Arts leadership and the divided brain

🌼 Balancing creativity with administrative responsibility

I spent thirty years of my creative career running arts and creative companies, I’m now an executive and creative coach working with artists and leaders. Two of my executive clients recently came to me with the same challenge – a frustration at trying to balance creative work with their duties as senior executives running venues. Both felt they had to almost split themselves in two, having two different personalities for the two different approaches.

As usual with coaching, it’s the client who has the solution, and in fact they DO have to have two different approaches, that certainly feel like different personalities because they utilise completely different parts of the brain.

🔬 What brain science tells us

Different parts of your brain process information differently. In very simplistic terms, the left brain is your analytical brain, and the right brain is your creative brain. When you are using these different parts of your brain, it feels very different. In fact, there is much more integration than scientists first thought, but the feelings of disconnect are real, so the metaphor is useful.

The scientists call this feeling of disconnection, cognitive duality. So, you are not mad, it’s a feature of human cognition and utilising it is a real strength for artistic leadership and practice. It allows us to navigate the complex challenges of management and leadership and access our creative flow.

😍 Creative flow

When you are creating new work or applying creative thinking, you calm your prefrontal cortex, this stops the analytical brain from overthinking and judging as you go.

Neurochemicals get released

• 💪 Dopamine (motivation, focus)

• 🔔 Norepinephrine (arousal, alertness)

• 😌 Endorphins (pain suppression, euphoria)

• 💡 Anandamide (bliss molecule, promotes lateral thinking)

• 🌟 Serotonin (post-flow afterglow)

So it’s not just a state of hyper concentration and focus, it actually FEELS GOOD.

This can also be a great problem-solving state, inventing new strategies and approaches, coming up with new ideas and ways of operating. It’s also the brain state you need to apply when creating new work and operating with your artist hat on...or brain on.

Clearly it’s not the best bit of your brain to lead with at a board meeting or appraisal.

🧠 The Two Brains of an Arts Leader 🧠

As outlined above, left and right brain thinking is more of a useful metaphor than a real reflection of what takes place in the brain and where it happens. The processing is complicated, but the different types of processing are real and this is what causes our sensation of disonence.

• Left brain: Your analytical left brain loves a spreadsheet, it gets excited at a good cash flow projection or budget deficit it specialises in detached precision and logical observation and persuasion.

• Right brain: Your creative right brain comes alive in brainstorming sessions, or in your creative work. It lights up with new artistic directions, thinking about the impact of programming decisions, planning a new production or exhibition or walking into the rehearsal room.

• Different personalities: That jarring feeling when you walk out of a budget meeting into a creative session isn't imagination—you're literally activating different neural networks, changing your thought processes, and shifting your communication style.

➗ Why Arts Leaders Feel Torn

• Unique pressure: All Arts organisations need solid business performance and artistic innovation, requiring a very specific balance and duality that doesn’t exist in other sectors to the same degree.

• Traditional leadership models: Conventional leadership and management training often emphasises skills like strategic planning and financial management, leaving many arts leaders feeling that their creative thinking is somehow less professional or valid. It also means that leaders have to make a bigger and more jarring jump when they approach their own creative work.

• The misconception: Many arts leaders feel guilty, they want to be serious executives and passionate creatives at the same time. In fact, the way forward is to accept the duality and find a way of working with both in different ways at different times.

💡 Practical Strategies for Integration

• ⏳ Time blocking: When you’re putting in meetings, think about the bit of your brain that you are going to need to use the most. Don’t have a calendar that veers from creative to logistics all the time. Try to have creative days or half days when you can settle into creative thinking and find your flow without being derailed by budgets or admin decision making.

• ☀️ Environmental cues: Alongside your diary planning you can use distinct physical spaces or environmental triggers that signal to your brain which cognitive mode you're entering—perhaps a different desk setup, background music, or even lighting that helps your brain transition. You can work on the other cues you give your brain to get it ready to be creative, a short walk to the same view, the right calm coffee making moment, a short creative meditation. You can read more about this in my article on Finding Flow for writers.

• 👫 Complementary teams: You will tend to work with different team members to carry out the different task styles. So use that to focus into the bit of your brain you need. When you see your Finance Director come in for a meeting, you can train your brain to get into its right brain mode, and if an actor or curator comes in, it’s the opposite.

Conclusion

• Reframe the challenge: So you are not mad, you are two people! Or at least you do have dual cognitive roles and understanding them both and what they require will give you real strength going forward. Particularly allowing yourself space to adjust between one and another. Pay attention to your cognitive transition moments throughout the day, try to schedule them intentionally, and give yourself some rituals around the transitions to help your brain shift. As a creative leader, you have to honor both modes equally and develop practices that help you harness the full power of your brilliant brain.

Are you an arts leader struggling with this cognitive balancing act? Let's explore how coaching can help you harness both your analytical and creative powers more effectively.

Connect with me directly to discuss how tailored coaching can transform this challenge into your greatest strength. Whether you're leading a venue, festival, or creative team, I specialise in helping arts executives thrive in both their creative and administrative capacities.