We live in a volatile, ill-defined, ambiguous and complex world where changes seem ever-present. In IBM’s 2010 CEO study, IBM spoke with over 1,500 CEOs from around the world. They identified three themes facing business today:
- Complexity is here to stay and will likely accelerate in the coming years
- Their orgainzations do not currently have the skills or capacity to effectively deal with this complexity
- Creativity is the #1 leadership skill needed over the next 5 years
I would push further on creativity as the top leadership skill to advocate for creative leadership. To effectively address complex problems, leaders need to be more than just creative themselves. Creative leadership is about leaders who encourage, support and create the climate, conditions and opportunities for others to express their own creative leadership and deliver valuable solutions to complex problems.
Creative leaders exhibit, encourage and support the following behaviors related to creativity and risk-taking:
- Ambiguity: are friendly with and tolerant of ambiguity; are willing to play with the unknown
- Inner-Directed: have an internal locus of control and are internally motivated; beat to their own drum
- Self-Acceptance: know and like themselves; are satisfied with and approve of their own behavior
- Independent: while they desire and have the ability to take in diverse data before making decisions, they make their own choices without worry about what others will think or do
- Uniqueness: value, respect and are open to differing perspectives, ideas and approaches (including their own) and leverages those differences to develop elegant solutions
- Authentic: are honest, genuine and respectful; act with integrity; seek first to understand and then to be understood; “walk their talk”
- Resilient: are flexible and adaptable; learn from both successes and failures and apply that learning to future actions
Knowles, Holton and Swanson (2005, pp. 256-263) offer the following characteristics of creative leaders:
- Have faith in people
- Offer challenging opportunities
- Delegate responsibility
- Involve their clients, employees, students, etc.
- Believe in and use the power of self-fulfilling prophecy
- Value individuality
- Encourage teams in which members work at what they are best at and enjoy most
- Seek to help others become their own self-actualizing persons
- Stimulate and reward creativity
- Exemplify creativity in their own behavior
- Provide environments that encourage and reward innovation in others
- Are committed to continuous change and are skillful in managing change
- Emphasize internal motivators over external ones
- Encourage people to be self-directing
- Are skilled as facilitators and consultants / coaches
Additionally, Sid Parnes (1985) offers the following qualities of creative leaders:
- Believe in the creative capacity of all people and communicate this expectation to others at work
- Open to ideas and different viewpoints
- Look for the positive in people and ideas (also offering political and resource support)
- Prone to question rather than tell
- Enthusiasm, self-evident sincerity and intrinsic motivation
- Sense of humor and playful
- Live happily with ambiguity
- Can remain on the sidelines
- Emotionally intelligent, express concern for others
- Model creativity to others, take calculated risks
- Spontaneous, flexible and accepting
- Build groups, leverage style differences, facilitate communication and exchange of ideas
- Recognize and reward creative efforts
References:
IBM. (2010). Capitalizing on complexity: Insights from the Global Chief Executive Study.
http://public.dhe.ibm.com/common/ssi/ecm/en/gbe03297usen/GBE03297USEN.PDF
Knowles, M. S., Holton, E. F., & Swanson, R. A. (2005). The adult learner. Burlington, MA: Elsevier.
Parnes, S. (1985). Referenced in Creative leadership skills for the 21st century. CREA Conference 2011 presented by Gerard Puccio, Laura Barbero Switalski and René Bernèche, April 2011, Sestri Levante, Italy.