1. Embrace the Mess

Clay is SO messy. Water splashes, dried clay dusts every surface, and your clothes never quite recover. Similarly, leadership (and life) isn’t always neat and tidy. Best laid plans go awry, relationships get messy, and sometimes you have to just accept it all and dive into the chaos. What matters isn’t avoiding the mess but being willing to work through it, while keeping your vision and goals in sight.

2. Beauty in Imperfection

For a recovering perfectionist like me, embracing the inevitable imperfection of handmade pottery is a challenge!  I’ve spent hours and days working on a piece just to have it turn out blah or fall apart in the last firing.  Pottery teaches us to embrace imperfection. Some of the most cherished pieces have slight irregularities that make them unique. In leadership, perfection is equally elusive. The most authentic and effective leaders are those who acknowledge their imperfections and learn from them, creating an environment where others feel safe to do the same.

3. The Art of Responsiveness

Clay responds differently each day depending on its moisture content, temperature, and composition. Working with it successfully requires constant adaptation and sensitivity to these changing conditions. Teams are equally dynamic. What motivates one person might discourage another, and what works during busy periods might fail during slower times. Great leaders, like experienced potters, develop a keen sensitivity to these variations and adjust their approach accordingly.

4. The Value of Practice

No one throws a perfect bowl on their first try. Or their tenth. Or even their hundredth. Pottery requires patience, persistence, and countless hours of practice. Leadership development follows the same pattern. We learn through experience, through failures, through countless small adjustments and improvements. There are no shortcuts to mastery in either discipline.

5. The Importance of Timing

In pottery, timing is everything. The clay needs to be just right – not too wet, not too dry – before you can work with it effectively. Similarly, timing plays a crucial role in leadership. When to push for change, when to hold steady, when to have difficult conversations, when to celebrate – these decisions often hinge on choosing the right moment.

6. Know When to Let Go

Perhaps the hardest lesson is learning when to let things go. Every potter has experienced the heartbreak of overworking a piece until it collapses or it falls apart in the kiln (or any time in between or after).  You have to just breathe and let it go, beginning afresh – just like in leadership. Sometimes we need to step back and trust our team members to develop in their own way, rather than continuously molding and adjusting their work. Other times, we need to give ourselves permission to scrap what we started and begin again.

7. Creating Space to Learn and Grow

Every piece, especially in the beginning of our pottery journey is a test piece.  I love to experiment, play with clay and design, and see what happens.  It’s all a learning opportunity. Leadership, at its core, is about creating space – space for innovation, for growth, for individual development. Like a potter shaping a vessel, good leaders create environments that contain and support their teams while leaving room for exploration, expansion and transformation.

The parallels between pottery and leadership remind us that both are fundamentally creative acts. They require technical skill, certainly, but also intuition, patience, and a willingness to embrace both the process and its unpredictability.  As I continue to develop both as a potter and a leader, I’m constantly reminded that it’s the journey of creation, change and growth that matter most in both disciplines.

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