Thought Leadership Articles
Kenexa HR Thought Leadership™ articles are experience-driven pieces that discuss best practices in the Human Capital Management (HCM) space. These articles are written by skilled HR practitioners or technologists who initiate or provide new thinking on a specific component of HR. Kenexa HR Thought Leadership articles discuss strategies on new or existing HR topics and educate readers about future possibilities and considerations on those topics. The overall purpose of these thought leadership articles is to engage readers through original, innovative ideas that are supported by the knowledge and experience of the author.
Leading for Creativity
By Anne E. Herman, Ph.D., Kenexa Research Institute, and Jeffrey A. Jolton, Ph.D., Kenexa
When leading for creativity, there are often a number of hidden and known influences that affect the presence and type of creativity produced. The work environment contains a number of intentional and unintentional factors that foster or inhibit creativity. Leaders can greatly impact the creativity (or lack of it) in an organization.
Too often leaders walk away from managing creativity because they feel they don’t have the ability or resources at hand. In reality, many basic people-management practices have been shown to be quite effective in encouraging creativity. Leaders can use these practices to create an intentional drive and culture for creativity.
At its core, leading for creativity is about motivating individuals. We motivate through goals, feedback, rewards, teaching, clearing obstacles and creating vision. Even though we are describing these actions as leading for creativity, these are sound practices of people management in general. In other words, they are indicative of what good leaders do every day.