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February 29, 2016

This weekend, I went to a “paint your pet” event at the Purple Easel. You’ll see my handiwork below of my cat, Smokey. Whether this looks like Smokey is debatable; however, it reminded me of the value of creativity. The teacher encouraged the class to use color and take a creative bent. In business, I find that my most successful clients encourage their employees to be creative, generate new ideas and innovate. These leaders have told me that some of their best ideas that benefited customer loyalty, growth and profits came direct from employees. Do you encourage creativity and innovation?

One tip to implement this week:
So, how can we encourage creativity? First, if you are an employee, take a few minutes every day to think about new ideas, new ways to perform your daily tasks, new ways to collaborate, etc. Just by thinking about it, you’re likely to come up with something you might never have thought of otherwise.

If you are a leader, encourage your employees to be creative and innovative. Provide them with guidelines and ‘safe’ work spaces for experimentation. Encourage trials and tests for new ideas. Celebrate failed ideas that they are willing to try. Do NOT give them a hard time for a failure that happens to negatively affect you. Eventually, they will not only come up with a good idea but, more importantly, they are likely to become more engaged and interested in their work!