Leadership Course - About Managing Creativity

starjewel (67)in #psychology • 5 years ago

Leadership practitioners agree that people who are seen as more creative tend to have several distinguishing personality characteristics.

source

In general, creative people are open to information and experience, have high energy, can be personally assertive and even domineering, react emotionally to events, are impulsive, are more interested in music and art than in hunting and sports, and finally are very motivated to prove themselves.

THAT IS A PERFECT DESCRIPTION OF ME!

Thus creative people tend to be independent, willful, impractical, unconcerned with money, idealistic and nonconforming. Given that these tendencies... well... they may not make them ideal followers.

Sooo.... how does one lead or manage creative individuals? This is a very interesting question, isn’t it?

Leaders tend to be dominant and they are natural enemies for creative followers. However, many organizations depend on creativity to grow and prosper, so they need those creative followers, who already posses technical expertise, imaginative thinking skills and intrinsic motivation.

Experts suggested that leaders take the following steps to successfully lead creative followers:

1. Set goals. Because creative people value freedom and independence, this step will be best accomplished if leaders set a high level of participation in the goal-setting process. Leaders should ask followers what they can accomplish in a particular time frame.

2. Provide adequate resources. Followers will be much more creative if they have the proper equipment to work with because they can devote their time to resolving problems rather than spending time finding the equipment to get the job done.

3. Reduce time pressures, but keep followers on track. Leaders need to be well organized to acquire necessary resources and to keep the project on track.

4. Consider non-monetary as well as monetary rewards. Creative people often gain satisfaction from resolving the problem at hand, not from monetary rewards. Thus feedback should be aimed at enhancing their feelings of personal adequacy. Monetary rewards perceived as controlling may decrease rather than increase motivation toward the task.

5. Recognize that creativity is evolutionary, not revolutionary. Although followers can create truly novel products, often the key to creativity is continuous product improvement. Making next year’s product faster, lighter, cheaper, or more efficient requires minor modifications that can, over time, culminate in major revolutions. Thus it may be helpful if leaders think of creativity more in terms of small innovations than major breakthroughs.

Source: R. T. Hogan and J. Morrison, “Managing Creativ- ity,” in Create & Be Free: Essays in Honor of Frank Barron, ed. A. Montouri (Amsterdam: J. C. Gieben, 1993).