Three Things That Can Kill Your Manager’s Creativity

One of my clients operated a sales organization. He was a very bright individual, and like all of us, he had his faults. One fault that limited the success of his company was that he would rarely, if ever, implement suggestions from his sales people or office staff. His track record of arrogantly rejecting any suggestions, earned him predictable silence from his managers and employees, whenever he would blunder forward in trying to solve his companies problems. Rather than offering suggestions, his staff would mumble to themselves the futility of trying to give helpful input to the direction of company.

The company lost market share and most of his employees grew frustrated and eventually left the company. Today the company is in the latter stage of decline. This scenario for this company could have been prevented and with the changing times, it could have actually prospered and grown.

Here are a few of the common obstacles to encouraging creativity that most organizations need to overcome if they are going to be successful in tapping the problem solving creativity of the staff.

Resistance to Change
This droning of the phrase “the old way of doing things still works fine and doesn’t need to be altered now”, needs to be eliminated if new solutions are to be discovered. As I have often said, “people prefer comfortable problems to uncomfortable solutions”. They would rather suffer the consequences of not changing, than risk doing something differently than they have previously done. If we are to take advantage of the challenges that present themselves, we must embrace new and uncomfortable ways of doing things.


The Fear of Change
Far too often the fear of change will cripple any new attempt at solving problems. This thought process typically is the cause of most resistance to new ways of doing things. As the famous statement goes, “insanity is doing things the same old way and expecting different results”. We must go to higher ground if we are to overcome this basic fear of the unknown and solve the challenges of today.


Openly Rejecting Creative Ideas
The past track record of the owner or department head, openly rejecting, and in some case ridiculing, new and different approaches, will stop any new ideas from ever being expressed. At the base of this kind of behavior is an insecurity of others being more knowledgeable than the person rejecting the idea.

Never discredit or discourage new ideas. This kind of reaction to suggestions or different approaches to solving problems must be eliminated. When new ideas are openly encouraged, listened to and acted upon, the organization will begin to tap its’ greatest resource; its’ people.

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Tom Borg is president of Tom Borg Consulting, LLC. He is a business consultant, speaker, coach and author. He helps companies and organization become more profitable by increasing their value and lowering their costs through the professional development of their managers and employees.