You could be the office creative type, but if you don’t encourage the people around you to be as equally creative, it could lead to a stale problem-solving environment. Inspire your colleagues and the results will be inspiring too.
Take a look at our suggestions to up your team’s creative potential.
Don’t hog the best jobs
Your colleagues are never going to get the opportunity to shine if you steal the jobs that best demonstrate real flair and creativity. How are they expected to prove themselves worthy? Whether it’s letting them see a task through from start to finish, allowing them to design marketing material without too much guidance or even something as simple as letting them chair a meeting, the very act will kick-start a level of trust. And if this result isn’t up to scratch, you can be confident that it will improve next time.
Instill confidence in your team’s abilities
This follows on from doling out the good tasks. The more you do it, the more confidence you’ll instill in your team members. And confident people tend to become more satisfied and continue to improve. In turn, this will free you up to work on bigger and better things, pushing the business to new heights.
Introduce brainstorming techniques
It could be daily or weekly, but a group chat in which ideas are hashed out can help bring people out of their creative shells. Perhaps some people will be nervous to speak up, but over time those nerves are sure to diminish if you can manage to make it a frequent enough occurrence. It doesn’t have to take up too much time, but simply leaving time aside to do this will provide structure – how about first thing on a Monday morning for 15 minutes? If that’s beyond the realms of your caffeine supply, then maybe a quick chat last thing on a Friday would work instead.
Set up talks
Calling in experts to talk to your staff is an excellent idea. They can provide a fresh take on things, offer knowledge on a specific subject, inspire aspirations in people and leave them itching to work harder.
Encourage them to step out of their comfort zone
It’s so easy to get tunnel vision at work. You’ve got tasks to do and no time to spare. But consider how to get your staff out of their comfort zone and thinking differently, away from the everyday normal environment that the job offers. The random word game is an effective and fun method that many recommend. Come up with five random words at the start of the session, then pose a question that needs answering for the business. For example, the question could be: “What marketing techniques can we use to assist this new launch?” Say one of the random words is ‘apple’; that could encourage a conversation about food, which could lead to the idea of a launch party that serves canapes. The conversation could go anywhere, and that’s the beauty of it.
Implement these ideas and not only will you help the success of the business, but you’ll also create a better working environment for your staff.
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