How can you develop leaders' creativity and innovation over time?

To add on it's important for leaders to be courageously authentic. Vulnerability, accepting mistakes, allowing honest mistakes, being generous with praises and encouragement goes in a big way in crafting a culture of innovation and creativity.

I would also add that it is critical for leaders to lead people by example to a growth mindset towards their desired growth areas, even if it doesn't always align with the leader's preferences. While some growth alignment is necessary, providing space and opportunities for team members to develop in their chosen directions enhances overall mental well-being. Diversifying growth areas facilitates the formation of new connections that can lead to valuable opportunities. By eliminating limiting beliefs and assumptions, we pave the way for creativity and innovation.

We will have a growth mindset when we know what is the direction we want to take. I ask my clients, "If we have this conversation again in three years' time, what are you going to report back to me?" This helps them create the vision, and once they do, it's a matter of recognizing where they are currently and what they will need to do to make that vision possible. A growth mindset has clarity, resilience, focus and determination. And it all starts from our vision for the future. Once we have that, we can create the actions and take the necessary steps to get us there.

Eric Hoffer states, "In times of change, learners inherit the earth." This highlights the essence of a growth mindset in leadership. In an ever-evolving world, the ability to learn and adapt is what keeps leaders relevant and resilient. A growth mindset fuels this adaptability, encouraging leaders to embrace challenges, value feedback, and see setbacks as opportunities for growth. Coaching leaders to cultivate such a mindset is about fostering curiosity and resilience, ensuring they remain not just competent, but visionary in their fields. It's this mindset that transforms obstacles into opportunities, paving the way for innovation and sustained success.

Un état d’esprit de curiosité permanente est un must pour favoriser la créativité et l’innovation Arrêter sa machine mentale automatique est également une façon efficiente de penser différemment pour obtenir des résultats différents !

To develop leaders' creativity and innovation over time, it's crucial to create a safe and stimulating environment where these qualities can thrive. This environment should be supportive, diverse, and challenging, allowing leaders to express opinions, take risks, and make mistakes without fear of judgment. Exposure to different perspectives and experiences is essential for inspiration and broadening horizons. Additionally, leaders need to face problems and opportunities that stretch their thinking and skills. Coaching leaders to cultivate such an environment regards building trust and rapport within teams, seeking and offering constructive feedback, and identifying and pursuing meaningful goals.

Safe environment means allowing mistakes, allowing for failure. Provided there is learning from the experience. Mistakes are amazing learning opportunities. Failure is needed to ensure ultimate success. But the true leader doesn't just accept and allow mistakes and failure, he/she sits down with the person and reviews the project, analyses the decision process, draws out the learnings, re-sets the expectations. Next time there is a review they explore the results since the previous review and ensures past lessons have been learned.

Providing a safe and stimulating environment is essential for unleashing the creative potential of leaders. When leaders feel psychologically safe within their teams, they are more likely to share innovative ideas without fear of criticism or rejection. Additionally, a stimulating environment that encourages collaboration, diverse perspectives, and experimentation can spark creativity. Leaders should cultivate a culture where curiosity is encouraged, and employees are empowered to explore unconventional solutions to problems.

Fail fast, crafting an MVP (minimum viable proposition) and tolerating mistakes are all enablers to innovation. To enable self and others to think of newer ways of doing things is a vital quality of creative leaders.

Psychological safety is foundational to all kinds of high performance, including innovative leadership. You can’t go past the four dimensional leadership program used by NASA to create a social context that supports innovation.

Leaders must first acknowledge the presence of fixed mindset tendencies within themselves and their teams, as highlighted in the emphasis on acknowledging fixed mindset and identifying triggers. Encouraging leaders to engage in personal reflection and introspection, fosters self-awareness and facilitates mindset transformation. Integrating growth mindset principles into educational settings and leadership development programs empowers leaders to cultivate a growth-oriented mindset not only within themselves but also within their teams and organizations. On top of that recognizing the impact of fixed mindset behaviors on team dynamics encourages open communication and empathy.

Developing leaders' creativity involves honing both divergent and convergent thinking skills. Divergent thinking involves generating a multitude of ideas without judgment, fostering creativity and exploration. On the other hand, convergent thinking focuses on evaluating and refining ideas to identify the most viable solutions. By training leaders to balance these two approaches, they can effectively navigate the creative process from ideation to implementation. This enables them to generate innovative ideas while also ensuring practicality and feasibility.

Applying divergent and convergent thinking is a dynamic approach I advocate. I narrate instances where I navigated complex issues by encouraging diverse perspectives (divergent thinking) and then converging those insights into actionable strategies. This dual-thinking method aligns with the leadership practice of challenging the process, showcasing the value of breaking from traditional norms to foster innovation.

