Standing with a mission to equalise access to opportunities for early talent, Mary Senkowska formed Creative Brain. It all started with an idea that young people are the future of this world, but they are being shaped right now. Mary along with her team mapped the development paths of young leaders who managed to progress faster and create more impact relevant to their peers. They engineered a method to measure future potential, guide and track their development, accounting for experiences that usually fall through the cracks.
Creative Brain is a purpose-driven team that wants to start a societal transformation, redefining the definition of success and most importantly, show the young people that they have a choice. It wants to raise awareness that everyone needs to take ownership of their own progress, heighten self-awareness to benefit from those experiences that make them unique, stronger, able to create impact.
The company has gone through several iterations. Mary along with her team are continuously researching and adapting their approach, improving methodology, and advocating for change. The team is expanding and learning along the way.
A Take on Impactful Leadership
Mary believes that organisations are from people and people are from organisations, and just like that, we, all, evolve. Her idea of leadership involves facilitating success of others. To facilitate the success of others one needs to first learn what success means to every individual, what is their purpose that fuels them, and help them align with organisational vision and objectives. After knowing all this, one then should ask to self how do he or she needs to be to support them. This perception aligns with her personal purpose to create opportunities.
Mary mentions that Creative Brain is first and foremost connected by purpose. It deeply cares about its mission. This just trumps any qualifications, time zone differences, amount of workload. She states, “When we get brainstorming, that energy keep me hyped for a week! Secondly, we talk. We talk about everything and nothing or we talk when situations get difficult, and they do when we’re crazy busy, our private lives take us through mud or we simply have a bad day. We’re not perfect, we’re human. We make time for one another. I think we know what each of us is good at and also what we enjoy doing, which sometimes are not two same things, but we use these datapoints to our benefit and we always find a way. No idea is too big, and no idea is too crazy. Lastly, we allow room to learn; from each other, on mistakes and continuously.”
Went Forth and Conquered
Mary has a feeling that she has always been much. Coming from, a small, then, village in Poland, with very traditional parents, she has always been told she only has a limited number of options. She thinks it made her a child that went ‘’Watch me’’ in response to that and it’s her thinking ever since.
It is a belief that we live in the world where your gender is enough to challenge your potential. Your age is enough to challenge you skills. Your race is enough to make you struggle trying to fundraise. Your social class is enough to make you doubt your opportunities. Mary finds this belief wrong and always strives to break these glass ceilings.
Mary once has been asked if she is sure she wants to stay for the time of the presentation because she may not be able to follow, when she was the one to deliver it. She was assumed to be an assistant, a girlfriend, an observer. After she became the youngest, to her knowledge, PCC certified coach in the world she was even asked to cut her hair so she looks older and clients could feel more comfortable. She thinks all these experiences were a blessing. She doesn’t think she would be be where she is right now without them. Every single thought taught her something, challenged her thinking, motivated her to create change.
Imparting Wisdom
In her advice to budding entrepreneurs, Mary says, “Don’t try to do it all alone. Don’t be perfect or afraid of failing. See every hiccup as a learning lesson. Observe, accept, calibrate, improve and don’t lose Focus. These are your foundation.”
“On top of that, be kind. It goes a long way. And never forget to keep creating opportunities for others. We learn from both people who have succeeded us and those who are earlier on their path. Being attentive and present can make you notice concepts and lessons also in personal life that will help your organisation, stimulate innovation and creativity” she adds.
Building the Next Generation of Talent
In the near future, Creative Brain will launch a platform that is a personal control centre for youth’s accelerated, purpose-driven, holistic growth.
The data model the company is working on will enable to also account for skills built through experiences like healing from trauma, dealing with environment’s realities etc., when measuring potential; going beyond age, gender, race, social class or fancy school names and job titles; working towards equal access to opportunities. It will provide people with a dynamic learning ID, that will ensure they are on the most optimal track to realizing their purpose, remain balanced and mentally healthy and remain futureproof. With the right support, the company hopes to scale it to underprivileged communities and use to help the youth from poorest regions grow as well.
Creative Brain aims to partner with educational institutions, organisations and governments to help building the next generation of talent that is well-aware, purpose-driven and eager.