How An Executive Can Spot Creative Potential in Others

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. But what do you look for

when trying to spot a creative person who is not living up

to their potential?



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.



Most suggestions for informal observing and testing to spot

creative potential are based on the outward signs of the

basic creative characteristics and the thinking patterns of

creative people. This puts quite a responsibility upon

anyone trying to screen people for creative potential,

because so much is dependent upon the observation and

correct interpretation of the basic "signs." However, here

are some general personality traits to look for:



1. The Observant Person. Generally, a person who is highly

alert to what is around him, who sees details and

relationships that others miss, has a great advantage in

developing creative potential.



2. Knowledge. New ideas are usually combinations of old

ideas, or old ideas in new forms. The greater a person's

knowledge about his field, the greater his potential

creativeness. Remember that field knowledge may be acquired

through related experience or on-the-job instruction-it does

not necessarily have to be from schooling. It is relatively

easy to determine a person's knowledge of his job, field,

company, or industry.



3. A Good Memory. This is a part of the acquisition of

knowledge, but becomes more important in the less formal

types of knowledge. The man who can remember an odd-shaped

piece of metal he saw in the storage room at just the time

such a piece is needed, may be indicating the kind of "odds-

and-ends" memory that frequently typifies a creative mind.



4. The Curious Person. This is an easy-to-spot trait and a

key one to be alert for in another person. Chances are

anyone without curiosity will not have a very high degree of

creative potential. It is important, however, to distinguish

between true creative curiosity and the idle type of

questioning that only serves as conversation. ("How's the

weather outside?" or "Where did you have lunch today?")



6. The Skeptic. In evaluating this quality, it is important

to evaluate the quality or motivation of the skepticism. The

creative skeptic doubts many things-particularly the obvious

things that everyone else accepts perhaps too readily. The

noncreative skeptic has destruction or belittlement as his

motivation. The two can usually be distinguished by an

adroit question or two. The non-creative skeptic will

usually assume that things are going from bad to worse and

nothing can be done about it, so why try? The creative

skeptic normally feels that no matter how bad or how wrong

something is, it can always be made better. He may even have

some ready suggestions for betterment.



It should also be remembered that few of these "types" of

personalities will ever be found in a "pure" state. They

have been set out as individuals here to make it easier to

distinguish among them. But many people will be mixtures and

composites of any or all of these to varying degrees. The

mere presence of one such trait, then, is probably not

enough to immediately classify a person as "potentially

creative."



The detection of several or many such traits, however,

should at least give the executive cause to go out of his

"way to really get acquainted with the worker. The result of

further acquaintance may be the happy discovery of still

another mind capable of coping with the company's problems

in an imaginative way.



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