IN her book, The Creativity Choice: The Science of Making Decisions to Turn Ideas into Action, Dr. Zorana Ivcevic Pringle writes about how to use emotional intelligence to manage the creative process, regardless of industry or job role.
As communicators, we certainly can appreciate her thoughts on this. After all, she is a senior researcher at the Yale Center of Emotional Life.
After all, ‘creativity is the powerhouse that differentiates good organizations from great ones. It goes beyond generating ideas. It is about the long process of developing ideas for more effective performance and the process of building abstract notions into concrete products.’
Fast Company recently interviewed Dr. Pringle, and here she shares one of her top tips for fueling creativity.
Noticing emotions to identify opportunities
‘Entrepreneurs are skilled at identifying opportunities by reading their own and others’ feelings,’ says Dr. Pringle.
She cites Apoorva Mehta who hated everything about the grocery shopping experience, and used this feeling to found Instacart. With this, he created a way to shop for groceries from one’s phone.
Likewise, Melissa Butler founded Lip Bar to counter her frustration with the beauty industry. Its products are vegan and cruelty- free, and offer a wide variety of vibrant lip colors and complexion products.
She encourages innovators inside organizations to do the same. For example, ‘when a supervisor in a food service unit of a major hospital realizes his workers are exhausted, he’s identifying a problem in need of a creative solution.’
As a result, the hospital redesigned the workflow, reducing worker burnout and improving their accuracy on the job.
Taking advantage of thinking/feeling connections
Emotion scientists have discovered moods boost different kinds of thinking.
When we feel positive, energized, and enthusiastic, these are the best times for brainstorming and charting new ideas.
When we are feeling subdued or even sullen, these are times best for critical thinking.
‘To optimize creative work, it takes skill to match different moods and tasks which benefit from them, ‘says Dr. Pringle. Feeling playful? Come up with new ideas for a project. Feeling down? Review and revise.
Generating emotions
Remember we have more power over emotions than we realize. You can create the mood that is more helpful at the moment. Recall a past win. Put on a song that inspires you.
Another skill is generating emotions to communicate and inspire. ‘Leaders skilled at communicating their passion to inspire others end up having workers who are clear about their responsibilities and goals,’ says Dr. Pringle.
Using emotional intelligence to build a climate for creativity and innovation
A Yale study including more than 14,000 people across industries in thee US asked workers to describe how their supervisors act in emotionally fraught situations. It shows that emotionally intelligent supervisors do four specific things.
1. They are skilled at reading emotions and acknowledge them. They realize when people are upset or worried about organizational or industry changes
2. They inspire enthusiasm and model decision-making that takes into account more optimistic and cautious voices.
3. Emotionally intelligent supervisors understand how their decisions or other events affect other people.
4. They are able to successfully manage their own emotions, and also help their team members when they are upset or frustrated.
‘If the goal is creativity and innovation, leaders should develop emotional intelligence skills,’ says Dr. Pringle.
When leaders develop these skills, ‘they notice how their team members feel, demonstrate understanding of how their decisions impact others, and help people deal with challenges at work. Investment in leadership development will pay off in capacity for innovation.’
PR Matters is a roundtable column by members of the local chapter of the United Kingdom-based International Public Relations Association (IPRA), the world’s premier association for senior professionals around the world. Millie Dizon, the Senior Vice President for Marketing and Communications of SM, is the former local chair.