Creative people have an inner drive to express themselves and their ideas. It’s important for them to feel that their work is meaningful and worthwhile. They have a need to explore and articulate what is unknown, and they often find themselves at odds with systems because they question authority and established ways of thinking. This can trigger emotional reactivity, especially when these ideas threaten the status quo of a system or someone’s ego.
Creatives have a high level of self-esteem but also tend to be humble. They’re aware that they stand, in Newton’s words, “on the shoulders of giants” and that their breakthroughs are a result of a long line of previous innovations. This perspective allows them to be proud of their accomplishments without becoming arrogant or supercilious.
They’re naturally curious about the world and other people, and they can sometimes generate their best ideas just by watching them. This observational skill can be useful in a business setting, especially since most creatives are right-brained workers who prefer to work with sound in the background and like to move around while they think of ideas.
Unlike the linear, logical workers who favor structure and order, creatives are more comfortable with uncertainty. They don’t mind failing, because they understand that failure is part of the process and can be used to fuel the next idea. They’re often very resilient, too, as they know that their ideas may be greeted with resistance or outright rejection at first.
When it comes to fostering creativity, leaders need to be flexible, but they also have to make sure that the creatives on their teams don’t overdo it. Working all hours to produce a single masterpiece can be a quick way to burn out, so the most successful creatives often maintain regular routines of rest and relaxation. In fact, meditation is often a popular activity among creatives, with such luminaries as Sting and David Lynch leading the pack.
Creativity is a complex phenomenon, and there are many different theories on what makes a person creative. However, researchers have found some common themes that help explain the creativity of individuals.
In a study published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences, Guillaume Furst, Paolo Ghisletta and Todd Lubart found that three major personality factors predict creativity: openness to experience, imaginativeness and sensation seeking. They suggest that these traits are “super-factors,” that together have a greater impact than any of the individual traits alone.
The key to managing creatives is knowing what their strengths are and providing them with the resources they need to do their best work. This could be as simple as ensuring that they have a space where they can focus on their work and remove distractions, or it might mean helping them to balance the demands of solitude with the need for interaction. Ultimately, though, it’s about encouraging them to follow their passion and not be afraid to fail—as long as they learn from their mistakes along the way.