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How to Spot Creative Potential in Others - Part 1

One of the most important responsibilities any executive must handle is seeing that his company gets "the most" from its workers. This is particularly so when it comes to creativeness— the production of the ideas upon which the company is dependent to make money, or to operate efficiently and at a profit.

Most of us, in our everyday lives, make the mistake of over­simplifying our classifications of others. We say someone is "lik­able" or "not likable." We call him a "pessimist" or an "optimist." We decide a certain worker is "responsible" or "irresponsible." A man is either "loyal" to the company or he is "disloyal." Our defi­nitions are all black or white—we have no "gray scales" for in-betweens. However, most people, upon careful analysis, fall into the gray area between black and white. And this complicates the job of the executive who is trying to make certain that his com­pany is making the most of the creative potential at its disposal.

The problem of spotting creative potential is also complicated by the fact that people do not always think up to their capacities. It is relatively easy to spot the highly creative person who is using his ability actively and conclusively to its fullest extent. Not so easy to spot are at least five other types of workers who have the ability to make creative contributions, but who are not contributing to their full potentials. These types are:

The highly creative person who is doing inferior work because he is asked to work at tasks that do not challenge his abilities sufficiently.

The highly creative person who is being limited by emotional problems which interfere with his proper perspective on either his work or his job or himself.

The person with a high creative potential who lacks sufficient knowledge of, or the instinct for, problem-solving methods to put that potential to work.

The potentially creative person who is limited by too narrow a range of interests or by attitudes opposed to creative (or any other!) endeavor.

The potentially creative person who lacks sufficient knowledge of his field or the business he is in.

It has been said that "Creativity is best revealed by what it creates." There is certainly a great deal of truth in this. But the practice of looking only at achievement for determining creative potential can cause an executive to overlook many potentially good creative workers who have never had either the inclination or the opportunity to reveal themselves as being creative.

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