16 Habbits of Highly Creative People

16 Habbits of Highly Creative People

Many people believe that creativity is inborn and only a chosen few are creative. While it is true that creativity is inborn, it is not true that only a chosen few are creative. Everyone is born creative. In the process of growing up, educating yourself and adapting yourself to your environment, you slowly add blocks to your creativity and forget that you had it in the first place.

The difference between a creative person and a person who is not so creative is not in the creativity that they were born with but in the creativity that they have lost.How can you enhance your creative ability? One possible way is to observe the habits of creative people, identify the ones that you feel will work for you and then make a plan to cultivate them.

Here are 16 habits of creative people. If you cultivate some of them, you will feel an increase in your level of creativity. In the process, you will also feel tickled by life!

1. Creative people are full of curiosity.

Creative people are wonderstruck. They are tickled by the newness of every moment. They have lots of questions. They keep asking what, why, when, where and how. A questioning mind is an open mind. It is not a knowing mind. Only an open mind can be creative. A knowing mind can never be creative. A questioning stance sensitizes the mind in a very special way and it is able to sense what would have been missed otherwise.

2. Creative people are problem-friendly.

When there is a problem, some people can be seen wringing up their hands. Their first reaction is to look for someone to blame. Being faced with a problem becomes a problem. Such people can be called problem-averse. Creative people, on the other hand, are problem-friendly. They just roll up their sleeves when faced with a problem. They see problems as opportunities to improve the quality of life. Being faced with a problem is never a problem.

You get dirty and take a bath every day. You get tired and relax every day. Similarly, you have problems that need to be solved every day. Life is a fascinating rhythm of problems and solutions. To be problem-averse is to be life-averse. To be problem-friendly is to be life-friendly. Problems come into your life to convey some message. If you run away from them, you miss the message.

3. Creative people value their ideas.

Creative people realize the value of an idea. They do not take any chance with something so important. They carry a small notepad to note down ideas whenever they occur. Many times, just because they have a notepad and are looking for ideas to jot down, they can spot ideas which they would have otherwise missed.

4. Creative people embrace challenges.

Creative people thrive on challenges. They have a gleam in their eyes as soon as they sniff one. Challenges bring the best out of them – reason enough to welcome them.

5. Creative people are full of enthusiasm.

Creative people are enthusiastic about their goals. This enthusiasm works as fuel for their journey, propelling them to their goals.

6. Creative people are persistent.

Creative people know it well that people may initially respond to their new ideas like the immune system responds to a virus. They’ll try to reject the idea in a number of ways.Creative people are not surprised or frustrated because of this. Nor do they take it personally. They understand it takes time for a new idea to be accepted. In fact, the more creative the idea, the longer it takes for it to be appreciated.

7. Creative people are perennially dissatisfied.

Creative people are acutely aware of their dissatisfactions and unfulfilled desires. However, this awareness does not frustrate them. As a matter of fact, they use this awareness as a stimulus to realize their dreams.

8. Creative people are optimists.

Creative people generally have a deeply held belief that most, if not all, problems can be solved. No challenge is too big to be overcome.This doesn’t mean they are always happy and never depressed. They do have their bad moments but they don’t generally get stumped by a challenge.

9. Creative people make positive Judgment.

A new idea is delicate. It can be killed by a sneer or a yawn. It can be stabbed to death by a quip and worried to death by a right man’s brow – a businessman Charles Brower

The ability to hold off on judging or critiquing an idea is important in the process of creativity. Often great ideas start as crazy ones - if critique is applied too early the idea will be killed and never developed into something useful and useable.

This doesn’t mean there is no room for critique or judgment in the creative process but there is a time and place for it and creative people recognize that.

10. Creative people go for the big kill.

Creative people realize that the first idea is just the starting point. It is in the process of fleshing it out that some magical cross-connections happen and the original ‘normal’ idea turns into a killer idea.

11. Creative people are prepared to stick it out.

Creative people who actually see their ideas come to fruition have the ability to stick with their ideas and see them through - even when the going gets tough. This is what sets them apart from others. Stick-ability is the key.

12. Creative people do not fall in love with an idea.

Creative people recognize how dangerous it is to fall in love with an idea. Falling in love with an idea means stopping more ideas from coming to their mind. They love the process of coming up with ideas, not necessarily the idea.

13. Creative people recognize the environment in which they are most creative.

Creative people do most of their thinking in an environment which is most conducive to their creativity. If they are unable to influence their physical environment, they recreate their ‘favourite’ creative environment in their minds.

