In conversation with Ramesh Srinivasan of McKinsey & Company and former Fortune editor Brian Dumaine, Swati Apte explores how lessons from the arts can help leaders navigate uncertainty, communicate with purpose, build stronger teams and respond more thoughtfully to challenges.
From storytelling and collaboration to emotional awareness and resilience, the arts invites leaders to approach familiar challenges with fresh perspectives. They offer ways to listen more closely, understand different points of view, work through uncertainty and create space for new ideas.
Lessons in Leadership from the Arts
How the Arts Can Help You Become a Better Leader
Swati reflects on her own journey of discovering the connection between business and the arts, and how her experience as a classical Indian dancer continues to shape her approach to leadership development.
The Need for More Human-Centric Leadership in an Ever-Changing World
What can leaders learn from performers who work with uncertainty every day? A mindset of play, adaptability and purpose can help leaders navigate change while bringing their teams together.
Using Japanese Puppets to Inspire Your Team
In Japanese Bunraku puppetry, several performers work in coordination to bring a single puppet to life. The practice offers a powerful lesson in selfless teamwork: individual contributions matter most when everyone works in sync.
Great Leaders Use Great Stories to Inspire Their Teams
Storytelling is central to how leaders communicate purpose and inspire action. The key is to understand your audience, remain consistent in your message and adapt how you tell the story so it resonates.
How the Arts Can Help Us Improve Our Problem-Solving Abilities
Role-play helps leaders step into the shoes of customers, employees, investors and other stakeholders. By exploring a problem through different perspectives, teams can challenge assumptions, uncover blind spots and make more thoughtful decisions.
Like Actors, the Best Leaders Learn How to Navigate Different Emotional States
Actors learn to recognise and embody different emotional states. Leaders can draw on the same awareness to understand their own emotional and physical responses, regulate their reactions and choose how they show up in different situations.
The Importance of Recognising What Triggers You and Others
Even the best-laid plans can be disrupted by unexpected events and emotional reactions. Lessons from sports and the performing arts show how rituals and recovery practices can help leaders regain composure, return to the present and continue performing at their best.
Practical Tips for Recovering from a Stressful Situation
Sustained performance requires recovery, not just effort. Small practices, such as taking a short walk, creating moments of silence or paying attention to the breath, can help leaders reset between demanding situations.
The Power of Clear Intentions
Leadership is shaped by how we want to show up, not only by what we want to accomplish. Setting an intention for the day, alongside a to-do list, can help leaders become more conscious of their emotions, behaviour and impact on others.
What Improv Can Teach Us About Leadership
Improvisation calls for deep listening, openness and the ability to build on another person’s contribution. Leaders can apply this mindset by resisting the urge to jump in with answers and creating space for ideas to develop collaboratively.
How to Create a Culture of Truth-Telling
A leader’s perspective can narrow when surrounded by people who share their views. Creating a culture of truth-telling means deliberately seeking different perspectives, making room for dissent and building relationships with people who are willing to share what is really happening.
What We Can Learn from the Arts to Help Us Cope with Failure
Rehearsal and improvisation create room to experiment, make mistakes and discover new possibilities. Organisations can learn from this spirit of play by creating spaces where people can test ideas, learn from setbacks and build on what emerges.
The Single Best Piece of Advice for People Who Want to Become Better Leaders
Better leadership starts with self-awareness. Building emotional regulation and becoming more available and connected to others can open leaders to greater information, deeper insight and more meaningful relationships.