Leadership that Unleashes the Creative Spirit - Essay Example

Leadership That Unleashes the Creative Spirit Organizations rely on the capabilities of its leaders especially in crucial times that need transformation. These are periods when creativity and innovation from both the leaders and the members of the organization should be prioritized not only for organizational survival but also to establish its position among its competition. It will look into the example of Richard Branson of the Virgin Inc. empire whose creative leadership has successfully turned the company’s losing streak around and sent the company to fly higher heights with its collaborative efforts in thinking up and implementing innovative strategies. The objective of this paper is to determine the skills that leaders and managers should possess in order to foster creativity and innovation in their teams so that organizational success is achieved. A Changing Global Economy With the age of globalization upon us, change and development have been launched on a faster pace. This resulted in the need for creativity in innovation, especially in the business world, if one wants to jump ahead of the competition. Companies seek the best candidates who possess dynamism and fresh ideas to contribute to their businesses. Employers prefer people who are creative, open to learning and can think ‘out of the box’ so their imaginative ideas can inject new blood into their products and services. Nicola Bell, CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi, New Zealand heralded creativity as the new lever of change necessary to “re-imagine different futures for businesses”. She claims that “creative leadership” is essential to successful businesses, acknowledging the fact that an IBM study recognized creativity as the “single most important leadership quality”. (Shipley, 2011, p. 6). A perfect example of a creative leader who was able to save his company from ruin during the global economic crisis is Richard Branson of the Virgin group of companies. Faced with a dire economic low in 2009 with the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) collapsing 55% from 2007 to 2009 and the banking system on the verge of a breakdown, Branson’s company was down 40%. How he successfully navigated the company and steered it back to the top was the greatest challenge he had in his decades of creative leadership. He used his innovative ideas to take advantage of the opportunities he found during this low time and determined the strategies with his team to grow from the chaos their company was in (Finkle, 2011). Creativity and Innovation The concepts of creativity and innovation, often intertwined, should be differentiated. Creativity is mostly related to the production of fresh and useful ideas (Mumford & Gustafson, 1988) while innovation takes care of the production or adoption of such ideas and implements it (Kanter, 1988; Van de Ven, 1986). Both play vital roles in the achievement of progressive organizations’ goals if they are to maintain a competitive edge (Robinson, 2011). Flexibility and adaptability to change must be developed in order to bring about the creative and innovative sides of people. ‘Thinking outside the box’ is something very descriptive of creativity (Notar & Padgett, 2010). A box confines something to a finite space. When creative people think, they go beyond the limits of any confinements onto endless possibilities. They are willing to adopt new perspectives to make their work more interesting. They are open to doing various tasks and do them differently than usual (Bernacki, 2002). They are perennially in search of new ideas and acting on them, that is why even if they are already bursting with ideas of their own, they still enjoy listening to the ideas of others, because they may even be better than theirs. Creative Leadership Mumford, Connelly, & Gaddis, (2003) claim that leaders should possess substantial technical and professional expertise as well as substantial creative thinking skills. Their own creative nature spills on to their employees. Creative thoughts begin with the evaluation of ideas presented on the table. Such evaluation stimulates brainstorming efforts of the whole team, facilitated by the leader whose expertise and professional experiences greatly aid in the filtering, reshaping and reforming of the ideas (Mumford & Licuanan, 2004). Conditions in which leader behaviour has a great impact on the growth of creativity and innovation include the following: creativity of the team; work group processes; emphasis on quality; advocacy and action for innovation; leader control of rewards; challenge in the job itself; organizational climate and structure (Mumford & Licuanan, 2004). When all these conditions are met, the leader ensures that everyone’s ideas are valued and heard out as well as provide freedom to try out the ideas along with an agreed system of evaluation. Robinson (2011) explains that a balance of the external and internal cultures should be maintained. External culture consists of “technological innovations, population change, new patterns of trade, fluctuation in fiscal and monetary policies, global competition, the increasing strains on natural resources and the effects of all of these on how customers and clients are thinking and feeling” (p. 98). On the other hand, internal culture involves the social practices and behaviours commonly observed within the organization. The leader’s roles in developing a culture of creativity include the personal, group and cultural roles which feed into each other and overlap so creativity is further enriched (Robinson, 2011). It is essential for leaders to bring out the creative abilities of their members. When one is acknowledged to have creative potential, he or she should be allowed to participate in functions that involve them in sharing ideas and allowing their creativity to flourish. Learning opportunities nurture imaginative minds which lead to innovative ideas. It will not only encourage members to learn more skills benefitting the organization but also makes them feel valued as a member who makes worthy contributions to the team (Robinson, 2011). Creative leaders embrace diversity. Each person is believed to have something to contribute regardless of his or her background or life situation. In return for being accepted for who they are, members strive hard to prove themselves and come up with quality performance in their tasks. Individual work preferences such as conducive environments and schedules are considered in order to unleash the needed creativity. Leaders should be aware of their followers’ preferred style of processing of creative thought to be better able to manage groups and integrate the distinct processing styles that characterize the work of the many different people involved in real-world creative efforts. Creative cultures thrive on environments that are alive and free (Robinson, 2011). Leaders encourage