Creativity Killers

Recently, I was the invited speaker at a dinner meeting of bio-tech CEOs where one of them complained about people who she characterized as, “Yes, but-ers.” Her complaint must have resonated because the other CEOs clamored to chime in with their examples of what I will call, “creativity killers.”

The example she gave was an obvious one. However, there are more subtle and menacing examples of how any of us can inadvertently do things that can suck the life out of a room of highly creative people in a flash.

In this briefing I’ll talk about some of those creativity killing behaviors. It is tempting to think creativity is killed by team members, but usually the executive sets the tone. Hence it is important that you can spot these behaviors in yourself, as well as in others, and keep from inadvertently unleashing this scourge on yourself and your team.

Executives that Kill Creativity

Executive behaviors that kill creativity include being:

• Over-exuberant
• Excessively competitive
• Reliant on surveillance
• Overly judgmental
• A micromanager
• Tied to relentless deadlines

Over-exuberant Executive

Typically, these executives do not know when to shut up.

This is a subtle but nevertheless, very effective creativity killer…