How to Be an Executive

CIO — Part of being an executive is motivating your employees to get the best possible return. One often-overlooked aspect is how encouraging creativity plays a major role.

Recent studies by such esteemed organizations as Gallup and Towers Perrin have validated what many of us observe in our migrations from home to Starbucks to office: Engagement is at an all-time low. Gallup measured that less than 27 percent of U.S. employees are "Truly Engaged," and Towers Perrin reports that the situation is even worse globally. This is bad news, and not just for the folks experiencing such lackluster days. Further research has shown that companies with engaged employees outperform the disengaged at a whopping 17 percent.

For influential leaders within your organization, this information packs a punch. Even though your employees are spending more than half of their waking hours on the job—the U.S. Department of Labor has reported average workdays of 9.1 hours—most of those human hours are in a state we can hardly consider optimal. But before you quit your job and head to Bali to run a T-shirt shop, researchers aren't only focusing on what is wrong. A recent white paper published by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health indicated that the degree to which we use our creativity at work is a sure safeguard against disengagement, low morale, burnout and absenteeism.

The word "creativity" is often bandied about as something for graphic artists, marketers or non-corporate types. But creativity is much more than the ability to put paint to canvas, turn a great phrase or dance. Creativity is the ability and actionability within each of us to bring about something that did not exist before, be it an idea, possibility, strategy or insight. It encompasses problem resolution, visioning, paradigm shifting, and the courage to not know a solution the moment a problem or challenge arises, but rather to allow the field of possibilities to exist. Business programs at schools such as Stanford, NYU, Columbia, UCLA and Northwestern all offer creativity in business courses in one shape or another. And with good reason—no matter if your company provides a service, physical product or both, market leadership requires differentiation. Differentiation requires creative discipline.

Creative discipline sounds like an oxymoron, and for good reason. If the creative urge is to bring about the new, heretofore unimagined, what does discipline have to do with urges? Invest a little time with leaders in any field—it's fascinating to hear the stories of how they mastered skills in their given area. A chef begins by learning to cut and chop, an accountant by learning to add and a designer by using the color wheel. But there is another skill being cultivated for anyone to truly rise to the top of any field: creative discipline. The development of personal creative discipline can help us to avoid replicating the work of those who have gone before us.

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