Paper Topic:

leadership

Article Summary

Creative Leadership : Be Your Team 's Chief Innovation Officer

by Judith A . Ross

This article written by Judith A . Ross is from the March 2007 issue of Harvard Management Update , premier business magazine with a keen eye on the latest happenings and theories under development in the market . This article aims to define a guideline for leaders that want to encourage creativity among their subordinates . By analyzing various firms and through gathering expert opinions from people within the industry and premier business schools , the author has managed to outline

key steps for encouraging innovation among team members

The article pinpoints four areas that need to be concentrated when devising a strategy for garnering innovative ideas . They are as follows

Establish clear goals and then let your people find their own way to them : this area deals with the fact that most of the times , aims people are given are so specific along with the way to achieve them , people fail to divert form what si required and just do what they are asked for . This key area stresses the fact that people should be given enough freedom to think and act on their own by giving them a goal but not the specifications as to how to reach it . The goal shouldn 't be too vague but not too specific either

Monitor their work - at a distance : this area shows how micromanaging stifles an individual 's creativity . Holding team members accountable for every small thing and constant interrogation de-motivates an individual and decreases self motivation . Similar to the previous , here to an individuals free will should not be stifled . Here , a leader should not act as a critic but as a coach instead by using criticism in a positive constructive manner

Facilitate your team 's work : a true leader is one that helps his /her members instead of just ing them around . This facilitation isn 't limited to internal help but to external assistance as well . A leader has the contacts and relations to help his /her team succeed externally as well and this plays a crucial role in motivating members

Create fruitful idea-generation and idea-evaluation processes : unless an idea is carefully evaluated against certain standards , it cannot be proved whether it is feasible or good enough to reach the aims that the team set out to achieve . Professor Gerard Puccio suggests a framework with the following elements

Separate idea generation from idea evaluation : these are two different processes and should be kept distinct

Aim for quantity : a larger set of choices is always better than limited options

Seek connections : of an idea to more than just the aims it will achieve

Apply affirmative judgment : both pros and cons should be measured , not just the benefits

Check your objectives : whether the idea achieves the aims along with the given time frame and budget

This is a well written article and is replete with expert opinions from the worlds top business schools . However , the article lacks input of people...

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