Conscientiousness, seriousness and attention – what other qualities could a boss want in order to feel comfortable with him? After all, this is not a member of our family and not our friend – he does not have to have warm feelings for us, our relationship is purely business. But a person who relates to work with passion and enthusiasm is often not satisfied with the relationship with such a seemingly ideal boss.
Their boss is attentive to the problems that arise in the process of solving problems and helps to find a solution. But it does it like a robot collaborating with another robot. And sometimes even worse than a robot: he answers legitimate questions with such intonations in his voice and with such an expression on his face, as if the employee had already completely bothered him with his misunderstanding. This often happens when the questions are about issues that require creativity. An employee who is very interested in the solution and puts his soul into the work, at this moment feels superfluous. His ideas can be accepted, but he gets the feeling that he is in a hurry to get rid of him.
My interlocutors with whom I discussed this problem usually understand that this is not the attitude towards them personally, but certain personality traits of the leader and the peculiarities of his thinking. But such an understanding is not very comforting. When a person is passionate about something, they want to see the same passion in the one they work with, and not just get an answer to a specific question. Otherwise, he feels alone in his work.
There is a difference between a creative attitude to a problem and the desire to solve it on the basis of already known rules, to adjust the solution to them.
Emotions can only interfere with the artificial intelligence of a robot. Similarly, they can disrupt the function of a person’s logical thinking. We know from personal experience that when we are very excited, we can make serious mistakes in calculations – both in mathematics and in miscalculating the necessary sequence of actions. Emotional reaction and rational analysis are not just different, but opposite states, because our emotions are ambiguous, and logical analysis requires unambiguous conclusions and conclusions.
Polysemy is one of the main properties of emotions, even if they sometimes look, at first glance, quite definite.
It is no coincidence that among leaders and bosses there are relatively rare people with the ability to empathize – a quality that is so necessary for a person who is passionate about creativity. Leaders are more often people with the dominance of analytical thinking – also because such thinking determines the desire for a clearly formulated goal, for a well-calculated result, and at the same time it is characteristic of people oriented towards hierarchical relationships.
Creativity, by its very nature, is the opposite of analysis. It is based on the simultaneous and holistic “grasping” of countless connections between the phenomena of this world, and this creates a multi-valued context. It includes those connections that were not previously realized, and this leads to creative insight.
Unlike logical analysis, creativity needs a feeling of emotional uplift and itself causes it. No wonder the expression “creative ecstasy” is often used in literature. Those who experience it naturally seek to share their experiences with those who can understand its inspiration and appreciate the creative breakthrough – not only because emotions generally need sympathy from others, but also because empathy enhances creativity.
What does such an enthusiastic person face when his manager, a senior colleague, perceives his enthusiasm as a strange state, and insight into a new idea as just another approach to the problem? Even if the boss approves the found solution, but without surprise and delight, as something routine, worthy of another tick, he thereby devalues the ecstasy, without which such a breakthrough would be impossible. He can even give a number of practical specific tips on developing an idea, but the advice will still be felt by a creative person like a tub of cold water …
What can be the conclusion? You just need a clear awareness of these laws. We must expect from the boss what he is strong in and what a creative person does not always succeed in: the ability to criticize a new idea from the standpoint of accepted stereotypes and solve numerous administrative problems that can knock down a creative mood. And counter inspiration must be sought from those who are capable of it – the same creative people.