14. Creative people are good at reframing any situation.

Reframes are a different way of looking at things. Being able to reframe experiences and situations is a very powerful skill.

Reframing allows you to look at a situation from a different angle. It is like another camera angle in a football match. And a different view has the power to change your entire perception of the situation.

Reframing can breathe new life into dead situations. It can motivate demoralized teams. It helps you to spot opportunities that you would have otherwise missed.

15. Creative people are friends with the unexpected.

Creative people have the knack of expecting the unexpected and finding connections between unrelated things. It is this special quality of mind that evokes serendipitous events in their lives. Having honed the art of making happy discoveries, they are able to evoke serendipity more often than others.

16. Creative people are not afraid of failures.

Creative people realize that the energy that creates great ideas also creates errors. They know that failure is not really the opposite of success. In fact, both failure and success are on the same side of the spectrum because both are the result of an attempt made. Creative people look at failure as a stopover on way to success, just a step away from it.

Careers in Human Resource Management

INTRODUCTION

In the globalized era, organizations have realized that the need of the hour is to have skilled, well- trained & highly motivated staff to help the growth of the company. Organizations invest time & money in the welfare & benefit of the employees because they see merit in such activities. All this & more has led this part of an organization's activity to be called Human Resource Management. However there is more to HRM than just being the internal function of a corporate. Some options open for professionals interested in career in Human Resource are given below.

CORPORATE HRM

The role of a HR manager in the corporate sector is to search, select & recruit suitable& qualified staff for his organization. It is also concerned with the development, motivation & training of this staff in order to maximize their satisfaction & minimize turnover. Increasingly the role of the HRM has future been empowered by their involvement in strategic issue revolving around organizational change, statutory compliance & industrial matters. Typically a bachelor's degree in management allows entry into a junior cadre of HRM, or an MBA is usually the norm for entry into mid level/senior position into HR department of large organization.

TRAINING & DEVELOPMENT

There are some companies that specialized in T & D as a business. Their jobs is broadly to "Train the Trainer" or in the other words, train HR managers to , in turn, train employees of their organization & equip them with certain skill sets. They often hold work shops on "behavioral skills" etc. They also facilitate highly specialized workshops on "how to price high end derivatives" in which case they act as a link with specialized trainers. Most training firm employ people who have done their masters with either management or psychology or those who have pursued a diploma course in psychology after their bachelors in the same.

RECRUITMENT CONSULTING

The job market is a buzz right now. MNCS are setting up base in India. Many are shifting their back end operations to Indian Cities. The retail sector is booming & every possible foreign bank is also setting foot here. Poaching is no longer a bad word and is, in fact, synonymous with hiring. Thus recruitment consulting is actually a very lucrative & fruitful field to join at this stage.There are several recruitment consulting firms in India. In some the business & business responsibilities are split by industries & in others, they are split by functions. The general requirement to become a recruitment consultant is an MBA with specialization in HR.

HR CONSULTING

This is the upcoming field, where in organizations employ the services of HR consultants to either find solutions or help tide over issues relating to people in the organization. For instance, when 2 companies are merging to form a common entity, they often hire HR consultant to figure out a way to smoothly integrate the people & culture of the organizations. In the case of organizations that need to re-structure, HR consultant decide on those who need to be retained, fired or promoted. In public sector companies when voluntary retirement schemes are announced, HR consultants are hired to make the process smoother. HR consultants are often employed by organizations for compensation, benefit analysis $ review. A bachelor's degree in management or a specialized master's degree in HR would be good entry points at several levels of HR consulting.

CAREER COUNSELLING

One of the most prominent facts of career counselling is the one that caters to the youth. This field includes the paid services of private organizations & also schools & colleges that provide career counselling to their students. To be eligible for this field, a PG diploma in counselling is required.A related field is that of conducting behavioural test, which are carried out in order to analyze personality traits of individuals, through which the type of education & career profile that is best suited to them can be determined. This is a specialized field & requires a degree in clinical psychology. "Several schools & colleges hire counselors to conduct behavioural test for students who are the verge of choosing a career stream. They conduct behavioural tests which help students ascertain their skills set & the field that would be ideal for them to join. An increasing number of institutions understand the advantage of catching children while they are young to detect any odd behavioural pattern by conducting this test.

ACADEMICS

If a person is interested in academics & is keen to take up HR, then a MBA with a specialization in HR or OB is the best option. This followed by doctorate in the same field would make you eligible to teach HR or OB at any institution.HR is a fast developing field, which until a few decades ago, was considered the domain of women. However due to the variety of roles available to day & the increasing relevance of this field, finds more & more men & women pursuing HR as a viable career option.

