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Image by Picjumbo from Pixabay
Whether you want to market your business in a certain way or you are looking to gain some form of competitive edge, arguably one of the most important components is not something you can necessarily teach. We are always preoccupied with the process, but there is one skill that whatever sector you are in trumps them all and is arguably hard to cultivate.
Creativity is a skill that businesses are increasingly becoming more attuned to because of its various benefits. Sectors such as IT are looking to bring in people who have an abundance of creativity within them. But why is creativity and so many of its other offshoots so important to the modern business world?
It’s Fostering an Innovative Environment
Whether you are a copywriting agency looking to bring about some uniqueness or a company that is completely bound by processes, creativity is vital to fostering an innovative workplace. There are so many workplaces where people are not encouraged to experiment, take risks, or generate anything new. Fostering a culture of creativity is pivotal for the sake of the environment itself.
Employees should be encouraged, but this seldom seems to be the case as organisations become bound by duty or sometimes by sheer laziness to follow what has been sent. It’s those outliers in an organisation that we should pay attention to. Because if we want to create an innovative environment, it’s those people who have an innate sense of creativity who can boost your business practices.
Growth and Gaining a Competitive Edge
Creativity is necessary because it helps to differentiate a company from its competitors. As organisations strive to add value, learning how best to individualise oneself in terms of how it offers services to customers or clients, it becomes vital to have an innate sense of creativity.
Productivity is one of those components that can be invaluable for gaining that competitive edge, which is why people who think outside the box are so important. As organisations become more in tune with how to develop soft skills and improve communication, it invariably spills over into other aspects of how we can operate, whether it’s through finding the right people who have soft skills or a knack for building amazing relationships to gain a competitive edge. It’s important not to just rely on a set process but actively question what those processes are doing.
Problem-Solving and Innovation
It’s always those people who think differently that benefit in the long run. Creativity is one of those skills that’s vital to generate unique and innovative solutions to business challenges. We should always be finding development opportunities, and this means having an innovative mindset that’s also predicated on growth.
A growth mindset is far more important in the modern day than ever because of the sheer volume of competitors but also the market does not stand still. We can easily feel that we are being chased by a moving target to progress and while we should always focus on developing more ideas and solutions, there is the risk of straining beyond our abilities.
There are always benefits to having a structure in place and there are people who are not born with the ability to generate new and exciting ideas regularly, and a creative individual can certainly thrive in an environment where there are many others who conduct due diligence and follow processes, but it’s about getting the right mixture so you can bake that metaphorical business cake.
It’s Key for Developing Leaders
Leaders play a crucial role in managing creativity, but they benefit from having creative skills themselves. An excellent leader is not someone who has all the answers but can tease the answers out of the right people. Akin to playing a game of chess, if you have an abundance of people who are pulling in certain directions, you can then have them work together through collaboration and communication and recognise when one aspect of the business complements the other in terms of generating new ideas, you are naturally going to push in the right direction.
Creative individuals can often be considered live wires, but it’s about ensuring those people have the right framework in which to develop and not necessarily feel stifled. This is a very difficult thing to get right, especially in terms of deadlines, but this is why imposing something like the SMART framework can always be useful.
When we have people within the ranks who are almost eternally creative, we need to give them the space in which to thrive because we know it will benefit everybody but it also means having to give them a sense of freedom based on their working practices. Creativity is in many ways a 24/7 practice with the right person, however, we can’t constantly lean on them to get a new and exciting idea or nugget of wisdom.
Creatives invariably burn out, and this is why we still need to fall back on our leadership skills and recognise when it’s necessary to impose controls on the creative process.
It Cultivates Continuous Learning
We should embrace continuous learning as part of the aforementioned growth mindset, and it is the future of business because it enables us to adapt to change. To be creative rather than to follow processes to the letter will improve our problem-solving abilities. When we overcome obstacles by having solid brainstorming sessions and finding those opportunities, this is going to boost personal and professional growth.
Creativity is such a valuable skill for continuous learning because it challenges the status quo and when we have iconoclastic individuals within our ranks then we can adapt in the most appropriate ways. Because we can often view creativity as something that is not necessarily going to bring about results, we can foster creativity throughout the organisation by allowing time and space, offering a stimulating atmosphere, and encouraging individuality and autonomy.
The demand for creative thinkers in business showcases just how prioritised creativity can result in business growth and success. Creativity is the skill modern businesses are missing.
