I’m not the only one on my team with Overly Creative Disorder (OCD); I’m surrounded by it. Now, this may sound like a good thing. But if you spend all your time coming up with new ideas and you don’t make any decisions on which ones to pursue, you end up not getting much of anything done.

Truthfully, in the early years of Wasabi Publicity, this was a big issue. And I knew better.

One day a mentor of mine, Laurie Ford, shared a very valuable insight with me, that there are three types of people: creators, managers and completers. Now, this doesn’t mean people don’t do a little of all three. Of course they do, or they wouldn’t function in life. But at the end of the day, people generally fall into one of these three categories. It’s their fallback; how they succeed in life and in business. Why is this important? Because if you want a successful business, you need to have all three types of people on your team. You need cool ideas to be creative. You need those ideas to be organized into a project and managed. And you need that project driven to completion.

From my observation, most entrepreneurs are like me: they’re creators, they thrive on inventing new ideas. I truly love it! It’s what wakes me up in the middle of the night and gets me out of bed in the morning. This may sound like a good thing for an entrepreneur, but trust me (or ask my team), it can really drive the ship amuck.

IF you suspect you suffer from Overly Creative Disorder, or your ship is amuck, here’s a quick exercise I created to right your ship, or at least give those managers and completers around you a break.

You can do this exercise alone, but it’s more beneficial to involve others:

  • Gather your team (or the people you collaborate with) and ask them, “What’s missing?” and, “Should we be taking different actions?” Listen to your team. You’ll gain greater insight into your own business by looking at it from different perspectives.

  • Step back and consider the focus and actions you’re currently pursuing in your business. Where are you not getting results?Here

  • Next, ask them, “What would make the difference?” More creativity? Closer management? Driving things to completion?

 

By opening up a dialog with your team, I promise you’ll create a new space and magic will happen! You’ll begin to see what would make the difference to becoming unstuck. Why? It’s no longer personal. Instead, it becomes about finding the right balance of skills to succeed. Don’t worry, this exercise won’t stifle your creativity… it’ll balance it with the skills needed to bring your creativity to life.

Do you need to manage a little more, or hire a list-checker to drive things to completion? By being aware of these different skill sets, you can even keep yourself in check. Management and completion might not be your thing, but by recognizing these skills, you can set aside certain times of the day to do them.

It’s amazing how a few questions and a little structure can keep your Overly Creative Disorder in check. What insights and “Ahas” popped for you after reading this? I’d love to know.