Title: Nurturing Creativity in the Workplace: Overcoming Managerial Envy
Introduction
In today’s rapidly evolving business landscape, creative thinking is increasingly recognized as a vital skill for employees. The demand for creative talent is at an all-time high, as highlighted by the World Economic Forum and validated by the Pew Research Center’s survey of business leaders. Consequently, workers from all levels are under pressure to distinguish themselves as “creatives” within their organizations. This pressure also extends to managers, as creativity is now considered a crucial leadership quality for business success, surpassing integrity and global thinking.
Managers’ Envy and Threat Perception
Managers, who traditionally have certain privileges and social influence within organizations, may feel threatened when their subordinates establish a reputation for creativity. This feeling arises from the perceived loss of unique privileges that come with leadership roles. Managers may view their subordinates’ newfound access to social advantages as a challenge to their own position. Consequently, the study conducted by the author and their co-authors found that managers reported feeling envious of their creative employees.
The Power of Creative Reputation
Creative individuals possess a valuable resource within organizations – good ideas. In today’s competitive landscape, novel and practical ideas are scarce and highly sought after. Employees who consistently develop creative ideas garner social influence and control over resources. They are admired and respected by their peers, and their opinions are sought after for decision-making. Establishing a reputation as creative becomes essential for employees seeking to maintain their advantage. However, in the context of this study, managers reported feeling envious of their employees’ creative reputation.
Managing Envy Constructively
Envy is a complex social emotion that can have both constructive and destructive effects. While experiencing envy can be painful, it can also be a motivator for improvement and self-growth. The study unveils two different forms of envy: malicious envy, aimed at diminishing the envied individual, and benign envy, directed at self-improvement.
The study found that managers’ responses and behaviors were influenced by their experience of envy. Malicious envy led managers to sabotage their employees’ creative output by withholding information and resources. On the other hand, benign envy motivated managers to learn from their creative employees, seeking advice and assistance in developing their own creative ideas.
Building Managers’ Confidence in Their Creative Abilities
While it may not be possible to prevent managers from experiencing envy, it is possible to help them channel their feelings in more productive ways. The study suggests that managers are more likely to experience benign envy when they believe they can improve their relative position. Confidence in their own creative abilities plays a significant role in this regard.
Organizations can nurture creativity and build managers’ confidence through various means. This includes providing training in cognitive flexibility, divergent thinking, and narrative cognition, which enhance creative capacity. Clear recognition and feedback that connect creative efforts to successes can also boost managers’ belief in their own creative potential.
Conclusion
As creativity becomes an increasingly valued skill in the workplace, it is essential to address the issue of managerial envy. By understanding the underlying motivations and responses, organizations can develop strategies to channel envy constructively. Nurturing creativity and building managers’ confidence in their own creative abilities will not only benefit individual managers but also foster a culture of innovation and collaboration within organizations.
Additional Piece: Fostering a Collaborative Culture of Creativity
In today’s fast-paced and competitive business landscape, fostering a collaborative culture of creativity is crucial for organizations to thrive. It requires breaking away from traditional hierarchical structures and embracing the diverse strengths and perspectives of employees at all levels.
Creating an environment that encourages collaboration and creative expression begins with leadership. Managers play a pivotal role in setting the tone for creativity and innovation within the organization. Instead of feeling threatened or envious of their subordinates’ creative reputation, managers should view it as an opportunity to empower their team members and harness their collective creative potential.
Here are some strategies to foster a collaborative culture of creativity:
1. Encourage open communication: Promote a transparent and inclusive communication system that facilitates the sharing of ideas, feedback, and constructive criticism. Emphasize the value of diverse perspectives and create a safe space for employees to express their creativity.
2. Facilitate cross-functional collaboration: Break down departmental silos and encourage collaboration between different teams and departments. This interdisciplinary approach can lead to the emergence of innovative ideas and solutions.
3. Provide resources and support: Ensure that employees have access to the necessary resources, tools, and training to enhance their creative skills. Support their professional development through workshops, courses, and coaching sessions focused on fostering creativity.
4. Recognize and reward creativity: Create a culture of appreciation and recognition for creative contributions. Celebrate and showcase innovative ideas and successful outcomes, reinforcing the importance of creativity within the organization.
5. Embrace experimentation and risk-taking: Encourage a mindset that embraces experimentation and views failure as an opportunity for learning and growth. Provide employees with the freedom to take calculated risks and explore new possibilities without fear of punishment or judgment.
6. Lead by example: Managers should lead by example by embodying a creative and innovative mindset. Demonstrate openness to new ideas, actively seek input from team members, and be willing to challenge the status quo.
