The best brands and the best leaders are inseparable from each other in a certain way. They leverage their strengths and hold each other to a higher level of expectation and performance. Leaders embody their brands; brands reflect their leaders. Yet, the best also aren’t one and the same.

Some easy examples are Steve Jobs & Apple, Howard Schultz & Starbucks, or Sir Richard Branson and his far-flung Virgin empire.

They grew their brands because they breathed life into them. They had a passion, made it part of the culture and operation. They did the hard work of standing for something and building the company around that vision. They imparted their values and their high expectations — and they built sustainable brands that will last and thrive long after they’re gone.

They also were careful to ensure that their brands weren’t solely built in their image and their personality. Great leaders of great brands have their own personal brand, and they don’t let it supercede the greater good. That would damage the life of the brand they worked so hard to build; brands built solely on personality don’t survive once the leader’s gone.

I saw the interconnectedness first-hand last week while sitting in with some colleagues at a marketing firm owners’ group meeting in Mission Viejo, California. (Side note: completely enjoyed the sunny 65 degree day with the windows open and thankful I wasn’t experiencing the 20-below windchill back home in Wisconsin that day!).

We had 10 firms all in various stages of that leader/brand symbiosis. Looking at the people in the room, though, I was struck at how their brands are defined through them. Some hadn’t yet completely defined themselves as individuals or their companies, and that was apparent. One puts finance first and is left grasping at straws for a sense of purpose. Another went a bit too far embracing the purpose while not getting paid the full value for their work. Others and their company brands were completely inseparable and they were working to widen the gap so that they could eventually sell the company…a smart move.

But those with the clearest sense of purpose knew what they wanted and expected of themselves and their company brands. They had a clear separation of the two, yet had done a good job developing a symbiotic relationship in which the leader’s personal brand and vision gave life to the company brand. And the company brand, in turn, expected a good, strong and disciplined leader to protect it and nurture it.

None of that happens, though, unless the leader spends some time establishing their own sense of purpose and their own “personal brand.”

A few years ago, a business associate of mine introduced me to something he called the Life Map. It’s a good tool for establishing purpose, which then can be used to build your personal brand. You can download a copy of it here.

Basically, it’s three columns. Begin on the right side, and lay out how you’d like to be remembered at the end of your life in each category (family & friends, business, financial and personal). It’s kinda like writing your own obituary…but remember to write descriptions of yourself, not “things” you’ve done or will do. Then, in the middle column, write down your “bucket list” —things you’d like to do in your life that will drive toward the right-side column. Then, in the far left, write down things you WILL DO this year (you can us items from the bucket list).

Then, carry it with you in a notebook or on your iPad. Look at it every day. Those around you will have a clearer sense of what you stand for, without you even telling them. And for yourself, it will keep your passion alive AND give you a sense of accomplishment.

Then, you’ll be ready and strong enough to continue to build your own personal brand while giving life to a sustainable brand culture for your company that will last long after you.

That’s what legacies are made of.

“If I had asked people what they wanted, they’d have said ‘faster horses.’”      — Henry Ford

In the last couple posts, I talked about “creating creativity” — practical ways to help your staff think more proactively about problem solving in their daily duties. No doubt that type of thinking & environment helps your company stay competitive and fresh.

But what about the really BIG innovative leaps? I’m talking game changers like Steve Jobs, Henry Ford, Albert Einstein and Thomas Edison. They not only thought outside the box; they kicked it to the curb. They were disruptors. They had the courage to challenge convention on a massive scale. To fail and succeed — spectacularly on both counts — many times over.

Truth is, that type of innovation, while seemingly desired, makes most organizations and leaders downright shudder. Most companies are built around efficiency & process. They’re reactive to customer wants and are usually pretty good at serving them. Disruptors don’t thrive there, nor do those companies encourage employees disrupting their systems. In fact, most make it pretty damn difficult.

So if you want those big, game changing ideas, how do you engage the disruptors? Simple: Get out of their way.

Consider running your organization on two tracks:

1. “Normal business.” Operationalizing ideas into the business & running it to serve current customer desires.
2. Identifying & encouraging disruptors; giving them room to explore outside of current business operations.

Point #2 isn’t just an R&D facility; it’s a think tank outside the scope of “normal business” operations — with lots of freedom and resources — that lets your big thinkers anticipate customers’ future needs. It needs to be engaged right at the top of the company, so the leader can clear away obstacles and assign additional resources. Hitch yourself to their wagon and let them lead you into the future. Then — and only then — take those big ideas and go about the business of point #1. And let them start again on #2.

