Visionary leaders are oftentimes very enthusiastic and passionate about their goals that they end up sharing their ideas in an imposing way leaving no room for their creative team to actively have an input, thus overriding their ideas. The former normally uses statements like, ‘’I think this is what we should do.’’ And instead of creating an enabling environment for idea generation, they have sort of dictated the direction the project should take.
This could work in a large corporation, but never in a creative team. After all, a creative team’s purpose is to exchange, digest, and refine ideas. If you fail to capture the insights from each member of the team, then you are actually losing value.
The tendency to “act first” is a fatal flaw for leaders in the creative community.
When we get passionate about our solutions, we tend to share them with excitement. However, when our responsibility is to engage the creativity of our colleagues, we must practice restraint.
The creative process is also a process of engagement. Enabling new or less experienced members of your team to share their ideas is a critical way to bring them on board. Don’t let their ideas fade in the shadow of your “brilliant” insights. Instead, practice restraint. Silence yourself. Ask questions before making statements. And recognize that fresh insight is often what moves the ball forward.
Leaders must tap the imagination of the creative team and ask inspiring questions not statements.