Creativity: Different Types of Creative Leaders

It seems there are many different schools of thought of the types of creative leadership styles. Traditional leadership styles are more easily categorized and one could argue that a creative leader can have any of these styles and approach them in a creative way. Well, most of them anyway. The top 11 that we tend to see are:

1.     Facilitative: Also called democratic, this style makes decisions based on their team’s opinions and feedback. Argued to be one of the most effective for business. This style works well for creative leaders since they can encourage their team’s “out of the box” thinking and cooperation. Employees will feel empowered to give their ideas.

2.     Autocratic: This type is also known as authoritarian and although it can have some positive aspects for leadership we don’t recommend it. It can cause intimidation through micromanagement and is not sustainable in the long term. 

3.     Laissez-faire: Laissez-faire means “let them do” and is the least intrusive. Authority lies within the employees and can create a relaxed company culture very conducive for creativity. The high level of trust lets employees produce their best creative work as they feel valued. However, it must be kept in check in order for company growth.

4.     Strategic: This style of leadership is especially good for creative leaders. It requires collaboration. They ask questions that are thought provoking and create a stable work environment for the team. It encourages visualization, which is a key component of creativity. They translate their creative visions into a plan of action through goals and timelines.

5.     Transformational: As the title states, it encourages employees to think in innovative ways. Employees are supported and encouraged to think creatively. This will help with adaptability of a company and improve productivity.

6.     Transactional: Based on action and reward concept where employees receive incentives for achieving something. This is good for goal setting and expectations. It also works in the reverse where they can also be punished so leaders must be careful because this style can lead to low creativity. This is not recommended for creative leaders.

7.     Coach-style: This style is similar to democratic and encourages employees to focus on their strengths and talents. The focus is more individualized and encourages learning. This is a good style for creative leaders since it focuses on the uniqueness of each individual employee. It’s more of a mentoring than delegating style. 

8.     Bureaucratic: These leaders follow the rules. It’s similar to authoritarian but they will listen to feedback from employees. However, if this feedback goes against the company practices, then it will be discarded. Not recommended for creative leadership. 

9.     Visionary: These leaders have visions. They provide creativity for future growth and can forecast potential problems.

10.  Situational: Adaptive is the word that comes to mind here. These leaders change their management style to meet the needs of the team/situation. Hence, the name. Adaptability was one of the characteristics of creative leaders, so this style is great for creative leadership.

11.  Pacesetting: This style of leadership is ambitious and highly productive. However, it may not be the best for setting the stage for creativity. It can create a stressful work environment where goals seem unrealistic. It will stifle creativity and diverse thoughts.

These are the traditional styles of leadership. Some suggest that on top of these, as a creative leader there may be separate styles. The first, are types that accept current paradigms and attempt to extend them:

1.     Replication

2.     Redefinition

3.     Forward incrementation

4.     Advanced forward incrementation

Although these may not seem creative but they most definitely are. Sometimes the best approach is the, “if it’s not broken, don’t fix it,” kind. Think of this type of creative leadership that way. Leaders take things that are already working and find ways to improve and advance upon them. This does require creative thought.

Those types that reject current paradigms and try to replace them with new:

5.     Redirection

6.     Re-initiation

7.     Reconstruction/redirection

This is a more obvious style of creative leadership that doesn’t want to stay in the status quo. It’s about finding new ways to think about things in an attempt to make them better. This is more of the “thinking outside of the box” mentality to innovate.

Those that integrate old into new to create a new style altogether:

8.     Synthesis

You can see how this one is a creative style as well. It’s about integrating old and new to create something better. Understanding yourself as a leader will ultimately help you figure out which styles of creative leadership will work best for you. Are you someone who doesn’t like to follow the rules? Do you do well with change? Do you like strategy and having a plan but also encourage free thinking? This list will help you decide the direction you could take when leading others in creative way.

Creative Leadership: Characteristics

“The heaviest penalty for declining to rule is to be ruled by someone inferior to yourself.”

-Plato

When we think of leadership we don’t typically think about creativity. Creative leadership can be defined as an act that develops and realizes innovative ideas through shared ambitions of improving the world. Basically, leading in a way that fosters creativity, promotes innovation and endorses entrepreneurship. Being a leader does not inherently mean that you are a creative leader. Some are not. But those that are tend to have similar personality characteristics. We will list some of them here.

1.     Adaptable, Resilient

2.     Independent, Yet Inspiring

3.     Purposefully Driven & Great Listeners

4.     Unorthodox, Yet Calculated Risk Takers

Creative leadership is often complimented by cognitive leadership. Now that we know that there are different types of creativity, we can see how this might be so. According to a scientific article, A Propulsion Model of Creative Leadership, there are eight different types of creative leadership. These are all broken down into categories. 1. Leadership that accepts current paradigms and attempt to extend. 2. Those that reject current paradigms and attempt to replace them and 3. Those that integrate existing paradigms to create new ones.  This is interesting, but we won’t divulge too much as this can be a whole other article all together. No matter which creative style a creative leader has, their ability to solve problems with divergent thinking and cooperative encouragement remains the same. Their open mindedness makes them constant learners. They have the ability to create innovative ideas by developing new answers/decisions by looking at things from a different perspective. They ask difficult questions that aren’t the status quo and aren’t afraid to shake things up. Creative thinkers actually encourage disruptive thinking. They also have the courage to make tough decisions and take it on the chin when things fail. They see this as an opportunity to grow and improve and thusly, are more adaptable than the rigid leaders of the past.