Recognizing creative leadership: Can creative idea expression negatively relate to perceptions of leadership potential?

Drawing on and extending prototype theories of creativity and leadership, Jennifer S. Mueller, University of Pennsylvania, Jack A. Goncalo Cornell University, ILR and Dishan Kamdar Indian School of Business theorize that the expression of creative ideas may diminish judgments of leadership potential unless the charismatic leadership prototype is activated in the minds of social perceivers. Study 1 shows creative idea expression is negatively related to perceptions of leadership potential in a sample of employees working in jobs that required creative problem solving. Study 2 shows that participants randomly instructed to express creative solutions during an interaction are viewed as having lower leadership potential. A third scenario study replicated this finding showing that participants attributed less leadership potential to targets expressing creative ideas, except when the “charismatic” leader prototype was activated. In sum, we show that the negative association between expressing creative ideas and leadership potential is robust and underscores an important but previously unidentified bias against selecting effective leaders.

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Cultivating organizational creativity in an age of complexity - the IBM Institute of Business Value Report 2011

"Why are some organizations consistently good at innovating and adapting while others seem to be blindsided by change? Is it because of their disciplined innovation process or the knowledge and skills of their people? Or is it their determination to build a culture where challenging assumptions is not only encouraged, but expected? Our IBM Creative Leadership Study found that leaders who embrace the dynamic tension between creative disruption and operational efficiency can create new models of extraordinary value."

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What is Green Beret Leadership? - David Belden, The Professional Outsider

I am sick of hearing about the new normal. I reject the idea thatcompanies need to do more with less. These are both ludicrous clichés that provide easy excuses for doing nothing or clinging to the past…a past that is more myth than reality. The vast majority of the companies I work with are doing well. They are successful because they are doing things differently, and having fun making the changes. For the past 12 years, I have had the great privilege of working with some of the most adaptable and progressive companies in the country. As a Vistage Chair (www.vistage.com), I facilitate monthly meetings of 16 CEOs/Presidents/Business Owners/Managing Partners in a peer-group think tank setting. I also meet with each of them individually for a dialogue beginning with some variation of the question “What’s the most important thing we should talk about today?”

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The Cultural Cognition Project - The Yale Law School

The Cultural Cognition Project is a group of scholars interested in studying how cultural values shape public risk perceptions and related policy beliefs. Cultural cognition refers to the tendency of individuals to conform their beliefs about disputed matters of fact (e.g., whether global warming is a serious threat; whether the death penalty deters murder; whether gun control makes society more safe or less) to values that define their cultural identities. Project members are using the methods of various disciplines -- including social psychology, anthropology, communications, and political science -- to chart the impact of this phenomenon and to identify the mechanisms through which it operates. The Project also has an explicit normative objective: to identify processes of democratic decisionmaking by which society can resolve culturally grounded differences in belief in a manner that is both congenial to persons of diverse cultural outlooks and consistent with sound public policymaking.

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Why Creativity Matters Most: What Business Owners Can Learn from Jazz Musicians - Q&A with Josh Linkner : The World :: American Express OPEN Forum

When Josh Linkner was growing up, a Lego set included a bunch of blocks that kids could fashion into whatever they imagined. By contrast, today’s Legos are packaged as specialty kits with intricate parts and step-by-step instructions for building one specific construction—such as Harry Potter’s Diagon Alley. To Linkner, a jazz musician, venture capitalist and the founder and chairman of ePrize, an interactive marketing company, this Lego trend reveals a troubling emphasis on teaching people how to follow directions at a time when using your imagination is more important.

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