The Art of Leadership: How to Frame the Next Steps in your Career with Cat Manson
by Poppy Flatau
In a 45-minute interactive session, Cat brought two decades of experience in recruiting and developing talent to explore how art can provide a lens to support personal development by prompting self-awareness and frame new ways of thinking.
Cat Manson is an Executive Coach, Communications Consultant and Founder of Art Market Mentors which she set up in 2020 with the aim to connect an international network of mentors leading in the commercial art world. Previously, she managed a team globally as Global Head of PR at Christie’s and worked across the highest profile sales and issues.
By using art as an analogy for self improvement, Cat makes this daunting subject much more approachable. She condenses her system into different models. In the the first half of the conversation, she discusses the self-portrait to encourage introspection. Later she speaks about her ‘pillars’ method, helping individuals to categorise their thoughts and manage their priorities.
Throughout the talk, Cat emphasises the importance of self-image when thinking about personal development, suggesting elf-portraiture can be used as a metaphor for creating and reinforcing a positive identity. Cat invited the listeners to visualise a version of themselves at a time when they felt “calm, confident, and really successful,” making sure to block out any negative narrative from ‘the sh*tty committee.’ By projecting these feelings onto the format of a self portrait, one is able to reflect on “how they like to be seen and how they see themselves.” This visual reminder prompts you to become more conscious and aware of your “positive attributes” and “superpowers,” and how they can develop on this image.
Pertinently, this image is dynamic, as Cat asks the audience to “think about where you are today, and where you might want to be tomorrow, and what your vision of leadership can look like as you develop your model.” From Courbet’s Le Désespéré to Frida Kahlo’s The Broken Column, these self portraits depict the feelings and identity of an artist at that given time. When analysed alongside the artist’s oeuvre, these depictions of self can be drastically different.
Cat’s own self-portrait extends further than just images that capture her own reflection. As a source of inspiration, Cat has cultivated an imaginary ‘personal art gallery,’ with works of art that motivate her at certain, specific moments. One of the works mentioned was the iconic Warrior painting by Jean-Michel Basquiat, who she looks to at times when needing strength. Because of the positive impact this has on Cat when navigating stressful times, she encourages individuals to create a gallery of their own. Moreover, when helping individuals move between major milestones, Cat likes to use another art-inspired method to order certain decisions between five separate ‘pillars.’ This system, that uses art to inspire “creativity, positivity and confidence,” helps to reinforce confidence during intimidating life changes.
Cat’s 5 Pillar System:
1) Structure prompts an individual to lay “building blocks in place,” creating a foundation “to reach their goals.” For Cat, monitoring time and managing priorities are key for gaining control and self-assurance.
2) Narrative - one’s own delivery, mindset and presentation feed into one’s professional discourse or narrative. This can be helped by “developing relationships and look for role models.”
3) Colour - the metaphor of “standing out” is used by Cat to help individuals build a unique and powerful brand.
4 & 5) Criticism and Condition emphasise the importance of an optimistic mindset, especially when filtering through positive and negative criticism. In the case of condition, feeling harmonious and preserving order feeds into wisdom and better overall decision making.
Overall, Cat’s affirmative approach to leadership, which she merges with her enthusiasm for art presents a constructive and attainable approach towards personal improvement.
To find out more about Art Market Mentors, please email Cat directly at artmarketmentors@gmail.com