Making smart business decisions requires skilled managers capable of unleashing the creative potential of employees and balancing strategic thinking. Today we share some tips to link creativity and business principles.
CEOs, managers, and office leaders take daily business decisions to make sure that their organization is performing successfully. This complex and challenging market requires a different business thinking approach to lead from an organized and systematic decision-making process, including the analytical and feel approaches.
Thorough information is required in order to have a clear business scope, as many variables can affect our judgment to make business decisions, they must be based on analysis and interpretation and not only on a hunch.
A definition of management is “the organization and coordination of the activities of an enterprise in accordance with certain policies and in the achievement of defined objectives, that is, the process of being managed or managing”. To be a manager is not about having a high-rank position in an organization but about leading, caring, and motivating a team.
Being a leader, and not just a boss, is a crucial aspect of modern management, as it is part of the job to fosterg the of the employees’ confidence. At the same time, visionary managers must update their cognitive skills and learn to cope with the practical side of the business, constantly practicing and refining their approach to succeed.
Below you will find three aspects of management that require creativity, personal skills, and new thinking in organizational mindsets.
Management in Action: Increasing Efficiency and Developing Leadership
Fayol states that classic management perspective encourages managers to think and act rationally following five main principles such as planning, organizing, leading, controlling, and achieving. To become both effective and efficient they first need to acquire conceptual skills, meaning to observe and act in a situation from complex analysis and evaluation.
Second on the list are interpersonal skills, meaning the ability to relate with people. Third, technical skills, meaning to learn the technical aspects of the job, and fourthly, political skills, meaning the capability of building professional networks with other managers.
A skill set is necessary to manage yourself and be able to manage others. Sets may vary from case to case, but contextual awareness, creative thinking, and organizing are resourceful to identify all business environments and department dynamics. Creative problem solving is also important to develop autonomy inside teams, schedule tasks to establish priorities, and delegate activities to the best team members.
Rethinking Creativity: Creating a Problem-Solving Toolbox
Creativity in a business context must be taken at a personal level because it is the only way to express it, increase its potential and establish it as a culture inside an organization. According to authors Banks and Dundon, creativity is “the generation of new ideas by approaching problems or existing practices in innovative or imaginative ways.” If we want to make creative thinking a tool inside the company, we must be open to re-examine assumptions and re-interpret facts to make our creative process a competitive advantage.
We can develop a creative problem-solving (CPS) toolbox that suits our tasks and challenges inside the organization. It has three functional stages; one, problem evaluation; two, idea generation; three, implementation. In sequential stages, we must start with a clear statement of the problem, then generate as many ideas that we can to solve the problem.
Be cautioned not to choose an immediate answer. These brainstorming ideas can take the form of post-it notes, mind maps, or clustering areas. In the final stage, codify your best solutions, analyze the advantages and disadvantages and make a final choice.
Overcome the Obstacles to Individual Business Creativity
Workshops and small group sessions are great tools to face the problems emerging in contemporary organizations, such as tiredness, anxiety, negativity, and fear of failure. The aim of these sessions is to foster an open culture and safe spaces to express what is triggering the work performance.
One of the most effective ways to increase self-confidence inside teams is challenging business mindsets. Some of these may turn out to be not entirely true, but may have been around inside the company for an extended period of time permanently damaging group morale. Questioning those notions through a CPS session and changing beliefs and attitudes inside business areas, will allow people to overcome creative blocks and express themselves freely, encouraging their potential.
Creative thinking tools and management stages can converge on a company daily basis. Managers must continue to learn constantly and increase their leadership to inspire others for a better future inside organizations.