In this series of blogs we are examining what separates good leaders from great leaders. The second specific competency among the “Big 8”identified by Korn/Ferry Lominger is Creativity.
Dan Pink speaks to the importance of creativity in his book, “A Whole New Mind”. Most of us are not particularly creative; creativity is often held down in our risk-adverse Western business culture. However, as the Western business world loses its hold on manufacturing and such commodity skills as computer programming and accounting, we need to move back to our creative and developmental mind sets. This will be critical if we are to remain competitive and continue to grow our economy in this century.
Creativity involves immersing yourself in the challenge, thinking broadly and examining multiple options. You need to facilitate effective brainstorming sessions which will utilize the best of each individual involved. You need to have an effective process to keep you on track. You must also implement your best ideas. Coming up with the idea is relatively easy; following through on it is often the hardest part.
We need to break free of our restraints and become more creative. We need to lead the way and create the future.
There are many ways to influence creativity. At Summit and Frontier we have developed a program called The Art of Team that utilizes abstract painting to help individuals and teams access their right-brain creativity. This is a great session to use just before a strategy or planning session or when brainstorming is required to find a new and creative solution.
We have also developed a decision making protocol that allows teams to move through a brainstorming session with purpose. It encourages all individuals to contribute, and keeps the process on tract so you get results.
Creativity is a key competency. How will you foster it in your team?
