skip to main content

Employee’s Creative Skills

The Creativity of Your Current Employees

The creative power behind a company is its people.

Unfortunately, the traditional work-life is generally bookended by endlessly dreaming of getting off work at 5:00 and of what the weekends hold.  Add the low engagement rate of most employees, and there is not much time left for the employees to be creative, let alone do their assigned jobs.

Current Staff

As business leaders and entrepreneurs, we need to appreciate that the level of talent and creativity in most organizations is untapped. 

We hire employees to do a specific task, and as long as they continue to perform well, we never ask then to expand beyond those skills.

All managers have employees who can do more for their company. Realizing this untapped potential requires an understanding of your role as a manager, the personality types and motivations of your employees, and a variety of proven management techniques.

How to Allow Your Current Staff to Show Their Creativity

Tapping into the creativity of your staff is a creative exercise by itself and requires a large dose of creativity and patience on its own.  No set strategy or course of action will lead to identifying creative people already on staff.

However, here are several generalized ideas that should provide a framework to increase the creativity and innovation within your current working environment.

Defining the Creative Environment.

Creativity is a mental and social process that generates ideas, concepts, and associations so you can come up with new ideas.

As managers, we need to let all employees know that creativity is not only allowed but expected.  Each employee should be allowed to explore profitable outcomes of their activities. For example, a manager might encourage employees to look for new, innovative ways to deliver your products after the manufacturing process, thus saving the company in shipping costs.

As a supervisor, your responsibility is to manage this creative process without managing the creativity itself.

Think From a New Viewpoint

To be a creative person, you must be able to see things from different perspectives. One suggestion to help see things from a different perspective is to engage in role-playing. In doing so, you will be able to answer questions like:

  • Why does someone want the product or service you’re selling?
  • What is it that your customer is looking for?

Encourage Brainstorming

To avoid having individuals dominate the discussion, let your team have some personal time to brainstorm and write ideas independently.  Once complete, let everyone gather to share their ideas and come up with something that the entire team can agree on.  Having everyone participating in this fashion will produce more ideas, build team cohesion, and result in more buy-in.

Provide Training and Learning Opportunities

Offer training seminars, lectures, and hands-on lessons on how to be creative and innovative. You will be surprised to see the new ideas that are generated while learning how to generate new ideas.

Listen to New Ideas

Institute a policy in which every idea is heard, no matter how good or bad you may think it is. While you don’t have to act on them, you are honoring your employees by committing to listening to all ideas.

The Bible

Exodus 35:35 says.

He has filled them with skill to do every sort of work done by an engraver or by a designer or by an embroiderer in blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen, or by a weaver—by any sort of workman or skilled designer.

Our creativity is a gift from God.  God is the ultimate creator, and we are all made in His image.

All our employees have some level of creativity.  And, as business leaders, we need to tap into the creativity of our current employees and let them grow through the gifts given to them by God.