Can Creativity Be Created?

Your team has big ideas. To unlock them, you must first build an environment of support and encouragement.

- By Adam Bornstein

Q I hired a lot of big thinkers, but I don’t feel like I’m getting the most out of them. How can I?

—Leslie, Peoria, Ill.

You’re thinking the right way about your business—not only about the importance of ideas from your team but the role you need to play to encourage them.

When I first started hiring people, an entrepreneur I knew gave me terrible advice: He said that my team would be happy as long as the business was successful. Ifonly job satisfaction were that easy! I learned that people are the heart of any business, and they require (and deserve) management that inspires both growth and creativity.