Factors that Influence Creativity
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I disagree that creativity is nothing more than the personal characteristics of an individual. While the personal characteristics of an individual play a primary role in one’s creativity, other factors influence creativity, which means creativity is multi-dimensional. Such factors include workgroup supports. When a worker receives encouragement from their group members, it enhances creativity for that worker. That mostly happens when other team members embrace diversity regardless of one’s generation or racial background. Socially supported members feel excited, and open to each other, which exposes them to a wide range of new ideas and focus, which in turn enhances creativity.
Another major factor beyond the individual that enhances creativity is autonomy or workers’ freedom. When workers gain a sense of ownership and control over their work responsibilities in an organization, they become more creative because their minds can generate a variety of new ideas during that state of autonomy and less supervision. Therefore, creativity is indeed multidimensional.
Drawing upon the literature from my textbook, several aspects of human services contribute to a high degree of stress among these jobs. The number of demands posed on leaders is directly proportional to the level of stress any leader will experience. These might be demands to build friendly relationships among employees or dealing with workplace conflicts. Decision-making processes and job responsibilities placed on a leader are also common sources of stress in leadership and human services. Some leaders will also experience stress in their attempt to develop teams, individual employees as well as manage limited resources. Additional sources of stress are physical in nature and might include traveling, long working hours, and unpleasant working conditions.
When resources and time are limited, many leaders still strive to do more with less but hope to achieve their targets faster or remain ahead of the schedule, which ends up in stress. Heavy workloads and budget cuts also cause stress. Any demand that takes leaders’ time away from their primary responsibilities such as long and frequent meetings and navigation of organizational bureaucracies will play a major role as a source of stress in leadership and human services.
It is true that "understanding ourselves" is a very important aspect of public or service organizations. Personal aspects need to be understood as they significantly influence the ability to be an organizational leader. Understanding oneself in whom you are as well as the future leader you would aspire is the root of effective leadership. Influencing other employees requires leaders to become aware of their approaches, feelings, and abilities. That helps a leader to understand their reactions to challenges at the workplaces. Self-awareness makes a leader familiar with their strengths and on how to deploy their strengths in motivating and inspiring other employees in their units. Leaders who are self-aware of their weaknesses are aware of their blind spots and on when to pause before acting.
Self-aware leaders have a better understanding of how they affect people around them and are quick to identify and admit where they need to seek guidance for better outcomes. They understand better the feelings of the people surrounding them. Self-aware leaders are more authentic in their work responsibilities, which build trust between the leader and others in their units. These enhance group interaction and improve performance. Authenticity thus demands a leader to behave in line with one’s values and doing as promised. Self-aware leaders can demonstrate behavioral integrity thus encouraging others around them in reciprocating with more openness and honesty.