Eine Sache die ich hilfreich finde ist in ein Rollenmodell zu schlüpfen. Wer die "Disney Methode" kennt wählt drei Positionen und versetzt sich nacheinander in folgende Rollen. a) Der Träumer, hier ist alles möglich und bitte immer grossartig. b) Der Realist, hier wird die Frage gestellt wie werden die Ideen des Träumers realisiert. was bräuchte es dazu? c) Der Kritiker, diese Rolle zeigt kritische Punkte aus den Ergebnissen des Realisten auf, jedoch nicht die des Träumers. Das lässt sich auch wiederholen und ist natürlich auch mit ganzen Gruppen von Führungskräften durchführbar.

Creativity in leaders goes way beyond divergent and convergent thinking. Look at what great creative leaders have done to manipulate their physiological, psychological and social environments to generate breakthrough in the past.

One the of the frameworks to help the leaders evaluate ideas is to bucket the ideas they have as “Incremental” ideas vs “breakthrough” ideas . When leaders do this, they start understanding that most of their ideas are incremental in nature . We can then have a conversation on what can be the “source” of breakthrough ideas and what can the leader do to activate them.

One practical example of coaching leaders in implementing and evaluating ideas is through stakeholder-centered coaching. This approach involves engaging stakeholders throughout the process, from idea generation to implementation and evaluation. By involving team members, and peers,leaders can gather diverse perspectives, insights, and feedback to refine their ideas and ensure alignment with organizational goals. Through stakeholder-centered coaching, the leader can then work with colleagues to develop action plans, and establish feedback loops to monitor progress and gather input from them. This also helps leaders develop skills such as communication, collaboration, and adaptability: so critical for driving innovation and creativity.

We evaluate innovative ideas using the DNA of Innovation: Desirability: Will it excite the intended beneficiary Novelty: Is this new to the world, or just us? Alignment: Does the opportunity align with our strengths, or is it a good idea for someone else?

"Try fast, fail fast, correct fast." This startup mantra encapsulates the dynamic essence of creativity and innovation in leadership. True creativity isn't just about ideation but about the courage to bring those ideas into reality, to test them against the unforgiving criteria of the real world, and to adapt swiftly based on feedback and results.

Encouraging leaders to implement and evaluate ideas is crucial for fostering a culture of innovation. Leaders should be empowered to take calculated risks and experiment with new initiatives. By providing resources, support, and autonomy, organizations can facilitate the implementation of innovative ideas. Equally important is the evaluation process, where leaders analyze the outcomes of their initiatives and learn from both successes and failures. This iterative approach allows leaders to refine their creative processes over time, driving continuous innovation and improvement within the organization.

The Coach should encourage them to believe in possibilities of impossible happening. The coach will need to encourage the leaders to find their own beliefs( what can be done / what will work and will not etc) and question them, seek solutions and benchmarks outside industries. That way the industry/product/service 'suppositions' and ways to do will not be a constraint . Adopting the latest innovation across various industries is possible. Ask the question Why not ? more than Why? Also encourage them to answer ' If they did not know anything about their Industry , How would they approach the problem ... an automatic Innovative solution will appear because they have started thinking from outside their possible 'learned constraints '

I believe most creativity comes from stepping out of ordinary environments and routines and allowing time and space to open up to new insights, perspectives or possibilities. At times boredom is the pre-cursor to new creative insight though many of us no longer allow ourselves to be bored and stay busy or distracted by tasks, activities or addictive tendencies. I like to switch up the environments and activities in which I work with my clients and encourage them after session to allow some space where possible to think/reflect or write about the insights that emerged in the session rather than falling back in to busyness or expectations.

Coaching is a unique modality, where we encourage clients to dive into themselves, get in touch with their values, strengths, belief systems and generate their own thoughts,feelings and solutions. It takes 2-3 sessions to get clients to get to a stage where they are able to bring out their creativity and innovative ideas. When I ask a client - What do you want to do about this? and the response is - I don't know,then I follow it up with a question - If you did know what would it be? This opens up new thoughts for them and they are able to move beyond their current realities to create the future they want for themselves. 1 person coached has the potential to change a family,teams,organisations and society.

In my experience, cultivating leaders' creativity centers on the 5 practices of exemplary leadership. Picture a pivotal project where setbacks fueled a growth mindset, aligning with the essence of exemplary leadership. My hallmark became creating a safe environment, echoing the shared vision principle. Navigating complexities involved divergent and convergent thinking, challenging norms in sync with the leadership practice. Implementing ideas, a tale of empowerment was seamlessly tied to enabling others to act. This narrative, embracing growth, fostering a secure environment, and innovative thinking, encapsulates a culture resonating with exemplary leadership principles.

Die Kreativität und Innovationskraft kann auch entwickelt werden, wenn ein regelmäßiger interdisziplinärer Austausch erfolgen kann. Nach Möglichkeit auch ausserhalb der eingebetteten Branche. Mit Offenheit und Neugierde lassen sich hier viele Ansätze in den eigenen Fachbereich übernehmen und weiter zu entwickeln.