How to become a more creative leader

An interesting article that I was shared by one of my colleague.. 

How to become a more creative leader

By: Lee Xieli, Singapore

Published: 3 hours 49 min ago

INNOVATION     LEADERSHIP

Singapore - Leaders need to develop creativity, more so than other attributes, within the organisation if they want the business to continue thriving in a fast-changing environment.  

In a recent IBM study of 1,500 CEOs across the globe, chief executives have identified creativity as the key attribute a leader has to have in order to ensure future business success. Creativity is needed to adapt organisations and business models to an increasingly complex and uncertain environment, according to Ken Hudson, author of Speed Thinking - How to thrive in a time-poor world. He says, "Leaders have to deal with changes in technology, customer preferences and face often disruptive competition - all happening at a rapid pace."

Here are some starting points, Hudson says, could help leaders become more creative:

1.       Talk about creativity and innovation with the team. Hudson says there are many leaders who list innovation as important and yet never talk about it.

2.       Be open to new ideas. The first thing, says Hudson, that will kill creativity is when a leader asks for new approaches then "beats up" the first person that comes up with an unexpected or left-field idea.

3.       Lead by example. Leaders have to be creative themselves if they want others to follow them. Ask yourself what have you done that is new and different in the past week?

4.       Adopt an experimental mindset but be prepared for most ideas to fail. Creativity means you have to test your ideas over and over again. Understand that creativity is a skill that can be developed with the right training and constant practice.

5.       Recognise creativity. It does not have to a large-scale reward system, says Hudson. A moment of praise for an employee suggesting a new approach works just as well.

6.       Implement good ideas quickly. It is no use being creative if it takes months or years to implement an idea, says Hudson, because the marketplace or customer preference could have changed by then.