How Coaching Creates Creative Flow by Mark McGuinness SHAREBARIn my last post I described psychologist Mihaly [tag]Csikszentmihalyi[/tag]s concept ofcreative flow. Now I want to focus on how coaches and managers can help creative professionals achieve [tag]creative flow[/tag] more often in their work and by doing so, produce creative work of a higher standard.If you are responsible for managing or developing professional creatives or artists, I invite you to consider how you use the following behaviours, which can help you engage their full enthusiasm and continually raise the bar of creative performance.Flow can be unpredictable and elusive. It requires a delicate balance of many different elements, so it cannot be controlled a in fact, a controlling mindset tends to interfere with it. But through coaching it is possible to influence performance in a way that increases the likelihood of achieving flow. And it should be taken as read that the following needs to be applied with sensitivity to the needs of each individual.Creative [tag]flow [/tag]is defined by Csikszentmihalyi as aAn almost automatic, effortless, yet highly focused state of consciousness that occurs when we are working at the peak of our creative abilities.See my previous post for a more detailed description of the nine characteristics of flow. Below Ive listed these characteristics again, with each one followed by ways that you can influence it through coaching to help people achieve creative flow:There are clear goals every step of the way. Goals are central to coaching it has even been said that without a goal, you are not coaching. For any given task or project, ensure that the goal is clearly understood by all parties, and has the right balance between an inspiring challenge and a measurable target.There is immediate feedback to your actions. Delivering genuinely constructive feedback is another fundamental coaching skill. By providing clear feedback on peoples creative work and their professional behaviour, you help your team to gauge their performance relative to the agreed goals. When dealing with highly skilled (and sometimes sensitive!) creatives, it is critically important to deliver feedback in a way that is appropriate to individual motivations, personalities and working styles.There is a balance between challenges and skills. Take care to match tasks to peoples abilities and help them them to develop their skills, through coaching them yourself or offering other training or development opportunities. You should also notice whether someone is trying too hard or not enough, and compensate by switching to a supportive or challenging style of coaching accordingly.Action and awareness are merged. When we are congruent, our actions, thoughts and feelings are all directed towards a single goal. Every person you manage or coach will be giving you many verbal and nonverbal signals that indicate their level of congruence. If you are sensitive enough to notice incongruence, you can address the concerns or conflicting priorities that are interfering with focused work see 5.Distractions are excluded from consciousness. If an individual is finding it difficult to focus on his/her work, you can use coaching as a forum for resolving the distracting issues. If there are perceived conflicting