creativity through their own unconventional behaviours as they model these to their followers, articulate their creative mission as establish a creative group identity for their team (Jaussi & Dione, 2003). Creative leaders are equipped with social and emotional intelligence and a skill for shaping the emotional responses of their followers in line with the problems and challenges at hand. They can stimulate their followers’ problem-solving and intrinsic motivation, which are needed for creative work (Zhou & George, 2003). Richard Branson Richard Branson’s career as an entrepreneur is peppered with risks and challenges that he graciously accepted. For him what was important was the enjoyment of the challenging journeys he took with every risk. According to him, “Life is short; one has to make the most of it. Thus, do things that you like. If your work and your hobby are the same, you will work long hours because you are motivated.” (De Vries, 1999, p.8). As a leader, he greatly encourages creativity in his employees and because of that, he inspires loyalty from them. He respects their ideas and is unafraid to give them the credit they deserve even if it makes them seem smarter than him. This is because for him, he considers the multiple perspectives and sources of ideas as assets for a leader of an organization rather than a threat (Finkle, 2011). Branson’s entrepreneurial prowess and confidence as an adventurous leader were responsible for building global brand recognition for Virgin, Inc. His key characteristics included being a self-motivator, aggressiveness, being a risk-taker, insightfulness, financial acumen, negotiating skills, creativity, flexibility, competiveness, being proactive, hardworking and charismatic. It also helped that he was connected with very influential people (Finkle, 2011). Creative Change Management Change is inevitable especially in organizations which aim for constant progress. However, many people can be terrified of change which would entail them leaving their comfort zones. With the companies of Virgin Inc., change is always expected, considering it has undergone several shifts and amendment in services, even diversifying to unrelated products and services especially when losses are incurred due to the changing needs of the market. In being able to master the challenges of change, Branson was able to expand his businesses in greater breadth and depth. The Virgin Groups core businesses include retail operations with stores in Australia, Britain and Ireland, continental Europe, Hong Kong, Japan, North America, and South Korea; hotels, communications (video games, book publishing, radio and television production), and an airline. Virgin Atlantic Airways, has regular flights to New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Orlando, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Dublin, and Athens. The crown jewels of his empire, Virgin Music, was reluctantly sold to Thorn EMI in 1992. Recent successful ventures include Virgin Cola and Virgin Direct Personal Financial Services (Finkle, 2011). Effective leaders are quite comfortable welcoming change. Michael Fullan (2004) identified five components of leadership necessary to be successful in instituting reformation in institutions. He advocates that a good leader should have moral purpose, an understanding of change, knowledge of how to build relationships with others, creation and sharing of knowledge, and knowledge of how to survive and find clarity in chaos. In addition, organizations should be able to develop creativity and innovation. Companies led by creative leaders such as Richard Branson, have certain ways of enhancing creativity by motivating people in their ever-evolving companies. Leaders should first establish a highly supportive environment for their members to foster creativity development. Subordinates should be able to feel safe in contributing their ideas and trying them out without fear of judgment nor punishment for failure (Amabile, 1998). Thinking ‘out of the box’ is encouraged as they engage in generative and exploratory thinking (Sosik et al., 1998). Old problems are thought of in new ways and questioning one’s own long-held beliefs, values, traditions as well as the leader’s with regards to current problems being solved is entertained (Bass, 1985; Hater & Bass, 1988). Diehl & Stroebe (1991) illustrate that when group members brainstorm to generate innovative and creative approaches to solve problems at hand, their leader’s intellectually stimulating behaviours, statements and attitudes can facilitate members to spend more time generating unconventional ideas as well as help them reduce the potential effect of evaluation apprehension, thus enhancing creativity in groups. This shows that the quality of support provided to the members reflects the level of creativity they can develop. Another scenario to be considered is how teams work depending on their creative thinking styles. Some teams work well together while others prefer individual work. Sternberg (1996) proposes that competition between groups motivates the members to work better than competition within groups. The team concept is stronger than the survival of the fittest concept of competition. Virgin, Inc. was able to survive dramatic changes in the course of its existence in the business world because of its visionary and creative leader. The work environment that Branson created was that of a family-like organization. He made sure that his workers were treated well and that they enjoyed the work they do for the company. He may not be known for giving high remuneration but his workers are happy for being valued as members of his prestigious organization. They are made to feel a sense of ownership of their contributions to the company and are given credit for it. Branson opted for a more flattened organization instead of building a complicated hierarchy. This means that even those in the rank and file were given the right to speak their minds and be heard. In addition, Branson implanted in his workers the value of charity and sharing with the less fortunate. Their way of spreading their success is by sharing it with charitable institutions and working for worthy causes. This may be what Fullan (2004) refers to as Virgin, Inc’s moral purpose. Conclusion This paper discussed how leaders can steer their organizations toward success by encouraging creativity and innovation to flourish in their companies. These two serve as effective agents of change that will ensure the success of the organization. Richard Branson’s creative leadership of his company, Virgin, Inc. has been described as the kind of leadership to be emulated especially in critical times that involve great changes. Virgin, Inc. has gone through low periods of losses and problems that necessitated the introduction of reform or even shifts to other products and services in order to keep afloat. 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