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Effectiveness Kills Creativity: 7 Steps to Help Strengthen Your Innovative Thinking

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You know that you need to be creative to solve complex problems, support innovation and make progress. A lot of tasks, however, cause you to put too much on your plate and you have little time. Therefore, you need to be quick and focused. However, excessive emphasis on efficiency usually kills creativity. It only helps – if you focus less on it, your results will be better.

Complexity of the “mhm” phase

Creativity is the engine of innovation. In fact, raw ideas are transformed into innovations, something new that people are actually willing to pay for. Creativity has different aspects. It is not only a group of people who meet in large rooms with colorful notebooks and highlighters. On the contrary, the creative process should include time for reflection and silence. All of us have certainly experienced the moment of “mhm” that comes with a flash of understanding. However, ideas do not appear suddenly. They are like seeds that have been “sown in your brain” over time, and have grown stronger thanks to the neural pathways that allow you to connect ideas in new ways.

Bringing together different ideas

Creativity comes when you bring together things that you wouldn’t say could be together. That is why the solution may come from, for example, a new person who has just joined the project as it has no effect on him. Diversity often brings unexpected ideas that help solve the problem in a new way.

Keep in mind, however, that you need experience and time to combine different ideas. Creativity cannot be hurried, planned or managed. A study from Baylor University even found that leaders who are too focused on the end result, endanger the performance of their own team.

If you want to be really effective, take the following 7 steps into consideration:

1. Take time to reflect

As you are always available and always have a device in your hands, you are missing the time to think. While you are waiting in the dry cleaners, you check your emails. While you commute to work, you have a conference call with colleagues. However, filling every minute of the day in the name of efficiency can be an obstacle. Your brain also needs to breathe, think and deepen. Resist the urge to be available at every moment and take the time to reflect.

“You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.” – Maya Angelou

2. Connect with people who are different than you

You often spend working days with people who think like you because they are part of a business, industry, or function. This is great for efficiency because shared thinking and similar world views help you move forward quickly. However, if you want to be more creative, you should try to connect with other people. Find people who have different jobs, spend time in different places and think differently. Their ideas will encourage your thinking.

3. Look for unexpected experiences

You tend to search for a routine and get predictable patterns into your business. Week after week, everything goes almost the same. However, you can be more creative by searching for experiences outside this standard. Take a different journey to work, register for a course outside of your comfort zone or go on vacation to an unusual destination. Whether it’s small changes like cycling instead of using public transport, or bigger ones like yoga stays during spring break, unusual experiences will help you find lost creativity.

4. Express creativity beyond work

It can be difficult to awaken creativity at work if you rarely use an innovative spirit in other areas of your life. According to one study, your imaginary creative muscle can build up different manifestations of creativity, making your brain more efficient. It is therefore sensible to express oneself also through non-working activities. Whether you’re creating a holiday photo book, learning a foreign language, or attending dance lessons, these activities can stimulate your creativity.

5. Find places that fill you

Evolutionary speaking, our ancestors spent thousands of years in the wild and lived. And now you are just interested in managerial positions and sitting in drab offices. That’s why your brains are incredibly bored. Make sure you find sites that stimulate brain activity. Stand up from your desk and work side by side with colleagues in the café. Make an appointment in a comfortable space near the windows instead of in the conference room. In addition, sit back in the park or find a forest path to take a walk to relax.

6. Create challenges for yourself

It is creative stagnation that is the greatest killer of our progress. If we do not have the need or motivation to drill creative skills on a regular basis, we do not logically move far. That is why there are challenges – they encourage work when we just wave our hands and leave things as they are. But the challenges we set ourselves will not allow us. We do not have to put all our effort into it at once. It is enough to start gradually, for example by practicing creativity on a regular basis, or by achieving a creative milestone to some point. It can be a new level of a foreign language, a song on a piano, a drawing technique, just anything that makes you get up and sit down to work.

“Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working.” – Pablo Picasso

7. Enjoy your sleep

Rest is also important for the creative process. Efficiency can dictate you to spend the night and finish the project or get up at dawn and catch up with all your emails. However, this can jeopardize your creativity. Sleep is good for the brain, helping to sort thoughts. If you want to think properly, you must also relax correctly.

Tereza Cervena is a Research Assistant at Euro-Atlantic Council and a graduate of Sales management. She is a marketing enthusiast and helps at https://www.where-am-i.me/. If she is not working on research, she is reading books or hiking in nature.

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Success Advice

Why One-Size-Fits-All Leadership Will Always Fail (and What Works Instead)

The surprising truth about leadership styles that can make or break your team’s success.

