Creativity: the 21st century leadership skill we actually need
Whether you’re a salaried employee or a gig worker, a member of the C-suite or an entry-level workhorse, the odds are pretty high that you’re currently drowning in a sea of reskilling and upskilling buzzwords, most ending with the letter -y.
Agility, empathy, integrity, sensitivity, accountability, sustainability, resiliency, digital literacy: best to embrace some or ideally all of them if you want to be future-ready (another one!) in the volatile professional landscape of the 21st century. Not commonly mentioned among these must-have leadership skills is creativity. The reasons for this omission are as numerous as they are complex.
Let’s start with the most obvious connotation creativity evokes: the stereotype of the entertaining, mildly eccentric but also starving artist. Yes, creativity is commonly associated with the arts, especially the performing arts. Who could possibly exude more creativity than the jazz saxophonist improvising in a packed to the brim bar well after midnight? What about the brilliant painter who puts herself through art school by setting up shop next to popular landmarks, working away on her latest creation in full unimpeded view of curious pedestrians and noisy tourists? Or how is it that even after 25 seasons of The Voice audiences remain in awe of the struggling singer-songwriter sensation who’s lighting up the stage with their vocal talents?
The point here is that most of us have typecast creativity. We think of artists and performers, not people in the professions, possessing and doling out our daily dose of creativity. Even more rarely do we tie our own identity and professional aspirations to such an intangible artistic ability. Paradoxically, we seem to have no issue recognizing and appreciating the trait in others, even when it strays far from its original context. The world of professional sports is proof of that.
Try sitting through a Kansas City Chiefs game without hearing the announcers praise Patrick Mahomes’ quarterback play for being creative at least a few dozen times. The same goes for former Barcelona great now American import Lionel Messi. While some athletes possess that indefinable split-second creativity that can turn around a game, others have used theirs to redefine an entire sport. Think of the “Sparrow from Minsk,” Belarusian gymnastics legend and 3x Olympic gold medal winner Olga Korbut, whose dazzling acrobatics brought the sport into the mainstream.
We all practice creativity daily without ever acknowledging its presence.
But what exactly is creativity? How do we define it? Far from being unmanageable and elusive, creativity is a universal human trait that can be harnessed and taught. Creativity is much more than a sudden flash of brilliance, a single triumphant Eureka moment, that is often difficult to explain and even harder to replicate. Nor is creativity reserved only for special times and occasions, for moments of artistic brilliance or scientific breakthroughs. Broken up into its constituent parts, creativity becomes something that can be attained by just about anyone: a useful tool to navigate the mundane and the extraordinary.
All creativity starts with interest and curiosity, followed by efforts of varying lengths of time at understanding that what has captured your interest and piqued your curiosity. Once the subject of your fascination becomes intelligible, creativity then demands of its practitioners to have the courage to sidestep or outright ignore the status quo. Creativity, up until this point, is therefore as much a learning process as it is a shift in mindset.
Curiosity, understanding, and courage is then followed by experimentation. In order to improve the present state of affairs we are confronted with or affronted by, new ideas, alternatives, and solutions have to be generated. This can be done by modifying and manipulating the existing pieces of the puzzle. Let’s look at creativity in the culinary world, inspired by the FX hit show The Bear. Chefs typically spend years honing their craft before they can get truly creative. At one point in their careers, first-rate chefs will start tinkering with the cooking techniques and recipes they’ve been taught, putting their unique spin on old classics, or creating an entirely reimagined dish, cuisine, or dining experience for their customers.
We all practice creativity daily without ever acknowledging its presence. We find alternative ways to work when an accident shuts down our preferred route. We redecorate our homes to address our current living or remote working situations. We adjust our resumes to make ourselves more hireable for the job we’re eager to land. We sometimes go to great ingenious lengths to steer clear of situations and people that bring us discomfort.
Even though creativity is of immense value for managing complexity and navigating much smaller moments of adversity and opportunity, it remains unevenly distributed in the world of work and across organizations. While the design industry or marketing departments are often but not always replete with creative talent, other arenas remain virtually untouched by those who either know how to use creative problem-solving, non-linear thinking, and abductive reasoning, or those who can recognizeand reward good new ideas and alternative possibilities when they’re presented to them.
Creativity, it bears remembering, need not be purely generative after all. When curiosity, understanding, and courage is paired with an ability to spot productive departures from the business-as-usual trap, particularly by those in decision-making positions, creativity has the power to help any organization unleash their innovative potential.