By fostering a collaborative culture of creativity, organizations can unlock the full potential of their employees and stay ahead in today’s rapidly evolving business landscape. Embracing and nurturing creativity at all levels will not only drive innovation and success but also create a fulfilling and engaging work environment.
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Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
The demand for creative talent is perhaps stronger than ever. The World Economic Forum recently cited creative thinking as the second most important skill for employees in 2023.
Likewise, a survey of business leaders by the Pew Research Center identified creativity as one of the most frequently mentioned skills employees need to be successful.
Given these realities, many of today’s workers face unique pressures to stand out from their peers and establish a name for themselves as “creatives” in their organization.
But such pressures are not exclusive to lower-level employees. Being seen as creative is also increasingly associated with effective leadership. an IBM surveywhich focused on 1,500 CEOs in 60 countries and 33 different industries, found that “creativity is now the most important leadership quality for business success, surpassing even integrity and global thinking.”
In many ways, this makes intuitive sense. As businesses become increasingly global and dynamic, members at all levels of the organizational hierarchy are expected to develop cutting-edge approaches to improve the processes, procedures, and practices they encounter in their role.
These trends, however, raise an important question: If employees are under pressure to be creative and creativity is becoming a key aspect of the leadership role, might managers feel threatened when their subordinates establish a reputation as creative?
Interested in this question, my co-authors and I conducted a study which was recently published in the management magazine. This is what we found.
Related: Why your creativity is your most valuable skill
Leaders are likely to envy their employees’ reputation for creativity.
Within organizations, managers are often granted certain privileges (eg, social influence, respect, control over resources, and decision-making) that are not granted to lower-level employees. These privileges often become an expected part of the leadership role, which can be a problem when managers perceive that their subordinates suddenly have access to these same social advantages.
This explains why, in our study, we found that managers were actually threatened by their creative employees. But not because of their creative ability per se, but because of their reputation for being creative.
Good ideas, especially those that are novel and practical, are statistically rare and highly sought after in today’s organizations. Those who are seen as capable of consistently developing creative ideas are therefore likely to have considerable social influence because they are seen as possessing (and therefore having control over) a valuable resource that others desire.
They may possess an aura of authority and may even be admired by others because they are seen as a source of knowledge and information that can help inform the decisions of others. This is one of the reasons why employees who establish a reputation as creative will work hard to maintain such impressions. However, as our findings suggest, this is also why the managers we studied reported being envious of their employees’ creative reputations and, in some cases, trying to thwart their advantages.
Related: Are your creative stars fading with time?
Some leaders experience and manage their envy more constructively than others.
Despite its designation as one of the “seven deadly sins,” envy can also have a positive side. Envy is a social emotion that alerts us when our position in the social hierarchy is threatened and motivates us to take steps to catch up.
Investigation It shows, however, that the motivational component of envy can be felt in two very different ways. On the one hand, we may feel the need to thwart or discard the advantages of the envied other, in the hope that they will eventually fall a few rungs on the social ladder. On the other hand, we might feel motivated or even inspired to improve our own relative position through greater effort and self-improvement.
In any case, we are still experiencing the painful feelings of envy. However, the former reflects a malicious form of envy aimed at diminishing the envied other, while the latter reflects a benign form of envy directed at improving the envious self.
In our study, we found that these two forms of envy were crucial in determining whether managers would try to sabotage employees known for their creativity or, conversely, try to learn from them. Specifically, we found that while managers’ feelings of malicious envy were associated with attempts to jeopardize their employees’ creative output by withholding necessary information and resources from them, managers’ feelings of benign envy were associated with attempts to learn of the envied employee asking them for advice and assistance in developing creative ideas.
The key is to build the leaders’ confidence in their own creative abilities.
While it’s not always possible to prevent managers from envying their creative employees, it is possible to help them channel those feelings in less hostile and more productive ways. Investigation suggests that people are more likely to experience the helpful and benign form of envy when they believe they are capable of improving their relative position in the first place.
The reason is that if you believe that putting in the necessary effort will allow you to catch up with the competition, you are more likely to focus on finding ways to improve; otherwise, he may feel the need to focus on ways to stifle competitive advantages.
This is precisely what we found distinguished managers who focused on learning from their creative employees from those who focused on preventing them from succeeding. When managers were confident in their own ability to come up with creative ideas, they were more likely to channel their feelings of envy productively by asking the employee for ideas and help.
Fortunately, developing the creative capacity of managers, as well as their confidence in their creative capacity, can be trained. Some ways include teaching managers skills related to cognitive flexibility, divergent thinking, and narrative cognitionmaking sure the connection between their creative efforts and their successes is clear and recognized (or giving them feedback so they understand how to improve).
https://www.entrepreneur.com/leadership/are-your-companys-leaders-feeling-outshined-by-their/452730
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