Creativity in Leadership: Why it’s No Longer a Soft Skill
We’ve all been impacted by the latest trends in leadership and business in some way or another: AI disruption, economic uncertainty, rapid change and pressure to keep innovating are just some of the challenges leaders are facing. But with all of this change, one thing remains constant: human creativity.
Creativity is no longer being treated as a “nice to have” soft skill, but instead as a core business capability. Take IBM’s Global CEO Study, which covered 1,500 CEOs in 60 countries. The survey found that creativity was identified as the most important leadership quality for navigating growing complexity. But that was way back in 2010! So, how have things changed, and how is creativity strengthening its position in the business world?
Creativity is More than a “Nice-to-Have”
By now it’s been well established that creativity is important in driving innovation and helping employees reach maximum job satisfaction. But there’s a major disconnect between companies that simply say they want to “innovate more” and those that actually prioritise creativity.
According to McKinsey & Company, 84% of executives say innovation is critical to their growth strategy, but only 6% are actually satisfied with their organisation’s innovation performance.
Reporting on this McKinsey study, Harvard Business Review notes that while areas like sales or finance are considered to be core functions, innovation is often seen as a “nice to have” and even when executives try to focus on it, innovation can get lost amongst more urgent short term priorities.
What Creative Leadership Actually Looks Like
Creative leadership might not be exactly what you’re picturing. Creativity goes far beyond drawing, painting, or making music and instead encompasses things like:
Curiosity
Adaptability
Strategic thinking
Experimentation
Cognitive flexibility
Openness to challenge and dissent
So, what are some habits of creative leaders?
Harvard Business Review notes that leaders who prioritise innovation tend to focus on problems rather than ideas. By creating a process to constantly find new problems, you’ll be able to solve them too. It’s also important to prepare for irrelevance long in advance. Unexpected changes (for example in technology or regulation) can disrupt even the most well-run organisations, so thinking far into the future is key.
Which leads us to perhaps the most pressing item of all: AI and its impact on innovation.
Can AI Help Humans be More Creative?
It’s a complex answer, because yes, it can, but only for certain people.
A recent Gallup survey found that only 26% of employees who use generative AI report improvements in their creativity.
Harvard Business Review research found that generative AI can have positive impacts on creativity. Employees with stronger metacognition (the ability to plan, evaluate, monitor and refine their thinking) are more likely to experience creative gains from using generative AI, because they can use it more effectively to acquire the cognitive job resources that fuel creativity.
AI can increase creativity by expanding knowledge and freeing up mental capacity. AI can also provide large amounts of information in seconds, expanding people’s knowledge base and allowing them to integrate new information across areas of work.
How Creativity Enhances Organisational Performance
Creativity is closely linked with innovation, which has been proven time and time again to be crucial for successful performance, but many organisations still struggle to create cultures and leadership structures that genuinely support creative thinking.
In uncertain or rapidly evolving environments, leaders are often required to navigate ambiguity, rethink existing approaches and identify opportunities that may not be immediately obvious. Organisations that encourage experimentation and diverse perspectives are often better positioned to respond to change than those heavily reliant on rigid processes or hierarchical decision-making.
According to Adobe’s State of Creativity research, many employees feel that workplace cultures prioritise productivity over creativity, despite believing that creative thinking is increasingly valuable. When employees feel unable to contribute ideas, challenge assumptions or work innovatively, organisations may risk reduced engagement, lower morale and diminished collaboration.
As automation increasingly handles routine and process-driven work, human value is shifting toward skills that are more difficult to replicate through technology, including imagination, strategic thinking, emotional intelligence and creative problem-solving. The World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report continues to identify creative thinking as one of the most important workplace skills for the future economy.
Businesses that create environments where curiosity, experimentation and new thinking are encouraged may be better equipped to innovate, adapt and remain competitive in periods of sustained change.
Your Organisation Can Develop Creative Leaders
Although it sounds counter-intuitive, developing more creative leaders is not necessarily about making people more creative. It’s about shaping the conditions, behaviours and systems that allow creativity to emerge consistently in leadership practice.
One method that our Prism team uses to encourage creativity is LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY®. This methodology has roots as far back as 1996, when professors Johan Roos and Bart Victor, along with Lego Group owner Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen decided to explore some alternative strategic planning tools.
We caught up with our associate, Carol-Ann Smith, an expert in LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY®, to learn more.
Carol-Ann says:
“When we hear about creative leadership, we tend to picture the leader with the big idea - the original thinker, the one who sees what others don't. But the leaders I find genuinely creative are the ones who notice what's already in the room: the half-formed thought, the quiet objection, the pattern nobody has named yet, and make space for it to become something useful. The creativity isn't always in the leader or in the leader alone. Often it's in what the leader makes possible.”
The idea behind LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® is to “think with your hands” and build your understanding of strategic problems and solutions. Research has shown that the process of making things - rather than just talking about them - can lead to more valuable, insightful and honest discussions.
Carol-Ann says, "The conversations a team needs to have are usually already in the room. The building just brings them to the surface.”
And building can really start to change the conversation.
“There's a moment in most LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® sessions where the room goes quiet, and someone starts describing their model and what they're saying is something they probably couldn't have said if I'd asked them the same question across a meeting table. Not because they were withholding, but because they hadn't yet found the language. The bricks give them somewhere to start. Once it's on the table, it's much harder to ignore.”
"Anyone can buy a box of bricks. The work is in the question”, comments Carol-Ann.
Carol-Ann also finds that LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® can help to level the playing field.
Teams rarely struggle to collaborate for lack of goodwill. They struggle because each person is carrying a slightly different, unspoken picture of what 'working together' actually looks like in practice. The work of a session like this is getting all of those pictures onto one table and watching the room realise quite how different they were, and quite how workable that difference becomes once it's visible.
It’s interesting to watch the dynamic when people are building and explaining their models, and who finds their voice. The person who normally sits back in meetings might suddenly be explaining their model with real conviction, because they're describing their bricks, not defending their opinion. That small shift, from advocating to describing, is where genuine collaboration tends to start.
From prompting dialogue to encouraging reflection, LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® can be a powerful tool in developing creativity.
Unsure how to alleviate the stress of your middle management in your organisation? Prism can help you discuss and design potential solutions. Reach out to info@prismlcc.com today to get the best out of your workforce and do the best for them.
