Exploring Creative Leadership With Rick Rubin
Great profile in yesterday’s New York Times on Rick Rubin. Rick is an esteemed producer with the reputation of being a “guru” creative leader in music.
The best creative leaders are always specifically opinionated and decisive. It tends to build a mystique around them, but it’s what people want, even need, to hear. If you asked for a critique from a creative leader you respect, you want to hear specific, decisive feedback. Artists of all kinds are dying for that kind of interaction. Remember the “More Cowbell” skit?
When the system works, leaders improve the works they’re responsible for through expert criticism. When it goes wrong, critics who are not responsible or responsible parties who have bad taste fill the creative leadership vacuum with disastrous results.
I think this article shows how desperately large creative enterprises need outsize creative leaders. Not managers, and not business guys who “let the artist do their thing.” Artists can do their thing on their own, but if an artist is a part of a large company, that needs to work for them and help improve their work.