Habits of Creative Leaders

Do you ever wonder what the most successful creative leaders do for their daily routines? We have! So far in our creativity series, we’ve talked about the types of creativity, the styles of creative leadership and the characteristics of a creative leaders. Today we are going to touch on the topic of the habits of creative leaders. Though some of these may seem like common sense, they’re easier said than done with the busy lives we lead in today’s society.

1.     Flex the growth mindset & cultivate a limitless mindset daily. This means embracing challenges and learning from criticism. They’re always looking to learn more and never consider themselves know-it-alls. Curiosity leads to self-improvement and growth.

a.     This means asking a lot of questions. Did you know that children the age of 5 ask around 120 questions a day? By age 40 we ask roughly 4. Make sure to flex your brain and use your critical thinking skills daily.

b.    It also means experimenting and observing things. Try new things and break down processes, ideas and things. Test new ideas constantly and rework them through trial and error. Failure is an opportunity for improvement. Do not be afraid of it!

c.     Read a lot and learn a lot. Feed your brain with information. It may inspire you with new ideas.

2.     SLEEP! We cannot stress this one enough and it seems that all the top dogs of creative leaders are keen to get 8 hours minimum regularly. This is crucial to having a clear mind. Don’t believe the hype in hussle culture about getting enough sleep equals laziness. This couldn’t be further from the truth.

3.     Be active! No one ever regretted a workout after they finished. Are we wrong? We learn and think a lot better when our bodies are physically active. Even if it’s just a walk during your day, make sure to add movement into your routine.

4.     Let your passion choose you! When you have passion, your drive will be in hyper speed pushing you to your goals. If you haven’t found what you’re passionate about try new things. What are you drawn to? Follow your gut instincts here. If you have, good for you! Keep following that dream and working toward those passionate goals.

These are some habits from highly successful creative leaders such as Jeff Bezos, Steve Jobs and Warren Buffet. They all have these habits in common and I’m sure many other creative leaders follow similar daily habits. If you’re looking to improve your daily routine in order to become more productive, we recommend Atomic Habits, The 5am Club and 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Creativity can be fostered and developed through focused daily practices. You don’t have to be Steve Jobs in order to be a successfully creative leader!  

Creativity: Different Types of Creative Leaders

It seems there are many different schools of thought of the types of creative leadership styles. Traditional leadership styles are more easily categorized and one could argue that a creative leader can have any of these styles and approach them in a creative way. Well, most of them anyway. The top 11 that we tend to see are:

Creative Leadership: Characteristics

Creative leadership is often complimented by cognitive leadership. Now that we know that there are different types of creativity, we can see how this might be so. According to a scientific article, A Propulsion Model of Creative Leadership, there are eight different types of creative leadership. These are all broken down into categories. 1. Leadership that accepts current paradigms and attempt to extend. 2. Those that reject current paradigms and attempt to replace them and 3. Those that integrate existing paradigms to create new ones.  This is interesting, but we won’t divulge too much as this can be a whole other article all together. No matter which creative style a creative leader has, their ability to solve problems with divergent thinking and cooperative encouragement remains the same.