Today, leaders in all areas face great challenges. We are in a time of many changes. Therefore, it is necessary that leadership creativity is your best ally to solve problems and come up with ideas with work teams.
When you have leadership creativity, you can develop innovative ideas. In addition, you can generate creative thinking in your team so that they support you. In this way, you will achieve evident growth as a leader and also with your team.
Learn more: What is Leadership?
Summary
- Leadership creativity is the ability to generate innovative ideas and solutions. Not only for your benefit but for the benefit of your entire team. Therefore, it is the best way to lead and support.
- To have this ability, you must constantly look for ideas and evaluate your environment. Develop your leadership creativity with different methods. This way, you will be able to come up with innovative solutions to the challenges you encounter.
- When a leader begins to implement leadership creativity, it makes a difference. You can see the growth of each project and your team. The work environment will be focused on innovation.
The relationship between leadership creativity
Leadership is a role for a person who is comfortable leading teams. But, also capable of charting a path that leads to growth for everyone and not just themselves. Taking as opportunities the problems and challenges that arise, and thus, evolve. That is why it is important to develop it.
Doing a team experiment
Creating an experiment with your team means that everyone works together to achieve a common goal. You can test various hypotheses and analyze the results. In addition, you can evaluate the team’s productivity and the way they work. This way you can improve many aspects.
Also, you can involve different team sizes, from small groups of two or three people to large teams of dozens of people. You, as a leader, choose the way you think is more convenient to develop this method.
Apply this in your leadership
Primarily, you must make your team feel that everyone’s ideas are important. This way, they will feel the freedom to express what they think. In this way, good ideas come out, collectively. And from there, get out of your comfort zone and find innovative solutions.
Encouraging team collaboration is a big step toward leadership creativity. Because, by feeling the freedom to show their ideas, everyone together will be able to solve problems in the most creative way. Seeing opportunities where most cannot see.
Create a group competition
The goal of a group competition is to foster collaboration, teamwork, and challenge-solving skills among participants. It is also an opportunity for everyone to learn from each other and further develop their skills in a competitive environment.
Thus, you can direct them towards the ultimate goal, which is to create a sense of camaraderie and encourage participants to work together to achieve a common goal. These are the essential foundations for your leadership to be about leadership creativity and not just giving orders.
Inspire your team with humility
To inspire others with humility, you must first work on yourself. You can practice self-awareness. Take time to reflect on your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. This way, you can analyze your actions and how to improve every day.
Also, talk to your team and act with kindness. Treat them with respect and be very aware of how your words and actions affect them. Finally, always listen carefully to what each member has to say, without interrupting or judging.
How to test this with your team?
Leading a team with humility is an important skill for any leader. It’s a way to show respect for your team members and foster a positive work environment. When you manage to do this, you will see the good attitude of your group and how something that seems simple can make a big change.
For your group to feel this connection with you, you must recognize everyone as an important part of your team. You can congratulate everyone for their hard work and contributions. Above all, show appreciation for their efforts and successes. This will help build trust and respect between you and the group.
Set creative parameters
When you have a lot of options, it’s hard to decide. It can be mentally exhausting and you may not choose the best one in the end. This can cause leadership creativity to stagnate because making a decision usually requires a lot of thought. Now, making a decision with too many options will not give you room for leadership creativity.
For example, in testing Baumeiste’s findings (1) (the decision fatigue theory), Johnathan Levav discovered something important. The fatigue of having too many choices begins to set in, and people stop making quality-based decisions. Instead, they made the least creative decisions.
Preventing “decision fatigue” in the creative workplace
A good way to avoid all of the above is for you to set parameters. The strategy of setting creative boundaries can generate better results. Simple things like making lists, setting deadlines, and assigning tasks will bring much more order to your team.
This way, everyone in the group can keep track of projects, perhaps on platforms to which everyone has access. This way, everyone can keep focused on what really matters and work towards the same common goal. Benchmarks help stimulate collective creativity.
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Parameters are an aid to creativity
These guidelines for developing creative ideas may vary depending on the context and purpose you have in mind. However, here are some parameters that can help you develop creative ideas in the best way:
Identify a need or problem
It is important to have a clear idea of what you want to solve or improve through our creative ideas.
Establish a clear objective
You must know what you want to achieve with your ideas and how you will measure success.
Brainstorming
When developing creative ideas it is important to think that none of them is bad and to generate several possible solutions as a team.
Evaluate and select the best ideas
After generating a variety of ideas, you should evaluate each of them and select those that best fit your objective and needs.
Refine the selected ideas
Once you have selected the best ideas, you must work on them to refine them, with the goal of shaping them, and making them more viable and effective.
Implement and test the ideas
Finally, you must implement your creative ideas and evaluate their effectiveness in practice. This will help you improve your future ideas.
How can you implement leadership creativity?
Being a creative leader involves developing skills and attitudes that foster innovation and creativity in your team. This will not only help you, but it will also contribute to the growth of all team members. Therefore, here are some of the characteristics of a creative leader include:
- An open and curious mindset: willing to explore new ideas and approaches, to question everything.
- Divergent thinking skills: has the ability to see things from different perspectives, to generate ideas and solutions to every problem.
- A risk-taking attitude: willing to try new things. Also, to see failure as part of the learning and growth process.
- Communication and collaboration skills: you are able to work together with your team and communicate your ideas very well.
- A continuous learning mentality: you are always looking for new ways to improve and learn, both personally and in your team or organization.
Why is innovation so important?
You may have wondered, but innovation is important for several reasons. First, it is essential for the growth and development of any company or organization. Companies that do not innovate run the risk of being left behind in an increasingly competitive and changing market.
In addition, innovation is important for the development of society in general. Innovative ideas and solutions can help solve social and environmental problems. They can also contribute to people’s well-being and quality of life.
Conclusion
Creativity is an ability that we can all develop, we just need to find the way. In the case of a leader, it is a plus to lead teams. You have the ability to generate innovative ideas and solutions. You can see opportunities for your company or organization where others do not.
In addition, if you manage to develop leadership creativity in your team, surely the growth will be noticed. From that point on, the purpose of your company or organization will be to innovate. When you achieve that, the collective work will be much more productive because everyone is focused on creativity to develop ideas.
References
1. BAUMEISTER RFB. Decision Fatigue Exhausts Self-Regulatory Resources [Internet]. National Institute of Health grants MH12794 (KV) and MH 57039 (RB); 2005 [cited 2022 Dec 8].
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2. Marín Ibáñez R. Creativity [Internet]. Vida escolar; 1975 [cited 2022 Dec 8].
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3. Chacón Araya Y. A critical review of the concept of creativity [Internet]. Revista Electrónica “Actualidades Investigativas en Educación”; 2005 [cited 2022 Dec 8].
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4. Brian T. Leadership [Internet]. Nelson Group; 2015 [cited 2022 Dec 8].
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5. Alves J. LEADERSHIP AND ORGANIZATIONAL CLIMATE [Internet]. Journal of Sport Psychology; 2000 [cited 2022 Dec 8].
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