What Figure Drawing Taught Me About Leadership
Determining your line of action.
Lately, I’ve been spending some time learning figure drawing—yes, as in sketching human forms with pencil and paper. It’s been a great creative outlet, but it also inspires some great thought around leadership and decision-making. I know it seems a little out there, but I promise it will make sense.
In one of the books I’ve been studying, Expressive Figure Drawing by Bill Buchman, the author introduces the idea of the guiding principle in art—a concept artists use to focus their work before making a single mark on the page. At the center of this idea is something called the line of action, which becomes the foundation for the entire drawing.
Here’s how Bill explains it:
“Always draw with a guiding principle… You choose, before you even touch the paper, the one fundamental quality that you are going to concentrate on… When you adhere to and are guided by your chosen process, something wonderful happens. The process makes the drawing.”
This idea resonates when I consider how we work with our clients. Often, we focus on one project that involves many moving parts and will significantly affect a company’s culture. Like the line of action, the type of decision-making and clarity that leadership requires during this process can either enhance a positive outcome or, at times, do the opposite and create confusion and negative sentiment.
In figure drawing, the artist commits to a single idea upfront—perhaps the flow of the pose, the dynamic tension, or the sense of movement in the body (think dancer pose, the arch of a back, the extension of an arm). That early decision informs every stroke and choice from that point on. The result isn’t rigidity—it’s cohesion. It gives the artist a direction, a purpose, and a filter through which everything else is shaped. But once you’ve decided your line of action, it’s nearly impossible to change throughout the drawing process. Commitment is key to your figure looking like an actual human without alien tendencies.
The same principle applies to leadership. Teams and organizations are constantly inundated with decisions, distractions, and opportunities to shift focus. Without a clear line of action—without that guiding principle—momentum is lost. Strategy becomes reactionary. Teams get frustrated or lose alignment. And the culture is impacted.
But when leaders and teams choose a central focus, something powerful happens. Decisions become clearer, priorities take shape, and energy channels in the right direction. Like in drawing, the process begins to shape the outcome. It is really hard to change the pose of a figure mid-drawing, just as it is hard to shift priorities mid-strategy.
That guiding principle might be a core value, a key initiative, or a vision for how the team shows up. It doesn’t need to be complicated—it just needs to be intentional. And once it's chosen, it should inform not just what gets done, but how it gets done.
Artists know that the process makes the drawing. And in leadership, the process—shaped by vision, clarity, and alignment—makes the culture, the results, and the long-term impact.
I know a lot of this seems like common sense. But sometimes we just need a little reminder in our daily routine that brings us back to center.
So before we all make the next big decision, challenge, or change, it’s worth asking: What’s our guiding principle? What is our line of action? The answer might be the most important line we draw.
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Ep. 082 – 5 Years Post-COVID, Birthdays, Movie Critiques and a New Partnership
In this one-on-one episode, Nikki and Chad reflect on the start of COVID 5 years ago this week, express huge gratitude for all of the birthday wishes, recap some new restaurant finds in Inman Park, fawn over Walton Goggins' Hudson Valley AD interview, discuss pop-culture shows and movies like Severance and Anora, and announce a new and exciting partnership with Basso Bikes.
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