Steve Jobs was the Henry Ford of his time. Henry did not invent the automobile. He turned automotive transportation into an affordable consumer product. Steve did not invent the computer, the phone or the tablet. He turned these devices into affordable consumer products.  The car and the modern computer interface came from the creative minds of other people but were commercialized by creative innovators Ford and Jobs.

Creativity is the development of a novel idea that has value (de Bono 2011, Amiable 1996, 2004; Sternberg 1999). Being creative in a leadership sense is the capacity to see and think differently than most. But, “being creative is not enough!” 

In The Strategic Leader, I suggest that leaders are responsible to create the conditions by which individuals and organizations can flourish.  Consider these two examples.  

Years ago, the central common bond among my executive team was a love of farming. Having come from a non farming childhood, I had difficulty being accepted into the group on any basis except competence.  I set out to hone my farming instincts and not only participated in hay baling, castrating bulls, and butchering pigs but started gardening.  I got a bunch of books on the subject and set out my plants, and watered as directed in a small space in my yard.  Lo and behold, I soon had giant watermelons, corn as high as the sky and more tomatoes and zucchini than I could eat in two years. 

Blind Spots and Fenderbenders

Jennifer Freeland - Guest Blogger -

 The back cover page of the New York Times Magazine, April 4, 2010, displayed an advertisement for the Acura MDX Advance. Normally, I wouldn’t pay any attention to a car ad because I’m not in the market.  This ad was different. The small black dot on the upper left center of the page looked out of place. I wondered why it was there.

A clear majority of us live in a quicksilver world – a world of fluidity – sometimes fickleness - where sudden and unpredictable change can and does occur. In a quicksilver world, things are uncertain. This uncertainty creates a web of tensions that challenge us to meet new demands in the face of local constraints.  It’s a world where there is no clear path toward success.What is known is that a quicksilver world rewards leaders who are creative rather than compliant, practice from analytic and integrative mindsets, use a multi-dimensional set of leader actions, connect their organizations to major environmental themes, and connect with the minds and spirit of followers. 

One of the most difficult things to overcome in an organization is complacency. This point was brought home to me on a trip to Argentina.  I was a consultant at an American school in a well to do Buenos Aries neighborhood. The school which served about 2,000 students was framed by the “River of Silver” on one side and the railroad tracks on the other, literally 50 yards from the administrative and classroom buildings.