Creativity: An Essential Skill for 21st Century Leaders
Creativity: An Essential Skill for 21st Century Leaders
For many the link between creativity and leadership may not be so obvious; however, in my opinion there is an inextricable and crucial bond between these two constructs. In fact, so much so I would argue that leadership success in the 21st century is founded upon an individual’s ability to think and act creatively, as well as facilitate the creative-thinking of others.
Let’s start by looking at these two fundamental expressions of human talent. Of the two, the concept that is more difficult to nail down in precise and enduring terms is leadership. Since the inception of leadership studies more than 100 years ago, leadership has been defined in various ways. This should come as no surprise. Leadership is highly contextual. In that our views of leadership are likely to be shaped by recent history along with contemporary issues. For instance, what it meant to be a leader during the industrial boom of the early 20th century, is different than how leaders and leadership are defined in innovation economy that epitomizes the early 21st century. By way of another example, discussions of ethical leadership took off shortly after the Enron scandal in the early 2000’s.
In my mind leadership has much more to do with what people do rather than the title or position they hold. While an individual may have the title that confirms he or she is in a position of power, the true test of leadership is based on what an individual is able to accomplish and the legacy that is left behind. I operationally define leadership as follows: “the ability to facilitate others towards the successful attainment of meaningful goals.”
Creativity, while often misunderstood, has been defined in fairly consistent ways since the early 1950’s. Extending what is known as the standard definition of creativity, I see creativity as “the ability to produce original and valuable responses to open-ended problems, both predicaments that call us to react and opportunities that must be discovered (in some cases a challenge can be both a predicament and an opportunity at the same time).” Fundamentally creativity represents a unique way of thinking that effectively responds to complex problems (i.e., novel problems that do not have easy answers). What is implicit in this definition of creativity is the application of creative thinking. As Alex Osborn, a well-known advertising executive and pioneer in the creative education movement, argued the human mind is designed to solve problems. To solve problems we need knowledge, along with both imaginative and evaluative thought. According to Osborn, most people do not fail to solve complex problems as a result of lack of knowledge or evaluative thinking skills, but rather due to a lack of imagination. In short, creative thinking is the golden key to effective problem solving. Creativity, the production of new and valuable ideas, is the result of the innate or deliberate application of creative thinking.
Now that both terms have been briefly defined and explained, let’s examine how they intersect. By virtue of what they do, leaders must be creative problem solvers. First, the act of pursuing meaningful goals is in itself a creative process. That is, successful goal attainment often reflects the resolution of a predicament or the accomplishment of a new opportunity. Second, attaining a meaningful goal is hardly ever easy. The journey towards a goal, such as social change, the introduction of a new innovation, raising funds for a project or putting on a school field trip, can be fraught with difficulties, setbacks, and obstacles. To successfully meet such barriers to success, leaders must employ their creative-thinking capacities and enlist others to apply their creativity. Bottom line, those individuals who can tap into their own and others creative-thinking skills are much more likely to attain leadership success as demonstrated through goal attainment.
Sadly, while creative thinking and creative problem solving are now considered to be core leadership skills, few leadership development programs incorporate training and learning experiences in creativity. Individuals are left to their own innate creative capacities, which may or may not be sufficient to ensure sustained leadership success. It would be wise for those who are interested in bringing their leadership to the next level. And, as leaders cannot have all the answers, it would also be wise for aspiring and established leaders to learn to facilitate the creative thinking of others.
Related Literature Sources
Cheung, M. F. Y., & Wong, C. S. (2011). Transformational leadership, leader support, and employee creativity. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 32, 656-672.
IBM (2010). Capitalising on complexity: Insights from the global chief executive officer (CEO) study. Portsmouth: UK: IBM United Kingdom Limited.
Mumford, M. D., & Connelly, M. S. (1991). Leaders as creators: Leader performance and problem solving in ill-defined domains. Leadership Quarterly, 2, 289–315.
Mumford, M. D., Zaccaro, S. J., Harding, F. D., Jacobs, T. O., & Fleishman, E. A. (2000). Leadership skills for a changing world: Solving complex problems. Leadership Quarterly, 11, 11-35.
Puccio, G. J., Mance, M., & Acar, S. (2017). Creative leaders, creative managers, and managers. In M. Mumford & S. Hemlin (Eds.), Handbook of Creative Leadership (pp. 359–383). Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing.
Puccio, G. J., Mance, M., & Murdock, M. C. (2011). Creative leadership: Skills that drive change (2nd Ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. [Translated into Italian, Korean & Chinese]
Runco, M. A., & Jaeger, G. J. (2012). The standard definition of creativity. Creativity Research Journal, 24, 92-96.