Creativity that leads to innovation & unique ways to rapid implementation gives a business competitive advantage but who cares about it when you as a manager want to focus only on business imperatives such as coordination, productivity, and control – so here are easy ways to help you kill creativity of your team.
- Be Scared of Risks: Don’t allow your team members to do anything new, if it has not been done before why should you do it now and take a risk. Risks means a chance of failure (or breakthrough ) and who wants to actually spend time considering the pros and cons of the risk , define risk mitigation process when it’s easier to curb creativity by saying “NO”
- Diversity is to be avoided: Hire similar people in team, who will readily align to you and would not have capacity / capability to think different or challenge the status quo.
- Create rules, process and procedures for everything: Don’t empower your people by giving them goal (“The what & the when”) and letting them decide “The How’s”. Remember empowered people are more likely to think differently and come up with better ways to do things – which you as a Manager do not want.
- Square peg in round hole: Never hire the right person for the right job. The right person will be internally motivated as his her strengths are aligned to the job, which will make him / her want to stretch and achieve more by being creative. ( A true Red Flag for you as a manager)
- Control Everything: Be a control freak, ensure that you supervise every last this will help you drive off the best talent, leaving you with those who are less capable and need to be guided and supervised.
- Never give feedback: Don’t tell someone if his/her initiative was success/failure. Let them wonder. If they feel confused and unappreciated, they will never take initiative again. Mission accomplished.
- Punish failure: If a good idea fails – which will happen sometimes. Harp about it. Rub it in the faces of the employees who dared to be creative. This will ensure that neither they nor anybody else tries to do the same in future.