India's secret resource: Managerial skills

ONE of the best-kept secrets of India’s outstanding success in the IT area is the vital role of its management skills. Much has been written about the extraordinary technology talent of our human resource base, as also its magnitude. In fact, while we in India are acutely aware of the serious shortcomings in our education system, most people abroad are overawed by its sheer size and the growing reputation of institutions like the IITs. India’s globally pre-eminent position in IT off-shoring is generally attributed to the capabilities and motivation of its young software professionals, with low costs being only an additional or supplementary factor. Other success stories — from the Space and nuclear programmes to the Tata Nano — are also seen as the result of the country’s technological prowess. Yet, none of these could have been realised without exceptional managerial capability.

The little-publicised Indian Space programme has been phenomenally successful. The record of perfect launches of the work-horse PSLV launcher is the envy of other countries, as are India’s applications-orientated satellites. The design, production, testing and actual launch are all extremely complex tasks, involving dozens of companies, multiple locations, thousands of components and hundreds of technologists from a variety of disciplines. The organising and co-ordination of this is obviously no mean task, especially when it has to be done within specified — and tight — cost and time outlays. To do this within the framework of government rules and procedures requires organisational and management skills of the highest calibre.

The low-cost car from the Tata stable, the Nano, evoked great international interest about its design, materials and manufacturing. Its design and concept have already won much acclaim, even before its formal release. Yet, as much as the design, its success — even prior to hitting the road — is due to excellent management, which pulled together expertise and resources to create the unique automobile.

On a larger scale is the case of the Indian IT software and services industry. It has evolved from being merely cheaper to also being better (with its emphasis on complying with the highest quality standard), and faster in delivery. Each of these stages has had its own managerial challenges. Further, the success of the cheaper-betterquicker mantra has led to very rapid growth; handling such growth has itself required great managerial skills. For example, the IT-BPO industry is expected to recruit about 400,000 people this year, with the bigger companies each adding tens of thousands of employees. The tasks of screening, selection, training and retention/motivation of such a massive number of new recruits is a managerial task of considerable complexity. There is also the challenge of retaining the organisation’s core values and culture, when about a third of the employees are new recruits. Managing a global work force is another facet that, though new, is being well handled.

Over the years, IT services and BPO sectors have evolved, adding more complex and mission-critical tasks. Product development and IP creation has grown, and new segments — like engineering services, remote infrastructure management, animation and gaming — have emerged. The evolution of the industry, in a very short period of time, and integrating a variety of professionals — researchers and creative people, for example — has required dexterous management.

Handling the recession and the back-lash against out-sourcing in the US a few years ago, creating a large-scale BPO sector, converting an economic slowdown in major markets into a growth opportunity for outsourcing: these were possible only because of nimble and resilient management.

India’s mobile telephony sector presents another instance of excellent management. The phenomenal growth of this industry has necessitated high quality management. While the challenges of growth are similar to those confronting the IT sector, a major difference is that the service providers in telecom have to deal directly with tens of millions of customers, and very widely dispersed operations. Simultaneously maintaining good service, growth and profitability, while tariffs are amongst the lowest in the world, is something that could not have been done without first-rate management.

India’s exceptional capabilities in management are, however, not limited to the high-tech or knowledgeeconomy sector. Reliance has provided proof of these skills in the execution of its large refinery and related infrastructure in Jamnagar. By all accounts, the whole project was executed at far lower cost and in much shorter duration than comparable projects anywhere in the world. At the broader level, Indian managers are now winning praise globally and are much in demand in organisations around the world. The IIMs are beginning to be as well-known as the IITs. Yet, such recognition is largely restricted to a few stars: barring a limited cognoscenti, the capability of Indian management is, as stated at the outset, yet a well-kept secret.

Amongst those who have not yet fully recognised the importance and potential of India’s managerial skills is the government. Organisations and programmes continue to be run by bureaucrats (rather than professional managers) and as bureaucratic operations. Where there are exceptions, the results are immediately visible — the Delhi Metro is a good example.

Areas like health, education, rural employment and slum development are hugely under (if not mis-) managed. Critical programmes like rural roads and highways are faltering (in both, the achievement so far is hardly 30% of the year’s target). Despite our rapid economic progress, health indicators continue to be shameful — amongst the worst in the world — and acute shortages of power are endemic. Many of the problems are attributable to poor management. There is an urgent need to find appropriate ways of tapping private-sector managerial talent for public purposes. This may need the creation of special organisation structures with implementation leveraged through financial allocations. Inclusion of this, in some form, in the Union budget would be a good start.