WE DON’T HAVE A CREATIVITY ISSUE. WE HAVE A LEADERSHIP ISSUE.

I am going to make a huge statement today.

There are no companies short of good innovative ideas. We don’t have a creativity issue, we have a leadership issue.

Wow, that feels good to get off my chest. This is something I often feel and see as I work in a creative field.

So, why are some companies not innovating?

Why is innovation on the top 5 list of priorities for almost every CEO?  It is because we feel we are not innovating. We feel that innovation comes from a holy source and that our companies are afraid they don’t have that magic fountain.

Well, I am hear to tell you that your company has innovative people in it, period.

I am yet to meet a human being who is not creative. (We were all children once.)

Currently, too many of them have had the risk-taking ability needed to share this creativity beat out of them. (All any of us had to do was go to school to get this way.)

As leaders we (and yes, I mean you too) need to help them gain that confidence again.

Do you stop their ideas in their tracks?

Do you criticize and and shut down ideas?

We all assume that we are great leaders and we would never be guilty of such a thing.

Let’s face it though: we all learned in fifth grade what it means when we assume:
ASS + U + ME

So what do you do about it?  It is so easy you probably won’t believe it.

1) Listen:

And I don’t mean nod your head when someone is talking to you so that you are acknowledging them, and simultaneously trying to think of what you’re going to say.

To really listen stay curious;don’t assume you know what they are saying.

CURIOUS, this is the heart of it. Be curious about what they think, about what makes it important to them, about what they see as the issue.

Use this curiosity to see things from their perspective. When you are curious you can listen like you never have before.

2) Change perspectives:

For just a minute(okay, maybe more than that), don’t be the boss. Be someone else. Yes this might sound like a bit of crazy role-playing, but stay with me here.

Be a child playing in the sand for the first time. How would that child see this situation?

What about your shaggy friendly dog? How would they see it?

Your aloof cat? Yet another total perspective.

Ask questions from each of these perspectives. You will get a list that you have never imagined before.

And what will this curiosity bring you and your team???

It will being you respect and openness to new ideas. See that being CURIOUS is here too! I know that curiosity killed the cat, but the only thing dead here will be your company if you don’t get curious.

3) Champion! Be a champion of new ideas. Especially the bad ones!

Wow that seems counter-intuitive.  It is easy to be a champion of good ideas. But it is the bad ideas that need a champion. People need to have the courage to bring you ideas. They think their idea is great, even if it isn’t.

If you shoot down and shut down the bad ideas, they won’t bring you the good ones.

Plus, if they keep trying and are encouraged to do so, they just might make you a million dollars. What if they guy who invented the post-it note glue stopped after they first told him it was a bad idea?

(hmmm…I guess we wouldn’t have those crazy post-it note exercises, but I digress…)  

3M would have lost out on a gazillion dollar idea.

Now go forth and champion all ideas!  You just might be surprised how many more you get.