True disruptors don’t do well in committee or “brainstorming” sessions. They need the freedom to dream, innovate, and invent. To anticipate customer needs — things they don’t even know they want yet.

Renowned management consultant Dr. W. Edwards Deming put it best: ”Did customers ask for the electric light? No. They never asked for it, the producer produced it. No one asked for a car, nor a telephone. No one asked for a copy machine or a fax machine.

“Innovation does not come from the customers. Innovation comes from the producer, from people who are responsible for themselves and have only themselves to satisfy.”

The thinking illustrated by Jobs, Ford, Einstein and Edison is exactly what drives the marketplace we live in today. It’s not good enough any more to merely be “good enough.” If you really want to succeed, you have to figure out how to unleash and encourage disruption in your organization.

Want some inspiration from current examples? Check out 10 contemporary disruptors and their advice on the Fast Company blog.

So, we know creativity is good for business. But it’s also important on a personal scale. What’s more, it’s fairly easy. All it needs is a little nurturing.

Everyone is essentially creative. It’s just something we lose gradually as we accommodate the stresses & pressures of our lives.

To stay creative, it requires us to stay fresh — to retain the kind of wonder in the world that allows you to see each new experience, each new product, each new relationship as unique. That mindset keeps you from coming to the conclusion that it’s just the “same old thing.”

I asked a particularly creative female friend of mine how she kept a constant new perspective. Her answer: “have a baby.” She was serious.

“When you have a child, you see the world through fresh eyes, and discover all the things you’ve forgotten,” she said. “Most of us, as we grow older, have solved so many problems that we get stuck in ruts and we can only see a single way to solve them. Children aren’t locked into those ruts.”

She’s right. Creativity has reached an art form in my family over the years. My wife, a first-grade teacher, regularly shares stories of how kids get her to think differently. And when our own kids were small, it wasn’t unusual for me to pull into the driveway to find things like our old red wagon transformed into a black Batmobile, a working cardboard castle in my living room, or a son dressed in makeshift wings who only answered to the name “Buzz Lightyear.” I was immediately expected to join in.

It may sound strange, but those types of experiences can have a real and positive impact on the creative spirit at work. By stepping outside the ordinary, we gain new insights into solutions for the problems we face.

For example, my job requires that I quickly learn a lot about new areas every day. I keep an edge on that ability through interactions with young people — I have to immediately learn the rules of the world they create in order to join in.

Purposely stepping outside the ordinary is key to creativity. For example if you’re a champion tennis player, it’s better for your mind and your longevity of problem solving if you take up not another physical sport, but something like chess or knitting. Or do something different on vacation. A brand new environment often offers a fresh look at old problems.

I like to visit toy stores. Try wandering around in them and figure out how you could use the toys in your business, or how you could apply them to a particular problem. It may just spark an idea.

One creative guru I knew some years ago encouraged people to define themselves as an animal — one that closely matched their personality traits. It gave individuals a fresh insight into who they were, but also gave supervisors and spouses ideas on how to treat the person and how to use them more effectively on the job.

While it may sound strange to do, managers can make good use of the animal exercise. Good managers know not to use a giraffe to do the job of an elephant. Even Einstein advocated the thought when he said, “Everyone is a genius. But if you judge a fish on its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing it is stupid.”

The bottom line is that all of these methods actually have a physical effect on the brain by strengthening connections between our brain cells.

You also have to be willing to take risks. Highly creative people make more mistakes than their less imaginative peers, but they also make more attempts. Workplace creativity is a fragile thing — it’s up to leaders to foster the environment by surrounding themselves with creative inspiration, asking questions versus making judgments, and controlling knee-jerk negativity to new ideas.

If you don’t create that environment, your staff will get so uptight about making mistakes that they’ll be afraid to do anything different. And different is the lifeblood to a great brand and a successful company.

Staying Sharp

Here are a few ways each of us can periodically keep our creative minds in shape:

• Solve puzzles like crossword and jigsaw. Play games.

• Write down as many uses as you can for paper clips in two minutes.

• Break old habits and patterns. Perform routine things in different ways.

• Take different routes to work and home. Pay attention to what you see along the way.

• If you are verbally oriented, try making pictures with crayons or paints.

• If you are visually oriented, take a math class, or do your own taxes.

• Fix something. The challenge is more important than a successful outcome.

• Dance. Learning new dance steps actually develops new connections in the brain.

• Travel. It gets you outside your element like nothing else. Some of my best ideas have come during or after trips.

• Associate with intelligent and interesting people. Try bridge, chess, or local clubs outside your field of specialty.

Have more ideas on how to boost creativity on the job? Or examples of a creative approach to your job or a problem? I’d love to hear about them.