CareerZOT Talk: Creativity Matters
COVID-19 has stifled our creativity. The sameness and lack of novelty has squashed our ability to put ideas together in new, meaningful combinations to solve problems. The future is uncertain however, creativity will change the game. And importantly, it will make the difference between success and failure.
A revolution is necessary. We need to realize that we just need to be different and better. Remote or not, it’s our time to be motivated to try harder, to experiment, to transform, and to produce.
A recent study found that 75% of working professionals believe they are not “living up to their creative potential,” and are, “under pressure to be productive rather than creative at work.” This is not the way forward into our future economy.
For leaders who need convincing, here are three ways to benefit from prioritizing creativity.
- Embrace. You must unleash the talents and passions of many people and harness them into a unique work environment that is dynamic and has purpose. Innovation is a journey. It’s a type of collaborative problem solving, usually among people who have different expertise and different points of view.
- Empower. Use active listening and give your staff the chance to have a voice and to advocate for their point of view. Trust your employees because they do understand that ingenuity rarely happens unless you have both diversity and conflict. Creative agility is about being able to test and refine ideas through reflection and improvement. It’s about discovery— and the most creative companies certainly experience organic revenue growth and total return.
- Champion. Encourage your staff to actively champion projects. This will allow them to take action—immediately. For those that get on board with this ideal, they will stand out and speak up and become the next generation of leaders. They will be original and will drive creativity and change in the world. And trust me—they will become the people you bet on.
Be thankful, share credit, build personal relationships, ask questions, welcome creativity, input and new ideas, and recognize and appreciate that your colleagues have an abundance of potential.
“We keep moving forward—opening up new doors and doing new things—because we’re curious. And curiosity keeps leading us down new paths. We’re always exploring and experimenting. We call it Imagineering—the blending of creative and imagination with technical know-how.”
Walt Disney
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