Creativity — It’s Not Just For Artists
“Creativity” can do more than inspire beautiful paintings or music that moves the heart. It plays a role in the decisions that managers have to make every day, and it can mean the difference between an acceptable solution and a great one. Raw, creative ideas are essential to innovation, and good leaders need to know how to inspire creativity among their direct reports. It involves changing perspectives and challenging the status quo.This can be difficult; creativity isn’t a logical process. It relies on emotions more than many other competencies, and that can be difficult to manage or inspire in others. It also relies on looking at ideas without judgment when they first come up, which can also be hard for managers to do. But it’s possible to inspire creativity in others; everyone is capable of being creative in some way. Here are some tactics you can use to boost creativity among your team.
Understand Your Role
As a manager trying to foster creativity, you’ll need to be a cheerleader who encourages people to come up with better solutions. When they offer ideas, react positively and without judgment; you don’t want to crush creative ideas before they have a chance to get off the ground. Openly reward creativity by acknowledging the successes of good ideas -- and by acknowledging good ideas themselves -- even if they are not used or even fail.
Encourage Questions
When new to creativity, your direct reports may eagerly jump for the first new solution they come up with. While the energy is commendable, encourage them to ask questions about the new approach to see if they can improve it even further. Don’t push for a solution right away; look for ways to approach issues from a different direction to see what else people may learn about a process.
Go Beyond
When coming up with creative ideas, people may jump from one idea to another without being able to justify the steps between them. In a creative atmosphere, this jumping can lead to people making new connections, so let them take their ideas and run with them. If they move beyond current operational or budgetary boundaries, let them go, for now — sometimes the most unlikely or impossible idea can be the one to spark an innovation.
Reward Risk-Taking
Is your organization averse to risk, or does it boldly reach for things it might not achieve? Depending on your organization, risk-takers may be seen as dreamers, malcontents, hard-chargers or fools, depending on their rate of success and what they risk. But if you’re trying to foster creativity among a team that hasn’t had a chance to be creative before, rewarding risk-taking is a must. The stakes don’t have to be huge — in brainstorming sessions, simply acknowledging a risky idea by encouraging more thought on it can be gratifying to the person who offers it up. As ideas get more creative and your team looks for ways to try them out, remember that transformation comes when you try something that’s never been done before.Looking for ways to encourage creativity on your team? Contact us to learn about our leadership development and coaching offerings.Success Labs is a leadership development and management consulting firm in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. For more than 25 years, our expert team of consultants has worked with hundreds of companies to explore their business potential and improve their company and cultural performance. Contact us to get proactive about your people strategy.
