Creativity is a relatively official word which many leaders repeatedly chant and call for in their respective organisations. Its impact and relevance to this generation have also lately been incredibly indispensable. Meanwhile, as leaders demonstrate several characteristics like effective communication, passion, innovation, collaboration, and many others, creativity can only be harnessed when leaders have the right attitude and provide a working environment. In other words, leaders have an even more great responsibility when it comes to adding value to people they work with to achieve optimal creativity.
As a leader, you are poised to develop and retain your leadership skills into guiding your subordinates into your organisational operations and system, primarily through times of fundamental change. That is the time when you need their creativity to put to work. The truth is, many companies have leaders who have the desired operational skills and strength to maintain the status quo, but a critical deficit is their challenge; which is the lack of people of creative minds and confidence in tackling certain challenging tasks.
When problems that are invariably unsolvable arise, and the causes are as well seemingly incomprehensible, there is a need for the respective company to go above the status quo- by transforming their approach of the business. The exact point here is that to be a strategic leader; there is a thing you probably are not doing enough- which is imbibing some opulence of creativity into your people. Necessarily, there are some methods or principles of doing that. Some of these include:
1. Trust
Many companies overlook the essence of this characteristic but are highly pertinent to the longevity of any organisation. Being honest and open about information is a way of instilling and developing the creativity of your organisation and its people. While it is true that companies generally tend to limit the flow of information as per design, but divulging a great deal of information to workers and not just to specific individuals, or on a need-to-know basis leaves them out of the dark. This also makes them able to make better decisions. That way, they clearly understand what things are significant to the strategy of the organization rather than guessing what they should be. It also enhances their confidence in challenging or proposing an idea. Of course, it is correct that some competitive secrets about products yet to be delivered for public consumption may be kept hidden for some time, but a broad base of information is not a bad idea. As a leader, you must ensure your team or subordinates trust you enough to make certain decisions by themselves. It is some way of building their confidence, which is paramount to a creative mind.
2. Leading by example
It is also requisite that you lead by example. There is a usual saying that creative leaders are never afraid to change and break habits, which in turn encourages creativity. Businesses can only thrive when leaders infuse their creativity into their organisations by welcoming change and following through, even more importantly, by leading as leaders that they are. When you lead by example, you set the pace for creativity and efficiently, your team can learn the act and do even more exploits. When you lead by example, as a leader, you are representing, and being at the forefront of making yourself perfect examples of a committed and hardworking person. In little or no time, you would be surprised at how fast your followers or team gets to appreciate this and take you as a role model already. Actually, you need to be a point of reference for your followers at all times.
3. Mentoring
Another way or working principle of ensuring creative followership is by setting up apprenticeships, which caters to promising thinkers rising early in their careers and being mentored rightly, and adequately by leaders who are fit and well equipped to help them develop their skills. There is no hard and fast rule here, though, as each organisation or leader can go by this whichever way they are sure would be useful. Some might set up in-house courses for their employees or better still, sponsor their attendance at special programs. More so, reverse mentoring can be effective as the opportunity for younger staff members to share their idea and knowledge increases their creativity in turn.
4. Risk-free environment
A risk-free environment or one which encourages the creation of multiple paths through which ideas can be raised and tested are peculiar to the growth of the employee-base creativity. Similarly, the abilities of these ones become heightened as they can now connect to the process the organisation adopts or follows in creating value. An inspiring environment as such, therefore allows people to bring their innovative box to the surface and help them learn how to maximise their creativity. Clearly, this is contrary to the traditional approach, where the common channel for generating new ideas is restricted to the direct manager of the individual. A risk-free environment is likened to one which allows for the creation of a vast majority of channels to innovate.
In addition, some unconventional methods of thinking about hiring, training and assessment are the other principles of creativity. Within the right and safe environment, people are not scared to fail. The most essential thing should be that they learn from their mistakes, though this might be a difficult thing to absorb in case of an actual failure that leads to a substantial loss.
5. Respect
Respect, they say, is reciprocal. Creative leaders value their teams and respect them a lot. You will hardly find or come across employees that are satisfied and passionate about their job where the leader is itself not creative. Imaging stripping people of their creative measures- the stifling can no doubts prove deadly. You will be doing a lot of good than wrong when you allow people to do their jobs according to their abilities and eliminate everything that could hamper their motivation.
Moreover, as a leader, you must strive to find time to reflect. Particularly in something called double-loop learning which involves taking time to assess your own thinking and thoughts about the situation- the assumptions you have made and the ones that are difficult to raise.
When you begin to question things appropriately and see things the way they are when delivered by your employees, it means a lot to them and that way, you show them big respect, and this makes them see development as an ongoing practice.
Conclusively, bridging the gap between leadership traits and creativity is achievable by trying some and all of the above
- Mishkaat January
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