I believe my talent is creativity.
Creativity is often overlooked in the spectrum of skills that you need in business but it’s my (only) talent, which I use every day in most things I do or say. Unless you are actually in a creative role – like a designer or artist, the assumption appears to be that creativity is a nice-to-have. To me, its the one necessary thing that we all need to nurture and make space for in our work and our home lives.
2) When did you first realise you had that talent and how do you use it everyday?
I’ve always had what you might call an unconventional life. My parents were immigrants to the UK in the 60’s and had little grasp of the language or culture. They had incredibly secure links with their Turkish Cypriot family, friends and culture, and we grew up living in a kind of bubble. As a child there were parts of the ‘host culture’ that were fun and exciting; equally there were parts of our Turkish Cypriot culture that were wonderful, especially the attitude to children and the beauty that every single child holds within them.
Often our lives were confusing and chaotic. Being able to handle and love life was closely linked with accepting both cultures and making the best of things. This took ‘thinking outside the box’ to whole new level; our lives were all about thinking differently, developing unique perspectives, being original and fresh thinking in the way you approached situations and communicated with the people around you. There were no templates or role models, we created our own ideals and learnt from our own mistakes as we went along.
Being able to understand and embrace differences, in people and ways of life is to me, the ultimate in creativity. Empathy, compassion, understanding are all liberating qualities that come with creativity, however for Turkish Cypriots of my generation these were not individual qualities, they were ‘values’ strongly associated with religion (small ‘r’), and respect.
Hence now, as a business woman I find my key drivers as still closely associated with the values I was brought up with, and funnily enough, they are wonderful business tools! There are very few business challenges that are not easier to deal with when you apply thought to the people concerned. We sometimes refer to ‘stakeholders’ but all that really means is considering a perspective or interest that is not necessarily your own.
Similarly, in creating products, strategies, dealing with cash flow, service, budgeting or any other business challenge, by looking beyond the obvious we can seek out opportunities and solutions to problems that are not necessarily obvious.
In my 13 years as Founder MD of Blue Donkey we’ve been able to create award winning services that really seem to have carved out a niche in their innovation and uniqueness. The way we’ve gone to market, captured market share and retained a long standing blue chip client base has very direct links to the bucket loads of creativity that we all feel free to contribute. I’d like to think its visible in the communication styles we share, the love we have of our discipline and the respect we feel for each other.
A few kebabs at lunch time would it all perfect of course!
Click for more information on Blue Donkey, Intelligent Telemarketing
Comments