Creativity. It’s where good ideas come from. It’s where multi million dollar marketing plans come from. It’s where this guy comes from:
Subservient Chicken = Creative Idea
Creativity is a good thing. Some people may seem “better” at being creative than others. Some companies live off their reputation for creativity. However, the sad thing is that nothing stifles creativity like a poor management structure. I know some of you are rolling your eyes as you picture your boss right now. Unfortunately, many managers, bosses, superiors, dictators, often unknowingly, make it a whole lot harder for their employees to come up with these creative ideas. That’s right, bosses are creativity killers.
Here are a few things many superiors do to stifle creativity, followed by how they can fix it. Most of these could be an entire blog post on their own, so I’d love for you readers to elaborate and discuss them afterwards in the comments section!
Managers are afraid to admit they’re wrong. Managers/bosses have some of the biggest egos in the world, which often leads to them being deathly afraid of admitting they were wrong or didn’t think of something. When an employee suggests a change, too often bosses shoot it down because they feel like it’s an attack against them. Essentially, they want to have the upper hand and they enjoy reminding you of that. This results in an environment where if there’s any idea that comes up that involves changing something the manager put in place, then it’s probably going to be discouraged.
What they should be doing: Bosses need to get over themselves and be willing to listen to viewpoints that are contrary to theirs. If they really care about the success of their company, then they should be willing to listen to these opposing viewpoints and at the very least consider them. Ideally, the employer would create an environment where employees are encouraged to constantly question the way things are done, resulting in constant improvement.
Micromanaging. Any employee cringes at the sound of this word. Some managers just love to be involved in every little decision you make. They’ll make you run everything by them first, preventing you from being as responsive as you could to situations. They also give you all sorts of busy work which takes up time that you could be spending thinking, creating, and imagining new ideas for your company.
What they should be doing: The first key part of this is they need to trust their employees. Trust that they will be able to do things correctly without you guiding them all along the way. The second part of this is to simply get over yourself and do things yourself. Don’t make your employees read an article for you or look something up when you can easily do it yourself.
Managers won’t let employees take ownership of their ideas. This is one of my personal peeves. When you do come to your boss with a great idea, they immediately get you to “hand it off” to them and they take it from there. What ends up happening here is the boss ends up changing the vision of your idea, likely for the worse, and possibly even claiming it as their idea when presenting it to others.
What they should do: Bosses need to learn to let their employees take ownership of their ideas and see them through to their completion. The gameplan for an idea is always clearest in the head of its creator, which should show in the results. By letting employees see their ideas through to completion, they will be motivated by the potential personal recognition upon completion and will be able to learn from the process. I’d even go as far as to say you should let them present the idea to your client if you’re in an agency relationship. Their passion for their own idea will surely show. Basically, trust your employees.
Bosses frown upon failure. I believe a lot of employees are deathly afraid of sharing their ideas because they’re afraid it will get rejected right away or fear punishment if it fails. This is inherently built into most businesses by rewarding those who succeed and frowning upon those who fail. This can effectively kill ideas before they’re even thought of.
What they should do: In the extreme sense, Jon Spoelstra suggests in Ice to the Eskimos that you should reward failure (whether it be monetarily or not). In the initial stage of idea generation, I’d recommend managers encourage wild and crazy ideas, emphasizing nothing is too silly. A good way to do this is by throwing out ideas of your own. On top of this, managers can avoid putting so much pressure on their employees, stressing that failure isn’t the end of the world and encourage them to take these experiences, learn from them, and then move on.
So, that’s a few ways that managers can take a metaphorical crap on your creative ideas and prevent them from blossoming into what they can be. What are some other ways managers have stifled creativity in your workplace and how would you suggest that they fix it? I’m really interested to draw from everyone’s experiences on this so I’m excited to get some feedback in the comments section below!
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I know all to well what it means to have a superior act as a creativity killer – Do I need to be able to express myself creatively in my work? Ideally, yes. But at the very least, I want a manager who is going to trust me to do the job, not micromanage, and value my opinions and ideas. Too often superiors have a ‘certain way they want things done’ and do not welcome in new ideas and methods – The best managers manage, but allow room for new ideas and innovative thinking from their staff.
Well said, Matt. I think my biggest pet peeve is also the micro-managing aspect of it all. Managers should hire the “right people” the 1st time and then give them the tools and the guidance to succeed without having to see and critique every document. The sick cycle carousel wastes valuable time and creates inefficiency in addition to stifling creativity.
@Matt – Thanks for taking the time to drop me a comment again! I definitely agree and think that some managers think that when new ideas are presented they feel like if they utilize them they’re in a way losing control of their employees, which shouldn’t be the case.
@Ryan – I like your point about hiring the right people. Assuming most managers have a say in hiring decisions, they should feel confident their employees can get the job done. If they don’t, then they need to re-examine how they hire talent.
Thanks to both of you for your contributions! Are there any other things you’d add to this list?
I think creativity and ingenuity are often the oxygen that many companies, especially young/Gen Y companies, breath. Great bosses can foster a creative spirit within a company. They don’t have to adopt every new idea, but listening to those ideas–and discerning which are worth pursuing–is imperative.
The biggest reason I started my own company.
I’m too creative to work for an ass…Most of my past bosses were just that.
Thanks everyone for all the great comments! Some of this is based on my personal experiences at school as well as during my internship last summer at a financial institution. If anyone else has any personal experiences like these, I’d love to hear them!
@Stephen – Thanks for stopping by the blog and dropping me a message! It definitely seems that these companies built around creativity are “in” right now for our generation, just look at some of the interesting/creative/desparate attempts at getting an interview with companies like CP+B. There’s no doubt companies like these have an environment which allows creativity to thrive and the managers have to sift through these good wild creative ideas and the bad wild creative ones, sometimes with mixed results. Maybe some companies who aren’t “built” around this creativity framework should take notice of some things they’re doing to foster creativity.
Leah, thanks for stopping by the blog and commenting! A lot of times doing what you did may be the only thing you can do to let your full creative potential get to work. Congrats on the Apple Creative Group, it looks like you’ve got some good things going over there!
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