Harvey Mackay writes a wonderful newsletter. In a recent edition he discussed Richard Florida’s work on Richard The Rise of the Creative Class and Flight of the Creative Class. Florida believe that about 30% of our workforce could be considered creative workers.
Florida offered the following advice for engaging your creative staff:
- Everyone needs the opportunity to contribute their creativity.
- Make sure every worker feels challenged and motivated.
- Make sure creative people have time to apply themselves creatively. (Don’t put them on silly jobs that others can handle.)
- Make sure workers have a chance to gain peer respect.
- Evaluate creative workers by what they deliver, not by how many hours they put in.
- Keep hassles away from creative workers. Don’t feel like it’s their responsibility as workers to do this. Decide whether you want them to spend time filling out paperwork—or being creative.
What are your creative approaches to engaging creative workers?
Great ideas – I would advocate, though, that these ideas apply to most of us as human beings. I’ve repeatedly found that the things that are appreciated by all employees are 1) having the opportunity to contribute, 2) feeling challenged, 3) having the opportunity to gain the respect of their peers.
Creative people, perhaps, respond especially well to this type of leadership because they are less willing to put up with mis-management.