John Adair's 100 Greatest Ideas for Effective Leadership

Idea 61: How to recruit and retain creative people

You need creative people for jobs where they are appropriate. The characteristics of a creative person tend to be:

• High general intelligence.
• Strongly motivated.
• Stimulated by challenge.
• Vocational in attitude to work.
• Able to hold contradictory ideas together in creative tension.
• Curious, with good listening and observing skills.
• Able to think for themselves, independent in thought.
• Neither an introvert nor an extrovert, but rather in the middle.
• Interested in many areas/things.

Creative individuals thrive if they are:

• Appreciated and receive recognition.
• Given freedom to work in their area(s) of greatest interest.
• Allowed contact with stimulating colleagues.
• Given stimulating projects to ...