Why Sketching a Horse Matters More Than You Think

I recently attended a presentation by Fred Mandell of Creating Futures That Work - and I walked away with a powerful reminder: leadership isn't just about spreadsheets and strategy slides. It's also about creativity, curiosity, and courage.

Fred and his team lean into what they call Arts-Based Experiential Learning (ABEL) - the idea that combining artistic processes with leadership development helps leaders become more innovative, more collaborative and more agile. Very cool.

One exercise stuck out: draw something using your "right-side brain." He showed us a picture of a horse on a page, it was upside down. We couldn't turn our monitors or our paper, we had to draw what we saw. So yes, we literally sketched an upside down horse. Once flipped back, here's the horse I drew. Wow! At the onset of the activity the voice in my head simply told me: "I can't do this, I haven't drawn in years."

Why is this relevant for leadership? Because most of us lead from the "left brain" mode: analytical, safe, done-it-before thinking. However, disruptive times ask for the right brain: imaginative, curious, unscripted responses. And when we bridge both, we unlock leadership that isn't just reactive, but generative.

Here's where things get interesting. When leaders go into "I've got this" mode with their years of experience, they also bring along:

Pre-conceived ideas ("This is how we've always done it.")

Self-limiting beliefs ("I'm not creative like that.")

Biases ("Only the 'artists' draw. I'm a technical leader, not an artist.")

That's exactly what the right-brain drawing exercise exposes. When you draw your horse, your left brain may say: "That's not a horse - the head is too big/the legs are wrong/this is ridiculous." But the artist-mode says: "Let me see what I see. Let me feel the shape. Let me discover the possibilities." And this was exactly the case for me, I simply followed the lines I saw.

If you are stuck in the "we've always done it this way" mode, I invite you to pivot:

Invite a creative lens into the leadership conversation.

Surface the unspoken beliefs that anchor behaviours.

Use a small "art-ing" exercise to shift perspective.

Translate that insight into a specific leadership experiment.

Because leadership isn't just about solving the technical challenge. It's about seeing differently, connecting deeply, and leading boldly. The horse doesn't always look like a horse. Sometimes it looks like a winding river or a mountain path. But it's the same journey: from vision to impact.

Keep drawing. Keep leading. And let your growth mindset guide you.