Fostering Creativity Within a Team

We are going to discuss the various different methods which will help your team to maximize creativity.

The first thing you’re going to need to do is maximize your team’s potential for creativity -“you must instill creativity at every level.” And the fastest way to do this is to draw on positive emotions.

The question then is how do you actually get your teams to take a more creative approach to the things they do? What kind of methods can you — the team leader — employ to help accomplish this?

There are 4 methods to apply; of we will now discuss the 1st. one.

1. First, apply positivity and tap into appropriate levels of arousal

Remember, the reason you’re doing this is to reshape people’s emotions. After all, you can’t force someone to be creative if they are unhappy. Creativity comes most easily when people feel relaxed and at ease.

“Team leaders take specific steps to help people experience the appropriate levels of arousal and the optimal level of positive emotions because they know that such a state releases the utmost creativity. They pay close attention to the emotions running through their team, and whenever necessary, they take sure steps to reshape less than optimal emotions. While they can’t force an individual or team to think creatively, they can help them open the door for creativity.”

Any step taken into this direction has to be based on the shared norms and beliefs of the Company taking into consideration the values found within a functioning group.

It is of utmost importance to make exceptional events be EXCEPTIONAL – never ever treat them as an ordinary event. When you team does something wonderful:

• Rejoice:  Stay emotional rather than minimizing the event with logical explanations. “Wow ! We hit the one million mark !  Amazing ! “

• Celebrate:  Commemorate the event. “This marks a milestone not just for the company but the positive efforts of our team. Lunch at the Best Steak House on me ! “

• Exclaim:  Show your emotion, telling people how it makes you feel. “I can’t tell you how happy this makes me. I feel like the day we brought my newborn baby home from the hospital.

How to Not Let Fear Stop You

Everyone has the power to be successful, but what usually stops people from reaching their maximum potential is fear. People are scared because they don’t want to fail, so how do you face fear?

1.  Make sure your personal development and expansion is never stopped.

Let the sensation of success be greater then any fear you might have. When you continue to improve yourself you will notice the fear of the unknown gets drowned out… it will still be there, but it will get much smaller because it won’t be your main focus.

2. Be in control of your own thoughts.

Don’t let anyone’s opinion fill your mind with doubt and fear. Also try not to focus on the mainstream media; they often try to make people feel insecure for their own gain. Make sure your thoughts are based on courage and faith.

3. Direct your thoughts on your main purpose and on living a fulfilling life.

Fear is a state of mind and you will attract what you focus on, so always focus on what you want to occur. A way to help your thoughts focus is to right down your goals so you can give your self a deadline and stay accountable, this will keep you in control and motivate you to become the best you can be. It will also not let fear stop you from becoming the person you've always wanted to become.

Follow Your Passion

The beautiful thing about pursuing your passion is starting from nothing.

Some might say that starting from nothing is a great mistake and people who choose that path are only going backwards. They could be right; people who have comfortable lives, people who wake up every morning to go to a job they despise is what success really looks like. Isn’t it?

To some, it might be if they don't despise their job entirely. But to those who have a dream and aren't living it, it most definitely is not. People who quit that day job and decided to start from scratch are giving themselves the chance to make it big time. Sure, it may seem irresponsible if you have children to feed and loans to pay. But it only seems that way: quitting your crappy job really means that you’ve committed to working harder than you ever have in your life. And starting from scratch will only fuel your hunger for success.

Have you ever found yourself saying something along the lines of, ‘Man, I hate my job! I should have gone to film school instead of becoming a stock brocker’? Excuse me, sir, GO TO FILM SCHOOL. In fact, start making films right now. Or, if your passion is model airplanes, guess what! There are thousands of people who have the same passion. Chances are if you have a passion for something, you’re not the only one. That means that there is a market for it, and you can make money off it by using the Internet to find as many of those people as possible. Gary Vaynerchuck, author of Crush It! wrote three small and true words, “[…] scarcity breeds desire” (pg. 22).

So, if you’ve got that passion inside you, and the willingness to work incredibly hard to follow your dreams, then you have a world of opportunity waiting for you.