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Think of a quality that defines a strong leader. Do I hear: dynamic, driven, decisive, original? Well, I probably didn’t hear "original." Because people who are considered "creative” are generally not viewed as leaders. That’s according to a study in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. [Jennifer Mueller, Jack Goncalo and Dishan Kamdar, "Recognizing creative leadership: Can creative idea expression negatively relate to perceptions of leadership potential?"]
People who show imagination can be seen as dreamers because their ideas have not been proven. Those seen as leaders, on the other hand, are expected to maintain order and to keep things moving forward. Yet in today’s business world, companies say they’re looking for creative CEOs who can promote change and lead their businesses in profitable new directions.
To examine what we really think about creativity, scientists asked students to present ideas for how airlines can get more revenue from their passengers. Half the students were told to come up with novel solutions, and the rest were asked to stick with something more tried-and-true. Other students who then listened to these pitches rated those who were innovative as having less leadership potential.
So go ahead, think outside the box. But if you want to scale the corporate ladder, you might consider keeping your most interesting ideas under wraps. At least until you’ve nailed that corner office.
—Karen Hopkin
[The above text is an exact transcript of this podcast.]
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10 Comments
Add CommentThe line between crackpot and innovative is sometimes wiggly.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIn my experience, an effective leader often does not require the approval of followers. Followers follow those who are proven leaders. If followers knew what it took to be a leader...
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisi can just imagine the test..
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThink of all the original ideas that were probably presented, obviously most of the people are going to suck at coming up with any good ones..say one out of five actually has an arguable idea, then only 1/5 of the creative group has a chance to seem like a leader.. seriously.. because who thinks guys presenting bad ideas are good leaders? Or who will remember some guy/girl that presented a weak idea as a good leader?
What else? you have half the freaking group arguing for the same course of action, so its gonna start to look like a pretty good plan. Whats more, people don't actually divide presentations that well in their memory, so when there are presentations on the same hting, they really start to build on each other.. so the tenth person to present the same idea, is building on an idea already grasped by the audience.
this research is just too sloppy to get anything out of.. and there is no convincing me that some charismatic guy with a creative AND GENIUS idea, couldnt come in and be a leader..
With out questions, creative leaders have to stand head and shoulders above conventional ones. Their expectations are higher, if they are going to do something creative, it better be genius.
...well, because overall, the general public is retarded. when you're dealing with the masses, one cannot expect logic will play a role in any form. look where any of you are working right now and look at the people in charge...99% of the time, it is some close-minded wanker that keeps making the same mistakes and yet manages to also keep HIS job. (yes, i am sexist!)
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI think this is why people with a combination of good creativity and business skills typically prefer to become entrepreneurs. And we can see that a great deal of progress in high tech domain are initiated by these people. Large coorporations tend to become less effective with generating innovative products internally and it seems that they are relying more on startup acquisitions to keep up with technology.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisNo wonder I never got that promotion- I am a right-brained INFJ! :-)
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisA good production team would include all types of thinker, a good CEO would also need to be able to manage their creative team. The CEO doesn't have to be overtly 'creative', just aware of how creative people function. As a designer in past work situations I've found that many CEOs are hopeless at managing creativity and many creatives are useless as company directors, there are exceptions to this of course.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisBattista Pininfarina for instance.
For some time it has been my practice to point out that there is really just one necessary and sufficient requirement to be a leader: having followers. This is not as trivial an observation as it may at first seem. It points to the fact that leadership may have little or nothing to do with personal "leadership qualities" but rather with the requirements and perceptions of the followers. I believe there is not a single generic leader type but only leaders that match, more or less, what a population of followers are looking for. Under the right circumstances that could include creativity.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe creative group was confined to thinking of new ideas and had to present them alongside "tried-and-true" that were presumably good. So the creative group probably just seemed like they couldn't think of the obvious choices, which I would say detracts from a leadership image.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWell you also have to read the full report because there are many other tests that they did
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