Individual Reflection: Creativity, Leadership and Innovation: A Self-Assessment - Essay Example

CREATIVITY, LEADERSHIP AND INNOVATION: A SELF-ASSESSMENT CREATIVITY, LEADERSHIP AND INNOVATION: A SELF-ASSESSMENT Assessment of the characteristics of my innovation leader As individual employees in the organization in which I work in, we had all had some level of appreciation of the fact that innovation was indeed a quality and factor that we needed for the growth of the organization. However, this realization did not come so close to us in practical terms as the time we had our new branch manager, who from every indication can be described as an innovation leader who supports creative environment. As identified in literature of most innovative leaders, the very first time undertaken by this leader upon taking office was to have time in identifying all issues and problems that hinder growth in the organization (Rivas and Puccio, 2012). After this he created a creative environment by assigning all employees a responsibility of coming out with two creative ideas that would help solve the identified problems. Indeed, this was a tremendous way of setting the creative thinking cap of every other person to work. But this was not the end as he actually catalyzed and implemented innovation by giving every member the freedom to use part of their regular working hours to explore ways of materializing their creative ideas. This was more like assigning 10% of time for individual practice. As and when he identified results with any initiation process, he willingly gave out rewards and other forms of motivation to push them as a way f promoting innovation in the organization. In terms of leadership skills, this is a leader who can be said to use the participatory leadership skills in valuing the input of team members and colleagues, rather than thinking of himself as the supreme, whose ideas are the final ones to be used by the organization (de Jong and Hartog, 2007). As part of the participatory leadership skills possessed by this innovative leader, he has always rolled out very unique program and agenda for engaging all stakeholders within the organization in the innovative process. As part of the agenda, he first identifies what each stakeholder including suppliers, executive, board members and employees can do best as individuals. After this, he always finds a problem area that suits the unique abilities and differences of all people. Then in a very holistic approach, engage all people whose unique abilities confirm to a particular problem and put them together as a team and mandate them to use their innovative abilities to solve the problems. The approach is called a holistic one because it has often combined stakeholders from different backgrounds. In line with the holistic approach, the analysis of stakeholders on the delivery of their tasks has often taken a form where teams are analyzed based on the tasks assigned to them. From the approach that has always been used by this innovation leader to instigate innovation among all other stakeholders, the following leadership characteristics can be said to have been exhibited by him ever since taking his position: i. Negotiating ii. Unifying iii. Cooperative iv. Inspirational v. Participative vi. Collaborative vii. Impartial viii. Supportive ix. Exploring These leadership characteristics have always been exemplified in very different ways as explained above and what is more compelling is that the leader has never feared to implement changes as an when he feels they are right. As part of his philosophy, he has always said that when one existing thing does not make room for a new one, there can never be innovation. He can therefore be said to be the type who do not put new wine in old wine sacks but always look for innovative changes that best respond to the prevailing needs of his time. Self-assessment on dimensions of leadership that foster creativity By stating that “What innovators achieve is the result of their actions and what they do, not simply who they are”, Dyer, Gregersen, and Christensen (2009) are drumming home the fact that innovation leaders are made rather than born. For an innovation to be made, there are specific dimensions of leaderships that such a leader must be able to exhibit as a means of fostering creativity. Nine of these leadership dimensions are identified below with an assessment of I currently display them and reason for my self-assessment. Associating: I would score my associating skills as 1 out of 3 given the fact that I have not mastered in the skill of using different and unrelated scenarios and situations to create a consolidated fact of issue that is focused on solving situations. This has been so because I have mostly had to work among group of people with whom I am equally related to in terms of skills, perception about life and competency level. Realizing the need of associating as part of the innovator’s DNA, I would begin challenging myself with much unrelated issues. Questioning: I have always shared the opinion that without questioning, there can never be solution because the answers to questions pose as the beginning to solutions to most problems that face us (Rivas and Puccio, 2012). I have therefore done well to master myself as a good questioner, asking the right questions to the right issues. I would therefore rate my questioning ability as 3 out of 3. The act of asking questions has become part of my general approach to finding solutions to problem and so to every problem I encounter, I make sure there are different questions directed at it in a bid to find alternative answers. Experimenting: When it comes to