Creativity & Role of the Leader

Prepared by Vineeth.KN

Source Article by: M.Amabile and Mukti Khatre From : Harvard Business Review 

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Introduction: w In today's innovation-driven economy, understanding how to generate great ideas has become an urgent managerial priority w Creativity has always been at the heart of business. By definition it means the ability to create some thing novel and appropriate. w Leaders know in their gut that creativity and innovation are the lifeblood of their organization. New ideas can lead to programs that are superior to those that are already going on or planned in the organization and which would have been divested or never initiated had a better idea or program come along. w w

w w The leader's job is not to be the source of ideas but to encourage and champion ideas. Leaders must tap the imagination of employees at all ranks and ask inspiring questions. They also need to help their organizations incorporate diverse perspectives, which spur creative insights, and facilitate creative collaboration by, for instance, harnessing new technologies.

Creativity and the role of the leader w Drawing on the Right Minds: Ø The first priority of leadership is to engage the right people, at the right times, to the right degree in creative work. w Fanning the Flames of Motivation: Ø Motivating people to perform at their peak is especially vital in creative work.

How to enhance creativity & increase innovation? w that you are not the sole fount of ideas: üBe the appreciative audience. üAsk the inspiring questions. üAllow ideas to bubble up from the workforce.

How to enhance creativity & increase innovation? w Enhance diversity. üGet people with different backgrounds and expertise to work together. üEncourage individuals to gain diverse experiences that will increase their creativity. üOpen up the organization to outside creative contributors.

How to enhance creativity & increase innovation? w motivate with intellectual challenge. ü Protect the front end from commercial pressure. ü Clear paths through the bureaucracy for creative ideas. ü Let people do “good work.” ü Show the higher purpose of projects whenever possible. ü Grant as much independence as possible.

How to enhance creativity & increase innovation? w Accept the inevitability and utility of failure. ü Create psychological safety to maximize learning from failure. ü Recognize the different kinds of failure and how they can be useful. ü Create good mechanisms for filtering ideas and killing dead-end projects.

How to enhance creativity & increase innovation? w Enable collaboration. ü Combat the lone inventor myth. ü Define “superstar” as someone who helps others succeed. ü Use “coordination totems”—metaphors, analogies, and stories—to help teams conceptualize together.

Thank you…..,

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