Nurturing creativity

Creativity is seen as vital to organisational success.  In a recent IBM survey of 1500 CEOs ‘creativity' was named as the single most important attribute for success in leading large corporations in the future.  The challenge however is not in acknowledging creativity's importance but in actually fostering creativity.Jennifer Mueller (a Wharton management professor) along with colleagues conducted some research into creative leadership and came up with some worrying findings.  The full findings, to be published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology, suggest that individuals who express more creative ideas may be viewed as having less leadership potential.  Separate studies, conducted in India and the US, suggested that creative people were actually ‘penalised' when others appraised their leadership potential.This could be changed however if participants were specifically asked to focus on ‘charismatic' leadership potential.  Mueller believes that organisations should look at their performance appraisal systems and review the attributes that are being considered when it comes to identifying potential leaders.  Some people may feel uneasy when they actually encounter 'creativity' because they are less comfortable with uncertainty and organisations should acknowledge this and adjust their thinking accordingly.The full story is published here.