How to cope with creatives

Zachary  Aldwin  Milkshake in the Boardroom

The old fashioned circus used to be set up on the edge of town and was filled with freaks you would pay to go and see.

The circuses are largely gone and today you are more likely to come across someone you would consider a freak in your office.

That freak, the anti-social weirdo, is possibly a creative. Creative people often have self-defeating tendencies.

They can also come across as stupid, difficult to work with, spacey, or rude. Apparently Einstein was a painfully slow talker, he didn’t like wearing socks at all and he set up strange rules for his loved ones.

One of the most creative people I know has a phobia of chewing gum, he hates meetings with no food, and he has no driver’s licence, ID or medical insurance.

His mind is somewhere else and thinking of things that are wildly above the mundane needs for paying bills on time.

What sets a creative apart? Imagination is the ability to envision things that don’t exist. We all have an imagination that can see things; I can think about a clown dancing on top of my computer even though he is not there.

Creativity is applying your imagination to solve a problem; it becomes more practical, more real more solid.

For a creative it is not just about imagining the painting, the painting must exist and be crafted into life with as much passion as possible.

Imagination is thinking about a holiday, the creativity is bringing that holiday into reality. Innovation is using creativity for a unique, new solution to a problem.

Holidays to Mozambique are not new, holidays into outer space – now that is innovative.

The role of entrepreneurship is bringing this innovation into the world, probably on a scale that simple creativity would not reach. Great leaders will take a creative, work with them and provide the leverage to get their work into the world.

Creatives need solid leaders who aren’t intimidated by their abnormal, seemingly destructive, and anti-social behaviour.

They need leaders who can harness their deep genius, help them package it, and catapult it into the normal side of society.

Nothing is normal for these hopeless romantics, writers, artists, or unconventional marketers.

When administrators and normal folk see the world as live, work, play, pay bills, and then go on vacation, their life is an abstract piece of vacation. Bills are far less important than paints and a blank canvas.

Creatives often they lack the boundaries of rationality that regular folk can be constrained by.

They do not care about stepping on people’s toes, and they probably will not even notice. Their ability to transcend normal allows them to merge ideas across a spectrum that others will ignore.

You can avoid creatives, ignore them, or ridicule them. Or you can mine their creative, have them challenge the road of normal, and be part of their insane, genius transition.

You just have to put up with and manage a few quirks without stifling the flow of ideas. They won’t wear a tie to the office and violate the dress code you designed? Why should you care?

We work with a lot of people who others couldn’t handle. We also notice freakish tendencies in each other and sometimes those turn to be the most valuable pieces of our journey. It is the quirk that you will miss when the person has gone.

Some aspects of managing a creative are universal to all humans; work to their strengths, know their skills and talents.

Keep creatives productive. I said earlier that creativity is practical; make that happen and allow for the implementation.

A bored creative disconnects really fast. Balance the constraints you put on them; too much pressure and they will shut down, too few boundaries and they won’t know what to aim for.

One mistake not to make here is thinking that every stupid person might be a secret genius. There are people who don’t get it! They don’t get life, relationships, adrenaline, love, or hope (what a shame).

Even Einstein said, “Two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I am not yet completely sure about the universe.” Differentiate between stupid and creative, the difference will be in their output.

Too many of these “abnormals” only get discovered or praised after they die, and after their personality traits die with them. Let’s welcome the freak show and start rewarding those that walk the high wire of genius.

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