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Why one-size-fits-all leadership doesn’t work
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Leadership has always been as much about people as it is about performance. Ken Blanchard, in his influential book, “The One Minute Manager”, put it simply: different strokes for different folks. (more…)

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Success Advice

What Every New CEO Must Do in Their First 100 Days (or Risk Failure)

Your first 100 days as CEO could define your entire legacy, here’s how to make every move count

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When Tim Cook took over from Steve Jobs at Apple, the world watched with bated breath. Jobs wasn’t just a CEO; he was a visionary, an icon, and a legend of innovative leadership. (more…)

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Entrepreneurs

The Leadership Shift Every Company Needs in 2025

Struggling to keep your team engaged? Here’s how leaders can turn frustrated employees into loyal advocates.

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Bridging the gap between employees and employers
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In workplaces around the world, there’s a growing gap between employers and employees and between superiors and their teams. It’s a common refrain: “People don’t leave companies, they leave bad bosses.”

While there are, of course, cases where management could do better, this isn’t just a “bad boss” problem. The relationship between leaders and employees is complex. Instead of assigning blame, we should explore practical solutions to build stronger, healthier workplaces where everyone thrives.

Why This Gap Exists

Every workplace needs someone to guide, supervise, and provide feedback. That’s essential for productivity and performance. But because there are usually far more employees than managers, dissatisfaction, fair or not, spreads quickly.

What if, instead of focusing on blame, we focused on building trust, empathy, and communication? This is where modern leadership and human-centered management can make a difference.

Tools and Techniques to Bridge the Gap

Here are proven strategies leaders and employees can use to foster stronger relationships and create a workplace where people actually want to stay.

1. Practice Mutual Empathy

Both managers and employees need to recognize they are ultimately on the same team. Leaders have to balance people and performance, and often face intense pressure to hit targets. Employees who understand this reality are more likely to cooperate and problem-solve collaboratively.

2. Maintain Professional Boundaries

Superiors should separate personal issues from professional decision-making. Consistency, fairness, and integrity build trust, and trust is the foundation of a motivated team.

3. Follow the Golden Rule

Treat people how you would like to be treated. This simple principle encourages compassion and respect, two qualities every effective leader must demonstrate.

4. Avoid Micromanagement

Micromanaging stifles creativity and damages morale. Great leaders see themselves as partners, not just bosses, and treat their teams as collaborators working toward a shared goal.

5. Empower Employees to Grow

Empowerment means giving employees responsibility that matches their capacity, and then trusting them to deliver. Encourage them to take calculated risks, learn from mistakes, and problem-solve independently. If something goes wrong, turn it into a learning opportunity, not a reprimand.

6. Communicate in All Directions

Communication shouldn’t just be top-down. Invite feedback, create open channels for suggestions, and genuinely listen to what your people have to say. Healthy upward communication closes gaps before they become conflicts.

7. Overcome Insecurities

Many leaders secretly fear being outshone by younger, more tech-savvy employees. Instead of resisting, embrace the chance to learn from them. Humility earns respect and helps the team innovate faster.

8. Invest in Coaching and Mentorship

True leaders grow other leaders. Provide mentorship, career guidance, and stretch opportunities so employees can develop new skills. Leadership is learned through experience, but guided experience is even more powerful.

9. Eliminate Favoritism

Avoid cliques and office politics. Decisions should be based on facts and fairness, not gossip. Objective, transparent decision-making builds credibility.

10. Recognize Efforts Promptly

Recognition often matters more than rewards. Publicly appreciate employees’ contributions and do so consistently and fairly. A timely “thank you” can be more motivating than a quarterly bonus.

11. Conduct Thoughtful Exit Interviews

When employees leave, treat it as an opportunity to learn. Keep interviews confidential and use the insights to improve management practices and culture.

12. Provide Leadership Development

Train managers to lead, not just supervise. Leadership development programs help shift mindsets from “command and control” to “coach and empower.” This transformation has a direct impact on morale and retention.

13. Adopt Soft Leadership Principles

Today’s workforce, largely millennials and Gen Z, value collaboration over hierarchy. Soft leadership focuses on partnership, mutual respect, and shared purpose, rather than rigid top-down control.

The Bigger Picture: HR’s Role

Mercer’s global research highlights five key priorities for organizations:

  • Build diverse talent pipelines

  • Embrace flexible work models

  • Design compelling career paths

  • Simplify HR processes

  • Redefine the value HR brings

The challenge? Employers and employees often view these priorities differently. Bridging that perception gap is just as important as bridging the relational gap between leaders and staff.

Treat Employees Like Associates, Not Just Staff

When you treat employees like partners, they bring their best selves to work. HR leaders must develop strategies to keep talent engaged, empowered, and prepared for the future.

Organizational success starts with people, always. Build the relationship with your team first, and the results will follow.

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Entrepreneurs

What Makes an Entrepreneurial Leader? Traits of the World’s Best Innovators

Inside the mindset of entrepreneurial leaders who transform risk, passion, and vision into world-changing results.

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When you think of Richard Branson (Virgin Group), Bill Gates (Microsoft), Steve Jobs (Apple), Rupert Murdoch (News Corporation), and Ted Turner (CNN), one thing becomes clear: they are not just entrepreneurs, they are entrepreneurial leaders. (more…)

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