The other day, as I was sitting down for to work on a painting, it hit me – there’s a similarity between my art and my day job in Talent Acquisition.

A blank canvas and a new job opening are both full of potential and also a little daunting. Where do you start? How do you for from nothing to something? How do you turn that emptiness into something amazing?

In painting, I’ve learned that rushing rarely leads to my best work—like, never, actually. I think my teams would agree with me that the same is true in recruiting. In fact, I’ve gotten feedback from them that I push for speed too much. Fair feedback and it’s something I’m working on. Sure, we need to fill roles quickly, but finding the right fit? That’s where the magic happens, and that takes time.

My daily painting habit has taught me that consistency is key. Okay, actually, it’s more like an every-several-day painting habit right now, but for the sake of the story, go with me. Some days, the art flows easily. On other days, let’s just say not every painting gives me joy. But each attempt makes me better. We give ourselves that same grace in Talent to try new things to refine our craft.

Here’s another parallel: the invisible work. A finished painting doesn’t show all the sketches and do-overs. In Talent, all the relationship-building, tools-refining, and process-tweaking often go unseen, but it’s what makes the difference in the long run.

When I hit a creative block with painting, sometimes I need to step back, try a new angle, or even work on something else for a while. My teams also try this with our recruiting strategies when they start feeling stale; looking for out-of-the-box solutions.

I’m not saying Talent Acquisition is exactly like painting. We can’t ignore metrics or stakeholder expectations. But maybe, just maybe, when we bring a touch of artistic thinking to our work, we begin to find new ways to create masterpieces—in the form of amazing teams.