Supportive Leaders and Creative Staff Members
“What do leaders do to make employees in creative functions feel supported or not?” Some leaders laugh off being “supportive” because they see emotions as “that icky touchy-feely stuff” — while others understand that emotions are part of the personhood of staff members. And “support” is not just “I feel with you.” Support consists of specific activities.
In recent research by Harvard Business School professor Teresa Amabile and colleagues on creativity in organizations, the meaning of “feeling supported” was explored in some detail. The results are fascinating: in quick summary, there are four dimensions to the leadership activities that help creative employees “feel supported”:
1. timely feedback and handling problems with help and understanding (instead of just judgment) — which also implies that the leader is actually monitoring the work of the staff person;
2. general “socioemotional” support including supporting the staff person’s actions, being sociable, helping reduce stress through working to alleviate the situation or at least keeping the staff members informed;
3. recognition for good work — privately and publicly (I would add here that a good leader is sensitive to whether the staff member wants public or private recognition — most have a preference for one and some have strong aversions to the other, and the leader’s own preferences aren’t necessarily those of the staff member);
4. including the ideas and wishes of staff members when making decisions — not taking a vote, or necessarily insisting on consensus, but seriously soliciting ideas and taking them seriously.
More on the study is at BetterManagement.com in an article by Martha Lagace: How Team Leaders Show Support — or Not.
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POSTED IN: Leadership Skills
2 opinions for Supportive Leaders and Creative Staff Members
Shai
Jul 22, 2005 at 10:34 am
Great post, Jone! Thanks!
Tammy
Jul 23, 2005 at 5:51 pm
Very nice….sadly, I don’t think I’ve ever worked any place that has used any of these ideas before!
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