrates the unique styles of six great 20th-century conductors, illustrating crucial lessons for all leaders.