experimenting, I will score myself 1 out 3 because I have not believed in experimenting with the obvious reason that I cannot play with chances. For a very long time, I have held the notion that it is possible to identify solutions to problems if sufficient analysis and scrutiny takes place on the problem. Because of this, I would always approach a problem in a bid to solving it rather than experimenting with answers. But I have come to learn from Dyer, Gregersen, and Christensen (2009) that experimenting gives opportunity for new discoveries to be made and thus innovation and so I would begin taking a second look at it. Observing: I have exhibited create observation skills mainly because I am a person with much patience to wait for outcomes. I have therefore developed the habit of observing, based on which the related skill of questioning have often followed. For example, once I observe a customer critically and realize any consumer behavioral trends in the customer, I then ask questions as to how these trends can best be utilized by the organization. I would therefore score myself 3 out of 3 in terms of observing. Networking: My score for networking will be 2 out 3. This is because I have always believed in finding new opportunities through other people and thus started networks so easily. But up to now, my score has not been rounded up because I have had a practical problem with keeping my networks to the very end. In most of the cases, I tend to back out of an existing network when I have the feeling that things are not moving as fast as I want within the network. Cultivating New Thinking: Especially with the coming of our new leader, new thinking has become part of my daily practice, giving me a score of 3 out 3 in it. On a daily basis, my focus has been on how to achieve something new. But as my leader has always professed, putting new wine in old wine sack is not the best and so I have always cultivated new thinking to come out with new ways and approaches to everything. Comfort with Change: Once new thinking is activated, there is much possibility that the resulting effect will be change (Amabile and Khaire, 2008). This is because of the fact that in order to implement the new thinking that is done, there ought to be a change that will institute the outcome of the new thinking. Because of this, I have easily embraced myself with change and seen it as a useful intervention to innovation. I have learnt from my leader that innovation starts with change and so have always been comfortable with change, scoring 3 out of 3 in that sense. Risk tolerance: Because I do not like experimenting, I have not liked taking risk for a very long time. This gives me a score of 1 out of 3 when it comes to risk tolerance. My fear has been that some risks could be so serious that they would leave permanent consequences. In line with this, I have always wanted to play safe and be a guaranteed side rather to gamble with chances. Collaboration: I am a good collaborator, scoring 3 out of 3. My major reason for opening myself out to collaboration is that I have always held the view that innovation is a shared responsibility and so ought to be carried out in a collaborative way (Nodeson and Beleya, 2012). As part of collaboration, I have always opened myself up for constructive criticism and accepted the need to play my part perfectly in a team. Lesson about myself as a leader Having gone through the various dimensions above, I have come to realize that I am a highly skeptical leader who would not easily try out on something new when I am not sure of what the outcome of that will be. It is for this reason I have scored myself low on risk tolerance and experimenting. Meanwhile, Amabile and Khaire (2008) noted that successful leaders must not fear to fail when the need arises. If for nothing at all, failure only gives an indication of what we should not do again when presented with another opportunity. For this reason, it will be very helpful for me if I can be more courageous to take very bold steps and decisions that will focus on change. This will however not be equated with ill-considered experimentation and risk taking. Having gone through the dimensions above, I have come to the realization that it is very important for leaders to possess all of these dimensions because it will give them the urge to deal with different situations that arise out of their workplace. This is particularly so as the nature, personality and competencies of the people leaders work with on a daily basis are so varying, unpredictable and different. On my part, the most important of the dimensions for my future is cultivating new thinking as I associate it with competitive advantage creation. Most certainly, consumers the world over are looking for new ideas that meet their needs (Dyer, Gregersen and Christensen, 2009). It is for this reason that cultivating new thinking must be a periodic part of my leadership. References Amabile, T. M., & Khaire, M. (2008). Creativity and the role of the leader. Harvard Business Review, 86(10), 100–109. de Jong, J., Den Hartog, D. (2007). How leaders influence employees innovative behavior. European Journal of Innovation Management, 10(1), 41–64. Dyer, J. H., Gregersen, H. B., & Christensen, C. M. (2009). The innovators DNA. Harvard Business Review, 87(12), 60–67. Nodeson, S., & Beleya, P. (2012) Leadership role in handling employees resistance: Implementation of innovation. Interdisciplinary Journal of Contemporary Research in Business. 4(1). 466–477. Rivas, C., & Puccio, G. J. (2012). The innovative team: Unleashing creative potential for breakthrough results. Retrieved from http://www.vitalsource.com Read More